WASHINGTON – Five US Congress employees of Pakistani origin have beenaccused and held accountable for stealing data from US Congress’ officialservers.
The investigations began last year after the US Congress found that datahad being stolen from their internal systems.——————————
The investigation revealed that these five individuals broke into theservers and accessed confidential data.
The data removal they carried out was not authorized. It is believed thatthe accused moved the compromised data somewhere else.
These individuals were hired by the US Congress to provide technical ITsupport services. This role also allowed them access to confidential datasuch as emails.
The investigators said,
Five shared employee system administrators have collectively logged into15-member offices and the Democratic Caucus although they were not employedby the offices they accessed. The presentation was written by the House’Office of the Inspector General, and found indications that a House serverwas used for nefarious purposes and elevated the risk that individualscould be reading and/or removing information. One system administratorlogged into a member’s office two months after he was terminated from thatoffice.
During September 2016, shared employee administrators continued to useDemocratic Caucus computers in anomalous ways. They:
– logged onto laptop as system administrator; – changed identity and logged onto Democratic Caucus server using 17 other user account credentials; – accessed some credentials that belonged to members; – accessed 9 offices to which the employee wasn’t working for.
The Accused
The five employees which were charged with accessing sensitive informationinclude:
– a couple, Imran Awam and Hina Alvi, – Imran’s brothers Jamal and Abid, – Rao Abbas, Imran’s friend.
The team has been indicted by a federal court and charged for being part ofan anti-United States conspiracy.
Defendants Awan and Alvi did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly conspire,combine, confederate, and agree with each other to commit offenses againstthe United States.
A statement released in February 2017 by the Committee on HousingAdministration chairman declared,
House officials became aware of suspicious activity and alleged theftcommitted by certain House IT support staff. An internal investigationdetermined that a number of House policies and procedures had beenviolated. This information was turned over to the United States CapitolPolice and their investigation is going on.
These employees have been blocked from accessing House systems. All officesimpacted have been contacted. No further comment will be issued until theinvestigation is complete.
According to the investigators, every Intelligence, House and ForeignAffairs Committee member’s computer was vulnerable. These individuals wereable to access these computers which contained sensitive and vitaldocuments relating to the United States and its international affairs.
Since 2009, it is believed that these 5 individuals have collected millionsof dollars in wages paid by several Congress members since.
Every Congress member except Debbie Wasserman Schultz suspended the team’sservices after the investigation. One media report mentioned thatCongresswoman Schultz enjoyed a “friendly personal relationship” with thecouple.
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