The Hill reports: A 37-year-old Syrian national once affiliated with the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) hacker group pleaded guilty in Virginia federal court Wednesday to conspiring to receive extortion proceeds and conspiring to unlawfully access computers.

Beginning in 2011, Peter Romar defaced media and government websites belonging to those the SEA felt were overly critical of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. By 2013, the SEA’s methods had evolved into extorting money from hacking victims under threat of the group destroying or leaking information from compromised systems.

Romar, who was living in Germany, acted as a go-between for extortion payments when victims could not transfer money directly to Syria. [Continue reading…]