On December 15, 2017, the group was designated by FireEye as a nation state-based advanced persistent threat, regardless of the lack of its sophistication.
In the same indictment, four Iranian nationals—Mojtaba Masoumpour, Behzad Mesri, Hossein Parvar and Mohamad Paryar—were charged with conspiracy, attempting to commit computer intrusion, and aggravated identity theft, for a campaign in 2014 and 2015 that sought to compromise the data of Witt's former co-workers.
[13] In March 2019, Microsoft took ownership of 99 DNS domains owned by the Iranian government-sponsored hackers, in a move intended to decrease the risk of spear-phishing and other cyberattacks.
[14] According to Microsoft, in a 30-day period between August and September 2019, Charming Kitten made 2,700 attempts to gain information regarding targeted email accounts.
Microsoft did not reveal who specifically was targeted, but a subsequent report by Reuters claimed it was Donald Trump's re-election campaign.
[17] Cybersecurity experts at Microsoft and third-party firms such as ClearSky Cyber Security maintain that Iran, specifically Charming Kitten, was behind the attempted interference, however.