US News:

The U.S. indicted two Iranian citizens on charges that they carried out high-profile ransomware attacks against hospitals, municipalities and public institutions across the United States in what officials called a "high-tech, sophisticated extortion plot."

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Wednesday that Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, are accused of hacking into computer systems and shutting them down until a ransom was paid. They collected more than $6 million in extortion payments in bitcoin, he said.

The two men allegedly gained access to the computer networks by using a form of ransomware they called SamSam, which Rosenstein said is a “malicious computer code that encrypts the victims' computers and then holds the computer hostage.”

“Many of the victims were public agencies with missions that involved saving lives and performing other critical missions for the American people,” the deputy attorney general said.

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