Syrian hacker sympathetic to Assad pleads guilty in U.S. court

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.