United States of America v. Ahmad Umar Agha

Alexandria, Virginia, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with Conspiracy to Commit Computer Fraud and Related Activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 37, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1349, aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1028.

Ahmad 'Umar Agha, also known as "The Pro," engaged in a criminal scheme that forced many of his victims to spend significant sums of money remediating these intrusions or restructuring their security. Notable examples of Agha’s successful hacks include:

A company that provides online publishers with content, website ads, and links to other websites, suffered a loss of approximately $35,000 a day for approximately six months.

A global NGO was forced to deploy a new suite of network monitoring products – costing around $250,000 – in addition to retraining over 800 staff members and upgrading its security system. In total, the NGO suffered a total of $480,000 in losses.

Agha’s hack of the Twitter account of a widely respected news agency allowed him to make an April 23, 2013, Twitter post falsely claiming that President Obama was injured after two explosions at the White House. Agha’s actions caused a temporary $136 billion flash crash in the value of stocks making up the Dow. Agha later bragged about this hack in an interview with Business Insider, stating that it “was our goal of that hack attack” for the Dow to drop significantly, and “it was a big victory for us.”

Agha obtained access to the company hosting the U.S. Marine Corps’ recruitment website and redirected visitors from that site to a server displaying an image encouraging Marines to refuse their orders and fight alongside the Syrian Army During the time the attack took place, approximately 3,500 potential visitors to the U.S. Marines recruitment website saw the above image instead of U.S. Marines-related recruitment material.

On two occasions, Agha attempted to obtain control over the White House’s social media page by stealing usernames and passwords for the email accounts of White House staff. In one instance, Agha used his unauthorized access in an unsuccessful effort to trick White House Staff into giving him access to the White House’s social media accounts.

Agha and his coconspirator, Firas Dardar, were indicted on May 17, 2018, after initially being charged by complaint on June 12, 2014. Dardar remains a fugitive. Dardar was also charged in a separate conspiracy in the Eastern District of Virginia on Sept. 29, 2015, relating to unauthorized access to, and damage of, computers and related extortionate activities; receiving the proceeds of extortion; money laundering; wire fraud; violations of the Syrian Sanctions Regulations; and unlawful interstate communications, alongside Peter Romar, a Syrian national then residing in Germany. Romar was extradited to the Eastern District of Virginia from Germany and pled guilty on Sept. 28, 2016.:

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.