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Posted by jnord 1 day ago

Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired(arstechnica.com)
440 points | 346 commentspage 2
egorfine 1 hour ago|
I was always curious how come firing a person is a risk in the US culture.

Outside of the US it's almost never done like that and a person fired is expected to be cooperative and probably even continue working for another two weeks. And not only expected - this is what actually happens.

pkphilip 1 hour ago||
What a stupid move! way to make things worse for yourself! Some people have such low impulse control it is just unbelievable the sort of damage they can do to themselves and others.
PowerElectronix 14 hours ago||
He may be a bad person but he has a very pretty handwriting.
disqard 14 hours ago|
Your comment made me go read TFA, and yes, that is rather pretty handwriting.
mianos 6 hours ago||
I wonder if their stellar academic record is due to the same shenanigans? Given that they were caught manipulating logs and deleting evidence to cover their tracks in 2025, that they did the same to their academic records is technically plausible.

In 2011, university systems like George Mason’s were significantly more vulnerable to the exact type of SQL injection and credential theft they were using in their early criminal years.

JumpCrisscross 14 hours ago||
> Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, now both 34, had been in trouble before. Back in 2015, the brothers pled guilty in Virginia to a scheme involving wire fraud and computers. Muneeb was sentenced to three years in prison, while Sohaib got two.

After their stints in jail, the brothers worked their way back into the tech world. In 2023, Muneeb got a job with a Washington, DC, firm that sold software and services to 45 federal clients; Sohaib got a job at the same company a year later.

What in the actual fuck. I'm all for giving people second chances. But maybe some ringfencing?

JuniperMesos 13 hours ago||
No, this is exactly what giving people second chances looks like. It means taking a risk that they're the sort of person who is likely to commit a crime and who will commit a crime again after being given the second chance. The only way to prevent this is to have a blanket policy against giving second chances to people convicted of crimes, which harms people who genuinely intend to reform and not commit crimes again, and who you cannot systematically distinguish from chronic criminals.
notahacker 12 hours ago||
There are literally thousands of occupations a former computer based wire fraudster can be given a second chance in that aren't here's a computer full of sensitive government files, with CRUD privileges.

Like... I think ex drugs dealer deserve a chance of legitimate employment, but perhaps doling out prescription drugs is best left to someone that doesn't need a "second chance" to demonstrate they're unusually trustworthy and unlikely to be tempted by the possible side incomes.

notahacker 12 hours ago|||
The fraud conviction seems totally inappropriate for a government contractor and yet... somehow totally appropriate for someone appointed to work directly for the upper echelons of federal government. Hell, everyone else hacking government officials emails and tax returns and randomly deleting stuff for the lolz in February 2025 was being paid by DOGE.
colechristensen 12 hours ago||
The article isn't particularly clearly written, but it seems like their background checks were bad and were fired once management figured it out.
p0w3n3d 6 hours ago||
In my company there were layoffs recently. People had access to production database due to support requests, as we're a young company, so no least-privilege rules were applied yet. Nobody did anything bad. People knew what was going to happen, but no retaliation happened. First, I guess, to not have any problem with law, to pursue the next job without burdens. Things are traceable. Second, why? Why should I destroy my colleagues' work?
prmoustache 4 hours ago|
Most criminals probably know they will get caught for their crimes and that there may be external or indirect casualties for their crime. Yet it doesn't stop them. Even in places and for crimes with death sentence.

This is no different. If one day you can answer why and how to solve that I am pretty sure we would all be happy to know!

libpcap 17 hours ago||
Nice handwritings, though.
dzonga 16 hours ago||
prosecute the company too.

storing passwords in plaintext should be persecuted & having unlimited access to customer databases.

throwaway27448 5 hours ago||
Look the us government (and I'm sure many others) is so inept at basic software construction I can only view this as a good thing. I presume thousands previous penetrations were simply not so trivially detected.
capibara13 16 hours ago|
A true professional always makes sure to leave their workspace completely spotless before going home
lostlogin 16 hours ago|
So no guns and ammo?
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