The 29-year-old has leaked data from various Israeli organizations

Mar 28, 2014 08:31 GMT  ·  By

29-year-old Jonathan Cowden has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for hacking the website of Nefesh B’Nefesh (Jewish Souls United), an organization that encourages and facilitates the immigration of Jewish people from North America and the UK to Israel.

The organization was targeted in January 2012 as part of a hacktivist operation against Israel.

According to the FBI, Cowden has also been ordered to pay restitution to the victims of his cyberattacks. The man hacked a number of websites between November 2011 and January 2012 by exploiting vulnerabilities that enabled him to gain access to sensitive information. The data he obtained was posted online on various websites such as Pastebin.

Shortly after Cowden’s arrest on January 18, 2013, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the man, who had moved from St. Louis to San Diego, had been using the Twitter account @_AnonymousSTL_.

Initially, he pleaded not guilty, but US authorities say he pleaded guilty in August 2013 to one felony count of computer fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030.

In its cyberattacks timeline for January 2012, Hackmageddon revealed that the Anonymous hacker with the Twitter account @_AnonymousSTL_ breached a number of websites as part of OpFreePalestine, a hacktivist operation aimed at Israel.

The list of sites from which the hacker leaked data includes TopLinks, the Bar-Ilan University’s Geography and Environment Department, the Israel Institute of Technology’s Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center, ILAN and SNIP.

From each of these organizations’ databases, the hacktivist leaked various pieces of information, including names, email addresses, passwords, usernames, administrator credentials and birth dates.

From Nefesh B’Nefesh, he leaked 549 names, postal addresses, password hashes, email addresses and some emails.

“You, [Palestinians], are being denied your unalienable right as a human being, to create a government for yourselves, and to live in peace. Your unalienable right is being alienated by your government, and many others all over the world,” @_AnonymousSTL_ wrote in a statement during OpFreePalestine.

“We will alienate their freedom of privacy. Anyone sponsoring the efforts of Israel and their corrupt invasion of Palestine, are targets,” he added.

At the time, he condemned the US government for being “friends and allies” with Israel’s “tyrannical government.”

“Well my brothers and sisters of Palestine. Some Americans believe in your democracy, your CONSTITUTION. Some Americans are NOT HYPOCRITES. Some Americans realize without the help of other Nations […] nothing will be accomplished,” he wrote.