US charges 3 it ties to Syrian Electronic Army for hacking

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three current or former members of the so-called Syrian Electronic Army have been charged with computer hacking-related conspiracies that targeted the U.S. government, media and private-sector companies, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege that Ahmad Umar Agha, 22, and Firas Dardar, 27, tricked email users into revealing their usernames and passwords to compromise domestic and international computer systems from 2011 through 2014.

The government said Agha, known online as "Th3 Pr0," and Dardar, known as "The Shadow," are members of the special operations division of the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers responsible for computer intrusions intended to punish perceived detractors of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and publish pro-Assad propaganda.

According to the complaint, Agha connected him with Dardar on Facebook and the two worked together on an extortion scheme targeting U.S. and international computers and send victims threats to pay up after gaining access to their system through a spear-phishing attack.

John Carlin, the Justice Department's top national security attorney, said the allegations show the "increasingly blurry" line between criminal hackers and "potential national security threats."