A federal court in Virginia sentenced Ahmad Umar Agha, a Syrian man, to 42 months in prison, the US Justice Department said. Prosecutors say he played a central role in a hacking plot led by people close to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The department said he broke into about 47 Western news outlets, businesses, non-governmental groups and government bodies. On April 23, 2013, a hijacked news agency Twitter account carried his false claim that President Obama was hurt in two White House explosions. Dow stocks briefly lost $136 billion in value, the department said.
CyberScoop named the news agency as the Associated Press; the Justice Department did not. No source says how the account was taken over. The department dates the plot from August 2011 to January 2014, while CyberScoop and Help Net Security say January 2024. The sources do not explain the gap. Co-defendant Firas Dardar is still at large.
In two documented cases, the way in was a neighbour of the target. After Agha reached the company hosting the Marine Corps recruiting site, about 3,500 people saw his message to Marines instead of recruiting pages. He also stole White House staff email logins. As general explanation, not court findings: a host controls what visitors see, and a mailbox can reset passwords on linked accounts.