Iranian regime-linked hackers behind Charlie Hebdo cyberattack, Microsoft says

Computer giant Microsoft claimed on Friday that a group linked to the Tehran regime was behind a recent cyberattack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, carried out after a cartoon contest deemed insulting to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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These hackers presented themselves as the “Holy Souls”, but they are in fact the Iranian cybersecurity company Emennet Pasargad, which Microsoft calls Neptunium, writes Clint Watts, an official of the American company, in a blog post. .

In early January, the “Holy Souls” announced that they had obtained the personal data of more than 200,000 Charlie Hebdo subscribers and customers, and published a sample of them.

They had offered the information for sale for 20 bitcoins, or about $340,000 at the time, according to Microsoft.

Contacted by AFP, Charlie Hebdo declined to comment.

“Whatever one thinks of Charlie Hebdo’s editorial choices, publishing the personal data of tens of thousands of its customers poses a serious threat,” Microsoft said.

Charlie Hebdo had announced an “international competition” of caricatures to produce “the funniest and most wicked caricature of Ali Khamenei, supreme guide of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, shaken for several months by unprecedented demonstrations. These drawings caused a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Tehran.

Emennet Pasargad was the employer of two Iranians indicted in the US for staging a disinformation operation and attempting to influence the November 2020 US presidential election.

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