US - arrests hacker behind ISIS cyber-attacks
Ardit Ferizi , from Kosovo, is believed to be behind the data breach on US military and government personnel .
Malaysian police arrested Ardit Ferizi, based on an arrest warrant issued by US authorities, in which Ardit was listed as the main suspect behind the ISIS data leaks.
Earlier in August, the Islamic State Hacking Division , also known as the Cyber Caliphate, released the personal information of 1,351 US military and government personnel, along with exhortations to its members to find the individuals and kill them.
The US, naturally annoyed by this attack, after a brief investigation, finally killed the leader of the Hacking Division, Junaid Hussain, in late August with a drone attack.
Despite the fact that the ISIS cyber-army leader is dead, many security experts were not convinced that Hussain was the culprit behind the breach as he had far fewer qualifications and technical skills to carry out such an elaborate attack.
Now, according to more information contained in Ferizi, US authorities reveal that they suspect him of carrying out the attack that led to the data breaches of US military and government personnel.
The US claims that Ferizi breached the database of an American retail company, from which he stole the data of more than 100,000 people.
Later the investigation revealed that he exported records related to the army and the government, and passed them on to distinguished ISIS propagandists.
To achieve this, he used the @thedirectory Twitter handle, from which he maintained continuous contact with many accounts linked to ISIS.
He was caught while trying to travel back to Kosovo, at the Kuala Lumpur airport on September 15. He moved to Kuala Lumpur in 2014 to study computer science and actually has a history in the hacking scene, due to accusations that he breached a local news portal at the age of just 15.
