US indicts alleged federal government hacker twins

The U.S. Justice Department has announced that twin brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter who had been jailed due to conspiring to breach the State Department as government contractors a decade ago have been arrested and charged over compromising federal agency data in an insider attack against an unnamed contractor after they were let go earlier this year, according to CyberScoop.

Aside from allegedly deleting nearly 96 databases with Opexus-hosted government information, including investigative documents and Freedom of Information Act-related records, as well as a Homeland Security production database, Muneeb also purportedly copied over 1,800 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission files and pilfered Internal Revenue Service records with the help of AI, said prosecutors. On the other hand, Sohaib was accused of stealing credentials for the EEOC's Opexus computer.

"Federal contractors who abuse their positions will be held accountable for their actions. The actions of individuals like Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter are threats to our national security," said Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari.