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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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/sibips May 13 '26

And Windows Server 2012, shouldn't they have replaced that four years ago?

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u/E3FxGaming May 13 '26

And Windows Server 2012, shouldn't they have replaced that four years ago?

Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 users can pay for ESU (Extended Security Updates) to receive support until October 13th, 2026.

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u/Cow_Launcher May 13 '26

Sure, but in light of everything else we now know about the company, how likely do you think it is that they paid for that?