Just in: Treasury Sanctions Iranian Cyber Actors for Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities Targeting Hundreds of Universities: 
Cyber sanctions vs. one Iranian entity and 10 Iranian nationals.
The entity is the Mabna Institute, which "conducted massive, coordinated cyber intrusions into computer systems belonging to at least approximately 144 United States-based universities, in addition to at least 176 universities located in 21 foreign countries"
Stolen information valued at about $3.4 billion, per DAG Rod Rosenstein in presser.
Rosenstein is pushing this as a deterrent to other nation state hackers. Congress has questioned whether sanctions and indictments are doing the trick re deterrence.
Rosenstein: We "reinforce a norm that most of the civilized world accepts."
I believe this is the first time sanctions and indictments have come at the same time vs. nation state hackers.
Non-academic victims include: Labor Department, United Nations and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, per US Attorney Berman.
Rosenstein: "You don't see the attacks that have been deterred. You only see the ones that haven't been deterred."
Rosenstein on general deterrence: "We are spreading the word that anyone who attacks America is going to face an appropriate response, a coordinated response by the United States government."
