Syrian Electronic Army hacker sentenced to 42 months in US
Original title: Syrian Hacker Gets Prison Time in US After Over a Decade on the Run
Ahmad Umar Agha, known as Th3Pr0, was sentenced Thursday after more than a decade as a fugitive; accomplice Firas Dardar remains at large.
A federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Syrian national Ahmad Umar Agha, online handle Th3Pr0, to 42 months, more than 12 years after he was first charged. Prosecutors say he was a central figure in a Syrian Electronic Army conspiracy they say was directed by figures close to Bashar al-Assad and ran from August 2011 until January 2024. He compromised about 47 Western news outlets, companies, NGOs, and government bodies, including the 2013 Associated Press Twitter takeover. The Justice Department did not say how or where he was taken into custody.
Unconfirmed: Prosecutors say the conspiracy was directed by figures close to Assad; the DOJ has not explained Agha’s capture.
- The fake AP post briefly wiped $136 billion from Dow component stocks.
- A publisher lost about $35,000 a day for roughly six months.
- One NGO’s cleanup and retraining costs totaled about $480,000.
- Agha and Firas Dardar were indicted in May 2018; Dardar has not been caught.
- The FBI had offered up to $100,000 for information leading to Agha’s arrest.
- Threat actors
- Syrian Electronic Army
- Organizations
- Justice DepartmentFBI
- Countries
- SyriaUnited States
From the original article
2 min read at securityweek.com
A US court sentenced Syrian hacker Ahmad Umar Agha to 42 months for pro-Assad attacks on media, businesses, and government entities. The post Syrian Hacker Gets Prison Time in US After Over a Decade on the Run appeared first on SecurityWeek.
By Eduard Kovacs · securityweek.com
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