A Kosovo man has been arrested in Malaysia for allegedly hacking into an electronic database and providing information about US security officials to the Islamic State group.
The man, who is in his 20s, was arrested on September 15, Malaysian police said on Thursday.
Separately, the US identified him as Ardit Ferizi, who is believed to run a hacker called Kosova Hacker's Security (KHS).
Mr. Ferizi will be transferred to the USA.
A statement from the US Department of Justice says Mr Ferizi, known by the nickname “Th3Dir3ctorY”, hacked the systems of a US company in order to obtain the personal information of 1,351 US military and government personnel.
He will be charged with wire fraud and identity theft, and faces up to 35 years in prison, the statement added.
"The Right Hand"
Mr Ferizi entered Malaysia in August last year to study computer science in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police said.
Between June and August this year, Mr Ferizi allegedly passed the data to an Islamic Army member, Junaid Hussain, also known as Abu Hussein al-Britani, who later published the details online along with a threat targeting the employees.
"Early investigation found that the suspect was communicating with an individual from the 'Islamic State', a terrorist group in Syria, to hack servers containing information and data of US security personnel and the group," Malaysian police said.
“The details were then transferred to the Islamic State group’s operations unit for further action,” they added.
Malaysia has arrested more than 100 people this year on suspicion of collaborating with the Islamic State, including ten people in August – six of them members of the Malaysian security forces.
