Iran has been engaged in extensive hacking attacks that have compromised the security of more than 50 important entities in eight countries, according to a report published by U.S. cybersecurity firm Cylance.

The hackers have obtained data such as credentials, passwords and diagrams from their targets, which have included aerospace firms, airports and airlines, universities, energy companies, hospitals and telecommunication companies. The targets of the attacks were based in the U.S., Israel, China, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, France and the U.K.

Among the attacks by the Iranian hackers was a breach of the U.S. Navy's Marine Corps Intranet last year.

Iran has been expanding its cyber capacity since 2010, possibly in retaliation of the hacking attacks, widely believed to be staged by the United States and Israel, that hampered Iran’s nuclear programme.

Hamid Babaei, spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations, said the report was concocted to harm Iran’s image and called it a “baseless and unfounded allegation”, Reuters said.

Cylance told Reuters it had notified the FBI and victims of the attacks. The FBI declined to comment on Cylance’s report to Reuters, and Reuters was unable to review the report independently before its publication.

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