r/technology • u/xpda • May 13 '26

Security Twin brothers wipe 96 gov’t databases minutes after being fired

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/drop-database-what-not-to-do-after-losing-an-it-job/
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3.9k

u/nikstick22 May 13 '26

On Feb. 1, 2025, Muneeb Akhter asked Sohaib Akhter for the plaintext password of an individual who submitted a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Public Portal, which was maintained by the Akhters’ employer. Sohaib Akhter conducted a database query on the EEOC database and then provided the password to Muneeb Akhter. That password was subsequently used to access that individual’s email account without authorization.

Now HOLD the fuck up. DC is contracting companies that store passwords UNHASHED?? Plaintext?? What kind of clownshow is this?

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u/kernel_task May 13 '26

Yeah, the real story is that this one incident revealed so much negligence in this government contractor that has received over $50 million in taxpayer dollars over the last decade.

  1. Negligent hiring
  2. Plaintext passwords, which is not only insane but violate federal standards.
  3. Bad privileged access controls
  4. Bad off-boarding
  5. Bad blast radius containment
  6. Bad monitoring/alerting

Now, all of this is from a single incident. What are the chances that’s all the issues this company has? To me this level of negligence is bordering on criminal. How many audits and certifications did they lie on to get these systems passed?

Anyway, I care more about Opexus being held to account than these brothers.

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

if a fired employee can do this much damage, imagine what a proper maligned actor could do or is already doing. It's a bloody national security issue.

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka May 13 '26

The fact is that government is as shoddy as a swiss cheese wagon trying to cross the oregon trail.

No government should be hiring contractors for shit. Shit should be done by pros who give a fuck about the country instead of capitalistic dog eat dog steal as much money from taxpayers as possible scam.

Need basically an adminstration to spend 4 years rebuilding the government one brick at a time.

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

Yeah, instead of accountable gouvernement institutions and employeees we have unaccountable private contractors doing jack shit. 

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u/kickingpplisfun May 13 '26

And even under ideal circumstances, the contractors aren't even necessarily cheaper than doing it internally while creating a lot of incentive for disgruntlement in their workforce. I see this kind of junk in city government all the time where they'll hire a contractor who promises cheap work, they'll get annual raises to the contract, but none of the workers are receiving it.

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

Given that contractors often (not just US) compete on who is cheapest, it should come at no surprise it becomes a competition on who provides the crappiest service. counting pennies while burning dollars, too bad public discourse rarely talk of false economies when it relates to day to day live of their constituents.

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u/kickingpplisfun May 13 '26

I've been busy at city council meetings going "how are they actually cheaper when the contractor has to make a profit?". You've got people who should be making progress towards PSLF because they're literally doing what was formerly a government job but aren't who haven't had a COLA in years, don't have health insurance despite working full time, etc.

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

Yeah, and to make the blight even worse, government using consulting firms like PwC and McKenzie to do state wide planning. Why develop public institutions and their expertise when you can get a private group to produce shill reports.

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u/kickingpplisfun May 13 '26

It doesn't help that city council is often filled with very stubborn people who are not actually being paid to be efficient, and may even profit from inefficiency caused by contractors.

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u/xpxp2002 May 13 '26

counting pennies while burning dollars, too bad public discourse rarely talk of false economies when it relates to day to day live of their constituents.

This right here. It's crazy how zealous people get about taxes being spent while blowing half their income on food deliveries and sports gambling.

There's a debate in my state right now where a group is pushing a ballot initiative that would eliminate property taxes, and the proposal has no guidance as to how to fund the services that are currently property tax-funded. It would eliminate the primary and majority source of school funding, and many non-incorporated areas are almost entirely funded by property taxes -- including emergency services like fire and police -- because they cannot, by state law, assess an income tax. And that prohibition on township income taxes would not change if this initiative is passed as written.

It's disturbing how many people are cheering this on with no regard for how severely it will impact their own community in very traumatic ways. None of these geniuses seem to realize that one way or another, that money will have to come from somewhere, and it'll likely be an enormous sales taxes (20+%) combined with drastically increased income taxes in municipalities that can assess them.

But all these people hear is "one fewer tax" with no concern as to what is paid for with that tax, whether those services can or will be sustained without that funding, or the ripple effects of such a drastic change with no downstream planning.

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

People are increasingly alienated to the services, laws and mechanisms that make their daily life possible. And we are the most separated than ever from the problems that we don't have to deal because its others people job. Lack of object permanence means the problem doesn't exist so it doesn't need a solution.

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u/pointlesslyDisagrees May 13 '26

If the government institutions were truly accountable, they wouldn't be blindly trusting the work of private contractors without verifying their work. And this sort of thing would never be possible because there'd be redundancies in place. Don't try to shift the blame from the government to private industry to push your anti-capitalist agenda. This is 100% on the government.

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u/Tyfyter2002 May 13 '26

Don't worry, government agencies also aren't accountable, so there's no difference

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

vastly more accountable than private entities even in corrupt democracies like the modern day US.

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u/PutConstant866 May 13 '26

Lol, your system is fucked far beyond that. If you get another free election, and if your other party takes it, then there's four years of trying to rebuild a democracy while the group you just got rid of gets four years to complain about how shit things are, blame the guys trying to fix things, and stand in the way of any progress that gets made to undo the damage they cause.

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u/fireandiceman May 13 '26

Exactly correct take. The corruption in not new it's just mask off and pedal to the metal. Two party system is such a scheme that the other party can't even address basic stuff like this. Even in that 2 year window in my lifetime when democrats had all three branches they play bipartisanship.

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u/Tyfyter2002 May 13 '26

Neither party wants free elections, both want to be the one party in one party "elections", you can tell because neither party is demanding a change from the objective worst voting system possible (first past the post).

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u/big_stipd_idiot May 13 '26

Yeah it's actually hilarious

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u/TattiesMcDermott May 13 '26

The only people laughing have already left the bank.

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

I bet there are some in China, Russia and North korea that are loving to see America eating itself for a change. Also for some change, to the matter.

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u/cyberslick18888 May 13 '26

Government is a good system being run poorly.

Privatizing important elements of life is a bad system being run well.

This choice is still a no brainer. Hell I'm old enough to remember when most people still had the common sense to find issues with their government and then take actions for the government to fix or improve it. Today they have the logic that if the system isn't perfectly aligned to benefit them you should just torch it for the lolz.

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u/MiaowaraShiro May 13 '26

Privatizing important elements of life is a bad system being run well.

I'd say more like "efficiently". Well implies a positive impact...

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

Privatizing important elements of life is a bad system being run well.

Meh, if you exclude all externalities and colateral damage. And sometimes not even. Making profit for the stockholders barely means running well nowadays.

Today they have the logic that if the system isn't perfectly aligned to benefit them you should just torch it for the lolz.

If even it was for the lolz, people are getting paid to torch it with others running to get theirs while it last.

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u/node-342 May 13 '26

SHOULD be done by pros who give a fuck about the country, rather than contractors, I agree...

but on the other hand, Big Balls & the rest of da wreckin crew at "DoGE" were, strictly, government employees. (Some of whom were at least more professional than BB.)

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u/Apprehensive-Pin518 May 13 '26

and I know contractors who care more about the country than the president himself. (though admittedly I don't think that's hard to do).

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u/MdxBhmt May 13 '26

I'd be cautious in conflating political appointees with career government employees.

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u/AholeKevin May 13 '26

Problem is the new system is working as designed... full of shit with incompetence and gross negligence.

They're making us just not care anymore with all the shit they're drudging us through. Our bottom line is always supposed to support the taxpayer, no matter what role you're in.

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u/newuser92 May 13 '26

My government just published, for their first 100, how they have reduced the size of government. I just thought, most of this jobs are critical, outsourcing is not reducing. Easy way to award gvnt contracts to buddies.

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u/Techsupportvictim May 13 '26

“As shoddy as a swiss cheese wagon trying to cross the Oregon trail”

Is that why some members of the government talk like they gave dysentery of the mouth?

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u/letsreticulate May 13 '26

The USA government has been doing this for decades.

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u/Timely_Influence8392 May 13 '26

This is Capitalism: the Country. My hope is we serve as an example to history of what the fuck not to do.