The US government has arrested and charged the person authorities described as the head of an overseas Internet hacking collective called the Kosova Hacker's Security. The suspect, a Kosovo citizen named Ardit Ferizi, was arrested in Malaysia, the authorities said. He is accused of stealing data on US military personnel by hacking US corporate computers and then providing that data to the Islamic State terror group "for the purpose of encouraging terrorist attacks against those individuals," the government said late Thursday.
The authorities said it was the first known case in which a hacker and a terror group joined forces.
"Ardit Ferizi is a terrorist hacker who provided material support to ISIL by stealing the personally identifiable information of US service members and federal employees and providing it to ISIL for use against those employees," John Carlin, the Justice Department's national security chief, said in a statement.
The defendant, who faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted, is accused of forwarding the data to Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State hacker killed in August by a military airstrike.
Days before his death, the authorities said, Hussain tweeted "NEW: U.S. Military AND Government HACKED by the Islamic State Hacking Division!" The tweet contained a hyperlink to a 30-page document, the government said.
"That document stated, in part, that 'we are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!'"
The link also included the "names, e-mail addresses, e-mail passwords, locations and phone numbers for approximately 1,351 US military and other government personnel," the government said.
It was not immediately known when Ferizi would be extradited to the US.
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