The United States has sentenced its first terrorist-related hacker to 20 years in prison for helping the terror group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The man in question is the Kosovan citizen, Ardit Ferizi, aged 20. In June 2015, Ferizi gained access to servers containing around 1,300 US military personnel and handed a list over to an accomplice who published the list online. Ferizi gave the information to ISIL with the understanding that the group would use the information to “hit them [military personnel] hard.’
Regarding the development, the USDOJ said:
“Ardit Ferizi, aka Th3Dir3ctorY, 20, a citizen of Kosovo, was sentenced today to 20 years in prison for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and accessing a protected computer without authorization and obtaining information in order to provide material support to ISIL.”
Ferizi was detained by Malaysian authorities on a provisional arrest warrant on behalf of the US, he was charged on October 6th, 2015, and pleaded guilty on June 15th, 2016. The 20-year sentence which was handed down to the hacker is lower than the maximum of 35 years he could have been served with.
Despite the fears of those named in the hack, nobody on the list is believed to have been targeted as a result of the hack.
Source: USDOJ via Engadget | Image of a key courtesy Shutterstock