In a first, US claims hacker's actions provided material support to terrorists
The United States has charged a hacker in Malaysia with providing material support to ISIS by passing along stolen data about U.S. service members.
Malaysian authorities have detained the suspect, Kosovo citizen Ardit Ferizi, on a U.S. provisional arrest warrant, report the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and a Justice Department press release. He is being held for extradition to the United States on likely charges of providing material support for a terrorist group, identity theft and unauthorized access to a computer.
In a criminal complaint (PDF) unsealed on Thursday, the United States says Ferizi hacked into a U.S. retailer’s data, stealing information on about 100,000 customers and singling out 1,351 service members and government personnel in the database. He then allegedly gave the winnowed information to an Islamic State member who posted a Twitter link to a document with their names, email addresses, email passwords, locations and phone numbers.
According to the Washington Post, the charges “are the first ever against a suspect for terrorism and hacking, and they represent a troubling convergence of the techniques used in cyberattacks with terrorism.”
