A hacker who U.S. authorities have identified as the leader of a foreign Internet hacking group called Kosova Hacker's Security pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to one count of providing material support to an enemy of the United States.
It is the first known prosecution of a hacker who has joined forces with a terrorist group in an effort to possibly carry out a terrorist act himself, the government said.
The defendant, a Kosovo citizen named Ardit Ferizi, was arrested in Malaysia last year and charged with stealing data about US military personnel by hacking into US corporate computers and then providing the data to the Islamic State terrorist organization.
Ferizi admitted to stealing the personal information of more than 1,000 federal employees, providing it to ISIL, knowing that they themselves could carry out a terrorist attack.
John Carlin (Assistant Attorney General for National Security) stated:
The defendant admitted to passing data to Junaid Hussain, an Islamic hacker who was killed in a military airstrike in August. Days before his death, Hussain tweeted, “
USmilitary and US government hacked by ISIS hacking group.”
The tweet included a link to a 30-page document.
The document in question states in part: “We are in your emails and computer systems, we monitor and record your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we extract confidential data and pass on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who will soon, by Allah’s permission, strike your own land! ”
The link also included the “names, email addresses, passwords, positions and phone numbers for approximately 1,351 military and other U.S. government personnel,” the government said.
Ferizi faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 16th in federal court in Virginia.
