Hacker Confesses to Leaking Supreme Court Data on Instagram
▼ Summary
– Nicholas Moore, a 24-year-old from Tennessee, pleaded guilty to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic filing system and breaching accounts at AmeriCorps and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
– He accessed the Supreme Court’s restricted system at least 25 times over several months in 2023 using stolen credentials, sometimes logging in multiple times a day.
– Moore publicly bragged about the breaches on an Instagram account, posting screenshots containing victims’ names and sensitive details from the Supreme Court and AmeriCorps systems.
– He also used stolen credentials to access a veteran’s private health information via the VA’s portal and posted that data online.
– Moore confessed to a misdemeanor count of computer fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
A Tennessee man has admitted to a series of cyber intrusions targeting sensitive federal systems, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic filing platform. Nicholas Moore, a 24-year-old from Springfield, pleaded guilty to computer fraud after investigators detailed a campaign where he repeatedly accessed restricted government databases and then publicly boasted about the breaches on social media.
According to federal prosecutors, Moore infiltrated the Supreme Court’s electronic filing system on at least 25 separate occasions over a three-month period in 2023. He used stolen login credentials to gain entry, sometimes logging in multiple times in a single day. The Justice Department stated that Moore did not keep his activities secret; he posted screenshots from the Supreme Court account to an Instagram profile named @ihackedthegovernment. These posts revealed a victim’s name and specific details from the confidential filing system.
His activities extended beyond the judiciary. Using compromised credentials from the MyAmeriCorps portal, Moore accessed an AmeriCorps account seven times. From these breaches, he extracted a trove of personal data, including an individual’s full name, date of birth, contact information, citizenship and veteran status, service history, and partial Social Security number. This sensitive information was also leaked on his Instagram account.
Furthermore, Moore used login details stolen from a U.S. Marine Corps veteran to illegally enter the Department of Veterans Affairs’ My HealtheVet portal five times. This health record system is part of the nation’s largest integrated health care network. The intrusion granted him access to the veteran’s private medical information, including prescribed medications. Prosecutors noted in court documents that Moore again posted this confidential health data online, boasting about his access to VA servers.
Moore confessed to a single misdemeanor count of computer fraud. The charge carries a potential maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. His case highlights the ongoing vulnerabilities in federal digital infrastructure and the audacity of some threat actors who document their crimes online.
(Source: Bleeping Computer)
