State Department contract employee, brother, plead guilty to wire fraud, illegal computer access, and identity theft

Twin brothers, accused in April of hacking State Department systems and the website of a cosmetics company, have pleaded guilty to computer hacking charges, among other crimes.

On Friday, 23-year-old Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter of Springfield, Virginia, admitted to taking part in various schemes, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorization, and conspiracy to access a government computer without authorization. A Department of Justice release noted that Muneeb Akhter separately pleaded guilty to additional charges – accessing a protected computer without authorization, obstructing justice and making a false statement.

Muneeb stole thousands of customers' credit card details, along with other personal information of consumers, by hacking into a cosmetic company's website in March 2014. Then, the brothers and co-conspirators used to the stolen data to purchase "goods and services, including flights, hotel reservations, and attendance at professional conferences,” The DOJ release said. “Muneeb Akhter also provided stolen information to an individual he met on the ‘dark net,' who sold the information to other dark-net users and gave Akhter a share of the profits." Read more at SC Magazine for IT Security Professionals....


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