Syrian Hacker Behind Fake Tweet That Triggered $136 Billion Market Drop Gets 42 Months in Prison
Summary: Ahmad Umar Agha, a Syrian Electronic Army hacker known as "Th3Pr0," was sentenced by a U.S. federal court to 42 months in prison for a hacking conspiracy targeting Western news outlets, the Justice Department said on October 29. The group stole employee passwords through phishing, and on April 23, 2013, Agha hijacked the Associated Press Twitter account to post a false report that President Barack Obama had been injured in White House explosions, causing a temporary $136 billion drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The department said Agha hacked about 47 Western media outlets, businesses, non-profit groups, and U.S. and allied government bodies.
Why it matters: A single stolen password and one false tweet moved $136 billion in market value in minutes, and one victim non-profit spent $480,000 on cleanup and retrained more than 800 staff - the bill for a credential phishing email lands far from where it is opened.
Read the original at The Hacker News ↗
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- Cybercrime & Law Enforcement
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