Two sibling contractors convicted a decade ago for hacking into US State Department systems have once more been charged, this time for a comically hamfisted try and steal and destroy government records just minutes after being fired from their contractor jobs.
The Department of Justice on Thursday said that Muneeb Akhter and Sohaib Akhter, each 34, of Alexandria, Virginia, deleted databases and documents maintained and belonging to 3 government agencies. The brothers were federal contractors working for an undisclosed company in Washington, DC, that gives software and services to 45 US agencies. Prosecutors said the boys coordinated the crimes and started carrying them out just minutes after being fired.
Using AI to cover up an alleged crime—what could go flawed?
On February 18 at roughly 4:55 pm, the boys were fired from the corporate, in accordance with an indictment unsealed on Thursday. Five minutes later, they allegedly began attempting to access their employer’s system and access federal government databases. By then, access to considered one of the brothers’ accounts had already been terminated. The opposite brother, nonetheless, allegedly accessed a government agency’s database stored on the employer’s server and issued commands to stop other users from connecting or making changes to the database. Then, prosecutors said, he issued a command to delete 96 databases, lots of which contained sensitive investigative files and records related to Freedom of Information Act matters.
Despite their brazen try and steal and destroy information from multiple government agencies, the boys lacked knowledge of the database commands needed to cover up their alleged crimes. In order that they allegedly did what many amateurs do: turned to an AI chat tool.
One minute after deleting Department of Homeland Security information, Muneep Akhter allegedly asked an AI tool “how do i clear system logs from SQL servers after deleting databases.” Shortly afterward, he queried the tool “how do you clear all event and application logs from Microsoft windows server 2012,” prosecutors said.
The indictment provides enough details of the databases wiped and knowledge stolen to point that the brothers’ attempts to cover their tracks failed. It’s unclear whether the apparent failure was resulting from the AI tool providing inadequate instructions or the boys failing to follow them accurately. Prosecutors say additionally they obtained records of discussions between the boys within the hours or days following, during which they discussed removing incriminating evidence from their homes. Three days later, the boys allegedly wiped their employer-issued laptops by reinstalling the operating system.
