A federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Ahmad Umar Agha (also known as Th3Pr0) to 42 months in prison for a central role in a hacking conspiracy that DOJ says was organized and led by members of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, including the commander of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate, from as early as Aug. 24, 2011 to Jan. 31, 2014. He had been a fugitive for more than a decade.

• Scope: about 47 Western media organizations, businesses, NGOs and US and allied government entities were hacked to spread regime propaganda, punish reporting on regime atrocities and collect intelligence.
• Notable hacks per court filings: the April 23, 2013 tweet from a news agency's hijacked Twitter account falsely claiming President Obama was injured in White House explosions, which caused a temporary $136 billion drop in the value of Dow stocks; redirecting the US Marine Corps recruiting site to a page urging Marines to refuse orders; an NGO that spent about $480,000 recovering; and a content company losing about $35,000 a day for roughly six months.

The National Security Division and the FBI (Cyber Branch and Washington Field Office) said the case shows they keep pursuing state-sponsored hackers long after the fact.