Affiliation: IRGC
Rohollah Bazghandi (روح الله بازغندی) is a high-ranking official within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who formerly served as Division Head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization's Division 1500 (Counter-Intelligence Division). During his tenure as division head, Abbas Rohroei joined Division 1500 and established Department 40, a cyber department tasked with providing intelligence to meet the division's operational needs. Under Bazghandi's supervision, Department 40 grew into the sophisticated APT35/Charming Kitten cyber espionage operation. Bazghandi's role involved overseeing the strategic direction of counter-intelligence operations, including the development of cyber capabilities used for surveillance of dissidents and individuals, intelligence gathering on foreign targets, recruitment of agents in neighboring countries and Israel, conducting offensive cyber operations to disrupt civilian infrastructure, advancing covert operations against regional leadership, and espionage activities against Western embassies in Iran. His leadership was instrumental in establishing IRGC's modern cyber warfare capabilities through Department 40.