Syrian hacker behind fake White House tweet gets 42 months in US prison

Briefly erased from Dow stocks

136 billion US dollars, per the Justice Department

In April 2013, Ahmad Umar Agha, a member of the Syrian Electronic Army, hijacked a news agency's Twitter account and posted a false report that President Barack Obama was hurt in explosions at the White House. The Justice Department said it briefly erased US$136 billion from the value of Dow stocks.

Prosecutors say Agha hacked about 47 media outlets, businesses, non-profits and government bodies. In one attack, about 3,500 visitors to the US Marine Corps recruiting website were redirected to an image urging Marines to refuse their orders.

A federal court in Virginia sentenced Agha on Thursday. He was first charged in 2014, and co-defendant Firas Dardar remains a fugitive.