Al-Tahery Al-Mashriky sentenced to 20 months in prison
A 26-year-old man from Rotherham has been jailed for launching cyberattacks on organisations across North America, Yemen and Israel and for stealing the login details of millions of users.
Al-Tahery Al-Mashriky was sentenced to 20 months in prison at Sheffield Crown Court on 15th August after pleading guilty to nine offences under the Computer Misuse Act. He was arrested in August 2022 by National Crime Agency (NCA) cybercrime officers acting on intelligence from US law enforcement about the extremist hacker groups “Spider Team” and “Yemen Cyber Army”.
Investigators linked Al-Mashriky to the Yemen Cyber Army through email and social media accounts and forensic analysis of his laptop and mobile phones revealed he had infiltrated numerous websites, including those belonging to the Yemen Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yemen Ministry of Security Media and an Israeli news outlet.
3,000 websites in 3 months
Al-Mashriky’s attacks typically exploited websites with weak security, after which he created hidden pages containing his online aliases and ideological messaging. On one cybercrime forum he boasted of compromising more than 3,000 websites in just three months.
The NCA said he had also targeted faith organisations in Canada and the US, as well as the California State Water Board. His devices contained stolen data from more than four million Facebook users, along with login credentials for services including Netflix and PayPal, which could have been used for further criminal activity.
Deputy director Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said:
“Al-Mashriky’s attacks crippled the websites targeted, causing significant disruption to their users and the organisations, just so that he could push the political and ideological views of the Yemen Cyber Army. He had also stolen personal data that could have enabled him to target and defraud millions of people.
“Cybercrime can often appear faceless, with the belief that perpetrators hide in the shadows and can avoid detection. However, as this investigation shows, the NCA has the technical capability to pursue and identify offenders like Al-Mashriky and bring them to justice.”
Click Here For The Original Source.
