An overseas hacker from the group Kosovo Hacker’s Security was handed a 20-year term Friday. This is the nation’s first prosecution of a hacker trying to carry out an act of terrorism.
Kosovo citizen Ardit Ferizi, a 20-year-old with the online handle Th3Dir3ctorY, was arrested in Malaysia in 2015. In a Virginia federal court earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to stealing data on US military personnel by hacking undisclosed US corporate computers and then providing that data to the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
“This case represents the first time we have seen the very real and dangerous national security cyber threat that results from the combination of terrorism and hacking,” said US Assistant Attorney General John Carlin. “This was a wake-up call not only to those of us in law enforcement but also to those in private industry.”
