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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Accused ISIL Hacker Arrested in Malaysia

(CN) - The U.S. government is seeking the extradition from Malaysia of a Kosovo man who is accused of computer hacking for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Justice Department said.

The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday that Kosovo citizen Ardit Ferizi has been arrested by Malaysian authorities on a U.S. provisional warrant. The warrant accuses Ferizi of providing material support to ISIL, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, by giving the group the names and addresses of federal government workers.

Ferizi used the moniker "The3Dir3ctorY" as the leader of hacking group Kosova Hacker's Security, or KHS, according to a Justice Department press release. The federal government says he stole the personally identifiable information of more than 1,300 U.S. military members and other government personnel from a U.S. company's computer system and gave the data to ISIL this past summer.

On Aug. 11, ISIL member Junaid Hussain aka Abu Hussain al-Britani tweeted, "NEW: U.S. Military AND Government HACKED by the Islamic State Hacking Division," and linked to a 30-page document, according to the Justice Department. Ferizi allegedly gave Hussain the information between June and August of this year.

In addition to 27 pages of personal information, the U.S. government says that the ISIL-posted document also included a message that read: "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 posting was intended to encourage ISIL supporters in the United States to carry out terrorist attacks against the government employees whose information was stolen, the Justice Department says.

A criminal complaint unsealed Thursday charges Ferizi with unauthorized computer access, aggravated identity theft, and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist group.

The government wants to try Ferizi in Eastern Virginia Federal Court. If convicted on the charges, he could face up to 35 years in prison.

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