Two brother-in-law contractors convicted a decade ago of hacking U.S. State Department systems have been charged once again, this time for a farcical attempt to steal and destroy government records just minutes after being fired from their contractor jobs.
Muneeb Akhtar and Sohaib Akhtar, 34, of Alexandria, Virginia, subverted databases and documents belonging to three government agencies, the Justice Department said Thursday. The brothers were federal contractors working for an undisclosed company in Washington, DC, which provides software and services to 45 US agencies. Prosecutors said the men coordinated the crimes and began carrying them out just minutes after being fired from their jobs.
Using AI to cover up an alleged crime – what could go wrong?
According to the indictment unsealed on Thursday, these people were fired from the company at around 4:55 pm on February 18. Five minutes later, they reportedly began trying to access their employer’s systems and access federal government databases. By then, access to the account of one of the brothers had already been terminated. However, the other brother allegedly gained access to a government agency’s database stored on the employer’s server and issued orders preventing other users from connecting to or making changes to the database. Then, prosecutors said, they issued an order to delete 96 databases, many of which contained sensitive investigative files and records related to Freedom of Information Act cases.
Despite their brazen attempt to steal and destroy information from multiple government agencies, people were not aware of the database commands needed to cover up their alleged crimes. So he reportedly did what many hobbyists do: turned to AI chat tools.
One minute after deleting the Department of Homeland Security information, Muneep Akhtar reportedly asked the AI tool, “How do I clear the system logs from SQL Server after deleting the database.” Shortly after, he asked the tool, “How do you clear all the event and application logs from Microsoft Windows Server 2012,” prosecutors said.
The indictment provides enough detail of the deleted databases and stolen information to indicate that the brothers’ efforts to cover their tracks failed. It is unclear whether the apparent failure was due to the AI tool providing inadequate instructions or due to people failing to follow them correctly. Prosecutors say they also obtained records of discussions between the men over the next few hours or days, in which they discussed removing incriminating evidence from their homes. Three days later, the men allegedly wiped their employer-issued laptops by reinstalling the operating system.
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