Alleged hacker who passed personal information about US military personnel to Cyber Caliphate arrested in Malaysia
Back in August, 2015, the ISIS hacking arm, Cyber Caliphate has caused a stir among the military establishment in United States by leaking personal details of various US military personnel in active military service.
After almost 3 months, the US law enforcement agencies were able to crack the case and arrest a Malaysia-based hacker who they accuse of stealing personal information of U.S. military members and giving it to ISIS.
Ardit Ferizi, a Kosovo citizen, was detained in Malaysia on a provisional U.S. arrest warrant alleging he provided material support to ISIS and committed computer hacking and identity theft, the U.S. Justice Department said.
According to the authorities Ferizi hacked into the computer system of a company in the United States and stole personally identifiable information of more than 1,300 U.S. service members and federal employees. Ferizi then passed on this information to ISIS and Cyber Caliphate who used Twitter and websites hacks to publish these details.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said that this case was first of its kind.”This arrest demonstrates our resolve to confront and disrupt ISIL’s efforts to target Americans, in whatever form and wherever they occur,” Carlin said in a statement.
Ferizi passed on the crucial information, including home addresses and photos of US military personnel to Junaid Hussein, a British hacker who was allegedly a member of Cyber Caliphate, the hacking arm of ISIS. Junaid killed in an airstrike in Syria.
Ferizi is also believed to be the leader of a hacking group known as Kosova Hacker’s Security. Ferizi was arrested by Malaysian police in Kuala Lumpur on 15 September. The Malaysian Police said the 20-year-old alleged hacker had entered the country in August 2014 to pursue computer science and computer forensics studies at a college in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian authorities had been monitoring Ferizi’s activities since his entry into Malaysia in 2014.
Ferizi is under police remand under a provisional arrest warrant in Kuala Lumpur and will be extradited to United States.
