Iranian hacker Mr. Soul has been linked to the state-sponsored CyberAv3ngers hacking operation.
The U.S. State Department has offered up to $10 million in bounties for any information that would help locate or identify the Iranian hacker Mr. Soul, also known as Mr. Soll.
The attacker has been linked to the state-sponsored CyberAv3ngers hacking operation, which has compromised critical infrastructure entities, reports The Record.
"CyberAv3ngers actors have utilised malware known as IOCONTROL to target ICS/SCADA devices used by critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and worldwide," said the State Department.
Such a reward notice comes amid intensifying military operations between Israel and Iran, which Google Threat Intelligence Group Chief Analyst John Hultquist said could lead to more expansive Iranian cyber operations.
"Targets in the United States could be reprioritized for action by Iran's cyber threat capability. Iranian cyber espionage activity already targets the U.S. government, military, and political set, but new activity may threaten privately owned critical infrastructure, or even private individuals," said Hultquist.
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Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.