It's always a super-frustrating thing when you get fired. Especially when you don't think you deserve it. At least for me, there's always that little devil on your shoulder thinking, "I should do something bad!" But, for most people, they just take things on the chin and go job searching.
That isn't what these twin brothers decided to do. Instead, their first thoughts were to mess with the U.S. government in a pretty stark way. As reported by Cybernews, Sohaib and Muneeb Akhter decided to delete 96 U.S. government databases.
They did the insane act just hours after they were fired from their contractor positions in December 2025. Not long after, they ended up being arrested. And, it turns out they were using the databases they deleted for some pretty nefarious purposes.
Inspector General of the FDIC-OIG, Jennifer Fain, explained, "As proven at trial, Akhter participated in the unauthorized access of protected computer systems, the theft of credentials, and the destruction of government data affecting numerous federal agencies."
They had asked AI how to cover up their crimes. Mundeeb apparently asked an unnamed tool, "How do I clear system logs from SQL servers after deleting databases?" and "How do you clear all event and application logs from Microsoft Windows server 2012?"
The brothers had worked for a firm that dealt with freedom of information requests.
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The Brothers Served Jail Time for Previous Hacking Convictions
But, strangely enough, this isn't the first time they've been involved in black-hat hacking. The brothers got jail time for wire fraud back in 2015. They had stolen thousands of credit card numbers after hacking a cosmetics company. They used their gains to book luxury flights and hotels and even sold the data on the dark web.
Muneeb was sentenced to 3 years in prison, while Sohaib had 2. But it's looking like their charges this time are a whole lot more serious this time - Sohaib is facing up to 21 years of prison following the 2025 incident. Muneeb entered a plea deal and is awaiting sentencing.
Their employer, government contractor Opexus, explained that "the incident made clear that our screening protocols needed to be even more robust."
