Syrian Hacker Agha Sentenced to 42 Months for Assad-Regime Hacking Campaign Against About 47 Western Targets
The Justice Department announced on October 29 that Ahmad Umar Agha, a Syrian national, was sentenced the same day in the Eastern District of Virginia to 42 months in prison for his central role in an expansive hacking conspiracy organized and led by members of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, including the commander of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate, running from as early as August 24, 2011, to January 31, 2024.
To spread the former Syrian government's propaganda, Agha hacked approximately 47 Western media entities, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and U.S. and allied government entities, the department said. The conspiracy penalized the free press for reporting on the former regime's atrocities, used information-warfare tactics to sow fear and confusion among government opponents, collected intelligence for the former government, and attempted to incite U.S. servicemembers to mutiny or refuse duty. In one instance, Agha's actions caused a flash crash in the U.S. stock market that temporarily erased about $136 billion from the value of Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks.
"Agha deployed his hacking skills in the service of Assad's regime to silence reporting on the regime's atrocities, intimidate its opponents, and incite U.S. servicemembers to refuse their orders," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg, adding that the sentence should remind state-sponsored hackers of the National Security Division's "long memory."
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于弗吉尼亚州亚历山大市的阿尔伯特·布莱恩联邦法院，弗吉尼亚东区联邦地区法院所在地。dctim1 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Albert V. Bryan Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, home to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Photo by dctim1, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
