Iran hackers posed as academics at London's SOAS University in bid to steal data

A group of Iranian hackers who pretended to be academics in Britain to spy on individuals has been uncovered, according to cyber security company Proofpoint..

The hackers, who went by the name "Charming Kitten", are believed to be tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Their plot began early this year when they allegedly sent emails to students at SOAS University in London inviting them to an online conference on US security challenges in the Middle East.

The invitees would be sent a registration link, which if accepted would allow the hackers to access some of their personal information via their email providers.

According to Proofpoint, fewer than 10 organisations in Britain were approached by the group.

The company believes these organisations were targeted as they might be in hold of information regarding different nations' foreign policies on Iran, the ongoing Vienna talks on Tehran's nuclear deal, or opponents of the Iranian regime living abroad.

Proofpoint stated that the activity of this espionage group was the same as a previous group which went by the name TA453.

"TA453's continued interest in these targets demonstrates a continued Iranian commitment to user cyber-operations to collect intelligence in support of intelligence priorities," Sherrod DeGrippo,  Proofpoint's senior director of threat research and detection, told the BBC.

SOAS University said it was not affected by the Iranian group's activity.

"Once we became aware of the dummy site earlier this year, we immediately remedied and reported the breach in the normal way. We have reviewed how this took place and taken steps to further improve protection of these sort of peripheral systems," the university told the BBC in a statement.