Syrian Electronic Army Hacker Extradited to U.S.

The United States has extradited an alleged member of the Syrian Electronic Army, Peter “Pierre” Romar, a 36-year-old Syrian national, to stand trial for highly publicized attacks in support of the Syrian government and President Bashar al-Assad. He was arrested in Germany.

Two other members of the group are living in Syria and have been put on the FBI's most wanted list. Ahmad Umar Agha, 22, aka “The Pro,” and Firas Dardar, 27, aka “The Shadow,” have been charged for a criminal conspiracy relating to their hacktivism campaigns. The FBI is offering $100,000 for information that leads to their arrest.

The group has been known to break into victim’s computer systems via spear phishing emails and then threateded to damage devices and delete or sell data unless they were paid. Between July 2013 and December 2014 they demanded a total of over $500,000 from victims. In some cases, they reduced the ransom. One case involved a Chinese online gaming company with servers in the United States. They demanded $50,000 but reduced the ransom to $15,000.

Victims ran the gamut of businesses in the U.S., web hosting, online entertainment, and online media companies in the United States and Europe.

Source: Security Week