Among the Iranian nationals freed recently by the U.S. in exchange for Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and others was a hacker, Nima Golestaneh, who had attempted to steal military secrets from a U.S. company.
Golestaneh, 30, was extradited to the U.S. from Turkey last year after being suspected of a hacking attack against American defense contractor Arrow Tech Associates.
In October 2012, Golestaneh successfully broke into the servers of the Vermont-based aerodynamics company, which builds ballistics prediction and testing software, and then plundered its databases in an attempt to steal software worth Millions of Dollars.
Federal investigators tracked Golestaneh down to Turkey and then extradited him to the U.S. last year to face trial on charges of wire fraud, unauthorized access to computers, and money laundering.
However, before he was sentenced, Golestaneh was pardoned by the U.S. and sent back to Iran.
It is believed that Golestaneh was part of an increasingly active Iranian hacking team that, according to American officials, is targeting both U.S. infrastructure and defense companies, as well as the email systems of the Las Vegas Sands casino.
Source: Thehackernews.com, January 20, 2016.
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