US charges Iran trio with orchestrating vast hacking and extortion scheme

Men allegedly tried to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from groups in US including domestic violence shelter

Three Iranians have been charged with trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations in the United States, Europe, Iran and Israel, including a domestic violence shelter, by hacking in to their computer systems, US officials said on Wednesday.

Other targets included local US governments, regional utilities in Mississippi and Indiana, accounting firms and a state lawyers' association, according to charges filed by the justice department.