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Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

arstechnica.com

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Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#391

Post by PunchyHamster »

jimmaswell wrote: post #74
nine_k wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just please don't make me come in to the office. But how do you pick up the stuff from your desk? I once lost a nice pair of headphones this way.

I've never had a job with a permanent individual desk like this. The one in-person real job I had, it was only shared working space that different people used at different times of the day or on different days, and I think you were discouraged from leaving anything. The idea of there being "your desk" with a framed photo of your kids and favorite coffee mug seems like a nearly extinct piece of nostalgia. It must have…

That seems like "why the fuck even go to work place" type of work

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#392

Post by pjc50 »

scottlamb wrote: post #39

> [Opexus] said that “the individuals responsible for hiring the twins are no longer employed by Opexus.” Getting close to the classic Monty Python line: "Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked." Jokes aside, stuff like this sucks because I suspect many employers will take from it the most extreme, dehumanizing lessons, e.g.: (a) make firings [edit: including lay-offs] as…

I think mature sysadmins accept there's a certain .. bushido to their security-critical role. It is after all their job to respond to security threats, including by revoking credentials, and to recognize that they might fall on the wrong side of that some day.

But things are different both in small companies, and non-US environments where minimum notice periods or redundancy consultations are a thing. You may put people on "gardening leave" where they're still paid but not actually working. Or it may be the case that the sysadmin is the one person who knows and controls a lot of stuff, and the employer has ended up relying on them for a smooth handover. Password and role management for the "root" of things is a real problem.

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#393

Post by pjc50 »

t0mas88 wrote: post #148
game_the0ry wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At 4:59 pm, he asked an AI tool, “How do i clear system logs from SQL servers after deleting databases?” He later asked, “How do you clear all event and application logs from Microsoft windows server 2012?” So many red flags, I can't even.

> In the space of a single hour, Muneeb deleted around 96 databases with US government information. He downloaded 1,805 files belonging to the EEOC and stashed them on a USB drive, then grabbed federal tax information for at least 450 people. Maybe whoever runs infosec at that place should also be fired?

Wasn't that .. these guys themselves?

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#394

Post by graemep »

matsemann wrote: post #368
yaur wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terminating access and rotating passwords (if needed) while the person is in the meeting but has not yet found out they are being let go has been SOP for at least the last 20 years

Is this specific to US culture? And what about your work environment makes it such a risk? Where people are laid off here (Norway), they're still employed by law for 3 months. Most companies don't force you to work all that time, but it's pretty common to finish up your tasks, do offboarding etc for a few weeks. Never considered it an issue. Maybe it's a high trust society thing?

It is common in the UK for people in certain jobs. I think the commonest reason is to make it harder for them to take clients with them.

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#395

Post by pjc50 »

stogot wrote: post #269
mpyne wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The three years of ESU exists only for organisations like government departments that would rather pay Microsoft millions of dollars for patches than pay a competitive wage and hire competent IT staff that can complete upgrade projects on time. I'm not going to say the wages are fine but the issue is likely not to be the competence of the IT staff, but rather the overbearing IT management processes the U.S. Federal…

I wonder how foreign governments do it? Better or worse

They hire US-based technology companies who fail in the exact same way.

(rare exception: Gov.uk government digital services; while they're not used for all projects, they are exactly the sort of committed and competent public servants we need more of)

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#397

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

cubefox wrote: post #353
ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you personally believe there is a positive correlation between having an ethnic background (mexican or middle eastern or whatever) and doing bad things, I can't control your beliefs still pretty gross of you though

Beliefs can't be "gross", they can only be true or false, justified or unjustified. There is no such thing as a morally wrong belief. That would be the confusion between fact and value.

> Beliefs can't be "gross"

of course they can, like believing that mexican people are inferior or something – gross

> they can only be true or false, justified or unjustified

this is incorrect

> There is no such thing as a morally wrong belief

this is also incorrect

> That would be the confusion between fact and value.

this, too, is incorrect

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#398

Post by thelastgallon »

paulpauper wrote: post #63
soVeryTired wrote: post #44

> On March 12, 2025, a search warrant was executed at Sohaib’s home in Alexandria. Agents grabbed plenty of tech gear but also turned up seven firearms and 370 rounds of .30 caliber ammunition. Given his former crimes, Sohaib should have had none of this. For god's sake, don't commit crimes while you're committing crimes.

Only commit one crime at a time

There should be a law against committing multiple crimes at the same time.

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#399

Post by kuerbel »

weberer wrote: post #364
ninalanyon wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the employer behaviour described in such gleeful terms here would be outright illegal in most of Europe and open up the employer to risk of being sued for wrongful dismissal, etc.

Eh, there are ways around that. I've worked for multiple Finnish companies that do layoffs via "lomautus" whereby they put the laid-off employees on a forced, unpaid, indefinite leave. After multiple months of not receiving a paycheck, the employees inevitably "resign".

In Germany that's forbidden, you'd have to pay them.

But you can be placed in a room/office with no windows (not the OS), a computer without internet access and nothing to do. How long can you go on like that?

The law, sadly, can't forbid asshole employers.

Re: Twin brothers wipe 96 government databases minutes after being fired

#400

Post by alistairSH »

So many things wrong in that article. The first thing that struck me was the theft of another user's password. So, their employers (or the system they manage) keeps plain-text passwords in the database AND doesn't have any MFA in place? What the actual fuck? These seems like real assholes, but that whole company needs to be burned to the ground.
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