Iranian intel-linked cybersecurity school hit by data breach

A leaked trove of internal records from a cyber training center linked to Iranian intelligence exposed the personal data of individuals allegedly enrolled in its technical programs.

Ravin Academy, founded in 2019 to serve as a talent pipeline for Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2022 for “having materially assisted” the nation’s intelligence apparatus. The cybersecurity training firm provides students with courses in defense and offensive cyber tasks, including red-teaming, malware reverse-engineering and vulnerability analysis.

The organization confirmed in an Oct. 22 post to its Telegram channel that a breach had exposed usernames and phone numbers of some participants, stating the incident “has the goals of damaging the reputation of this academy, undermining security in Iran and harming the standing of the National Olympiad in the field of cybersecurity.” The full dataset was provided to U.K.-based activist Nariman Gharib, who published portions of it on his website.

Read more at Gov Info Security