A Virginia man named Sohaib Akhter has been found guilty of conspiring to destroy dozens of U.S. government databases — an attack he launched within minutes of being fired from his job as a federal IT contractor. Akhter and his twin brother Muneeb had worked for a company managing data systems for more than 45 federal agencies. When the company discovered that Sohaib had a prior felony conviction — he was sentenced to prison in 2016 for hacking U.S. State Department systems and stealing personal data — it terminated both brothers during a video call on February 18, 2025.
Moments after the call ended, the brothers remotely accessed the company’s servers, write-protected and deleted 96 government databases, then tried to erase their digital tracks. The damage was done within hours. Sohaib now faces up to 21 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 9, 2026. The case is a sharp reminder that access revocation at the moment of termination is not optional — and that background checks for people with access to sensitive systems genuinely matter.