Law & Order

An associate of the self-styled Syrian Electronic Army has been sentenced to five years in an American prison for his part in running a cyber extortion scheme against businesses around the world.

On Wednesday, Syrian-born Peter Romar, 37, pled guilty in a Virginia district court to conspiring to unlawfully access computers and to receive extortion proceeds from the hacking. Romar, who was extradited from Germany where he had emigrated, will be sentenced on October 21. He faces a maximum of five years in prison.

A computer hacker sympathetic to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government pleaded guilty for his role as a middleman in an extortion scheme targeting U.S. media outlets and governments, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

It said in a statement that Peter Romar, 37, was a member of the Syrian Electronic Army hacking group and had joined an operation to infiltrate computers of Assad's "perceived detractors" in the media, U.S. government and other governments.

A federal judge in Iowa has ordered the suppression of child pornography evidence derived from an invalid warrant. The warrant was issued as part of a controversial government-sanctioned operation to hack Tor users. Out of nearly 200 such cases nationwide that involve the Tor-hidden child porn site known as "Playpen," US District Judge Robert Pratt is just the third to make such a ruling.

In July, Polish law enforcement officers arrested Artem Vaulin, the alleged founder of KickassTorrents, who’s been held in a local prison since.

Polish authorities acted on a criminal complaint from the U.S. Government, which accused him of criminal copyright infringement and money laundering.

A security researcher will be jailed for 20 days after hacking two websites belonging to the Florida state elections department.

David Levin, 31, of Estero, Florida was indicted on three hacking-related charges, pleaded guilty after turning himself in, in early May.

Marcel Lehel Lazar, a 44-year-old Romanian, was sentenced to 52 months in prison for hacking high-profile figures including former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Using his nickname Guccifer, he was credited with uncovering the existence of a private email server for former secretary of state and now Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Other victims included former Secretary of State Colin Powell and celebrities such as Robert Redford, Steve Martin and Nicole Kidman.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Fahey handed down a summary judgment dismissing claims that Monster and its CEO Noel Lee were duped out of a 5 percent share of the Beats by Dre brand, a move orchestrated through Beats' "sham" sale to HTC, the Associated Press reports.

A spyware company faces legal action after a US court ruled that its software was used unlawfully to intercept an unwitting man's messages.

Javier Luis started an online friendship with Catherine Zang in 2009.

Her husband used WebWatcher spyware to track the pair's private emails and online chats over several months, as evidence for divorce proceedings. The US appeal court has now ruled 2-1 that Mr Luis can sue the software firm Awareness Technologies.

When the net closed around Silk Road, many thought it spelled the end of the black market trade on the dark web. Of course, this did not turn out to be the case, so hopes were pinned on holding those responsible for the site to account.

The founder of the site has already been charged, and now authorities are after those who acted as admins. One such target is Irishman Gary Davis, and an Irish court has just ruled that he should be extradited to the US to face hacking, drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

A patent-holding company that won a huge court victory against Apple had its victory wiped out today, and its stock plunged by more than 40 percent.

Nevada-based VirnetX won a jury trial against Apple earlier this year. An East Texas jury ruled that Apple must pay $625.6 million to VirnetX for infringing four patents. The patents are said to cover Apple's VPN on-demand feature, as well as FaceTime.