Hacking for ISIS

A hacker in Kosovo is arrested in Malaysia for hacking systems in the U.S. to get PII on U.S. service members and use that information to threaten them.  It isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened, but it is the first time Justice has actually managed to get a person in custody and charge him.  If you didn't know about this story, it deserves your attention [see http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/isil-linked-hacker-arrested-malaysia-us-charges ]

The arrested person is Ardit Ferizi, aka Th3Dir3ctorY.  An interesting interview with him is at http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/getting-to-know-kosova-hackers-security-crew-plus-an-exclusive-interview-with-th3-dir3ctory/.  Being arrested is not an indication of guilt, as any self-respecting ACLU attorney would be glad to tell us.  Anyway, he is accused of hacking on behalf of an organization called the Kosova Hackers Security Crew, or KHS, accused of launching a DDOS attack on Interpol, of all places, and releasing credit card numbers and PII of 35,000 Israelis, attacking 600 websites in Ukraine, and the National Weather Service - undoubtedly, a target of opportunity tangentially related to the U.S.  The group claims an alliance with Anonymous, but this is not the kind of thing Anonymous has done and they are not known for associations with groups like ISIS.  If Ferizi admits to these kinds of things, he probably has done more.

This time, the U.S. government says, he hacked sites to collect PII on U.S. citizens and gave that information to ISIS.   The charge is paraphrased this way:

“As alleged, Ardit Ferizi is a terrorist hacker who provided material support to ISIL by stealing the personally identifiable information of U.S. service members and federal employees and providing it to ISIL for use against those employees,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.  “This case is a first of its kind and, with these charges, we seek to hold Ferizi accountable for his theft of this information and his role in ISIL’s targeting of U.S. government employees.  This arrest demonstrates our resolve to confront and disrupt ISIL’s efforts to target Americans, in whatever form and wherever they occur.”

In court, we would hope to find out whether they conduct this kind of activity for money and were paid by ISIS for the work, or if they did it out of patriotic zeal.  We could wonder if they are looking for Russian names and PII since the bombing started.