IS server militant hacker channelled information to attack US security forces

The IS militant server hacker who was arrested by the Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Unit on September 15 is identified as Ardit Ferizi, 20, a Kosovo citizen.

Ardit who is the leader of a hacking group called ‘Kosovo Hacker’s Security’ is also known by his hacking moniker “Th3Dir3ctorY”.

The U.S. Department of Justice in a statement on October 15 said that Ardit’s arrest was made based on a provisional arrest warrant which alleged that he had provided material support to the IS by committing computer hacking and identity theft.

Ardit hacked into the computer system of a victim company located in the United States and stole the personally identifiable information (PII) of thousands of individuals which will then be channelled to IS militants for further action.

“US is requesting for him to be extradited to the Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia to stand trial. Ardit had provided the PII of over 1,000 U.S. service members and federal employees to ISIL to be used against those employees. Between June and August 2015, he provided unlawfully obtained PII to ISIL member Junaid Hussain, aka Abu Hussain al-Britani,” the statement said.

Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in a statement on Thursday said Ardit had entered the country in August to pursue studies in a private institution of higher learning here in the field of computer science and computer forensics.

"From our investigations, it was found that the suspect had communicated with one of the senior leaders of the IS militant group in Syria with the aim of hacking several computers which contain information on the American security forces before passing it on to the operations unit of the group for further action," he said.

The statement by the U.S Department of Justice added that the information provided by Ardit had brought on the tweets by Junaid Hussain titled “NEW: U.S. Military AND Government HACKED by the Islamic State Hacking Division!” which contained a hyperlink to a 30-page document.

That document stated, in part, that “we are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!”

The next 27 pages of the document contained the names, e-mail addresses, e-mail passwords, locations and phone numbers for approximately 1,351 U.S. military and other government personnel.

This posting was intended to provide ISIL supporters in the United States and elsewhere with the PII belonging to the listed government employees for the purpose of encouraging terrorist attacks against those individuals.

Assistant Attorney General Carlin said this case is a first of its kind and, with these charges they seek to hold Ardit accountable for his theft of this information and his role in ISIL’s targeting of U.S. government employees.