Virginia brothers arrested for allegedly tampering with government databases
By Sam Sabin, Axios, Dec. 3, 2025
The Justice Department arrested Virginia-based twin brothers who formerly worked at a federal contractor on Wednesday for their alleged roles in deleting government databases.
Why it matters: The arrests are connected to one of the most bizarre insider threat cases the U.S. government has experienced in years.
Driving the news: Federal law enforcement arrested Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, 34, for their alleged roles in compromising or deleting dozens of government databases in February.
The arrests follow a Bloomberg investigation published in May detailing how the brothers allegedly compromised data across several agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the General Services Administration.
The intrigue: The brothers pled guilty in 2015 to federal charges tied to data breaches at the U.S. State Department and a cosmetics company.
They both served years-long prison sentences before getting jobs as engineers for Opexus, a federal contractor that helps process U.S. government records.
Opexus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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