The United States charged three Iranians with hacking aerospace and satellite companies to steal data for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The U.S. Department of Justice accused Mohammad Bayati, Mohammad Reza Espargham, and Said Pourkarim Arabi of disguising themselves as academics or company representatives in order to trick actual company employees into downloading computer viruses. According to the Justice Department, the trio planned to target 1,800 accounts in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While U.S. authorities described all three individuals as having IRGC ties, U.S. authorities alleged that Arabi worked as an IRGC operations manager and lived in IRGC housing. The charges followed two earlier indictments of Iranian hackers and coincided with the U.S. Treasury Department's announcement that it was sanctioning a separate Iranian hacking group known as "APT39."