Mesri remains silent; where next for exposed Iranian hackers?

Just over a month ago, the US announced the indictment of Behzad Mesri (Skote Vahshat) who has been indicted by the FBI for computer fraud, extortion, and identity theft. 




It seems that Mesri is a member of Turk Black Hat Iranian hacking group, which is responsible for defacing hundreds of websites, and most famously, the hacking of HBO's computer servers. As expected, we have heard nothing from Mesri himself.

Silence, in such cases, means that the accused is unable to justify their actions; was he doing it for someone else? Was it for money or ideology? The fate of exposed hackers in Iran is unlikely to be good. 

As noted in the US indictment, Mesri will be unable to travel abroad and presumably for this reason, there will not be so many opportunities for employment in the future. Whether staying silent is Meri's own decision, or whether he was obeying orders form higher up the command chain, is not known. Although the cybersecurity consulting and intelligence company Clearsky have recently reported evidence linking Mesri to the Iranian hacking group Charming Kitten, it is still unclear if this group and other Iranian hacking groups are working for the Iranian government.

Iranian hackers join Chinese in the use of fake social media profiles:

In December, reports were published that the German intelligence services have uncovered use of fake social media profiles by Chinese intelligence. However, it is not just the Chinese that use this type of deception; Clearsky have reported that Iranian cyber criminals are doing the same. 

The report provides evidence demonstrating that the Iranian cyber group Charming Kitten have created LinkedIn company pages and profiles for a fake news-agency called 'British News', in an attempt to authenticate their British News website, which has been set up to infect targeted visitors. The hacking group also used false Facebook and Twitter profiles to 'verify' fake personas when emailing targets. These more innovative methods were being used alongside more 'well-known' techniques, such as spear phishing.