Iranian government-linked hackers are believed responsible for recent attempts to hack into the computer systems and data bases of seven leading Australian universities to steal secret research, according to a senior computer researcher.
The hackers, who are believed to have links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, were attempting to break into top-level valuable confidential research that could be used, or sold.
Universities in all Australian capitals, except Hobart and Darwin, were included in a wave of attacks that targeted 76 universities in 14 countries, including the US, Israel, the UK and South Africa.
Alex Tilley, a senior security researcher at SecureWorks, which is listed on the US-technology bourse Nasdaq, said his team identified and stopped the attack within days.
The attackers are believed to be a group codenamed Cobalt Dickens that are linked to the Iranian government and operate out of Iran. Software experts can identify the source from the hackers’ techniques and targets.
The hackers created fake websites resembling the login pages for each university.
Read the article by Duncan Hughes in the Australian Financial Review.