A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer was indicted today for assisting the Iranian government in espionage that included hacking U.S. government systems.

Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, stands accused of conspiracy to deliver and delivering national defense information to representatives of the Iranian government according to the Department of Justice. Along with assisting Iranian intelligence services in targeting her former fellow agents in the intelligence community, Witt is also alleged to have disclosed the code name and classified mission of a U.S. Department of Defense Special Access Program.

The targeting is said to include social engineering and spear-phishing attacks that aimed to install backdoor malware on U.S. government systems.

Along with Witt, four Iranian nationals — Mojtaba Masoumpour, Behzad Mesri, Hossein Parvar and Mohamad Paryar — were also indicted for conspiracy, attempts to commit computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft for their role in assisting Witt in targeting her former co-workers and colleagues.

According to the indictment, Witt provided the indicated Iranian nationals with “target packages” to help them social-engineer her former colleagues through fake Facebook and email accounts that attempted to lure the targets to click on malicious links and file attachments.

In one specific case, the Iranian hackers created a fake Facebook profile and account using the real name, information and photos of a legitimate intelligence agent’s account. Having created the fake account, the Iranians then attempted to target other agents who were former colleagues of Witt.

Witt defected to Iran in 2013 and is believed to be in the country. At one point she was reported to be missing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (pictured).

“This case underscores the dangers to our intelligence professionals and the lengths our adversaries will go to identify them, expose them, target them, and, in a few rare cases, ultimately turn them against the nation they swore to protect,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement Wednesday. “When our intelligence professionals are targeted or betrayed, the National Security Division will relentlessly pursue justice against the wrong-doers.”

The use of Facebook by the Iranian government for nefarious purposes is not new. In January it was reported that the social networking giant had taken down hundreds of Facebook pages being used Tehran as part of a disinformation campaign.

Image: FBI