Foreign hacker who aided Islamic State gets 20 years in US

Alexandria, Sep 23 A computer hacker who helped the Islamic State by providing names of more than 1,000 US government and military workers as potential targets has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Twenty-year-old Ardit Ferizi, a native of Kosovo arrested last year in Malaysia, was sentenced today in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Earlier this year, he became the first person convicted in the US of both computer hacking and terrorism charges.

Ferizi hacked a private company and pulled out the names, email passwords and phone numbers of more than 1,300 people with government and military addresses.

The Islamic State published the names with a threat to attack.

Prosecutors sought the maximum sentence of 25 years. Defense lawyers said Ferizi meant no real harm and asked for a six-year sentence.

AP