Muneeb Akhter failed at the first, and arguably most important, test of being a criminal mastermind—do not tell people enthusiastically about being a criminal mastermind.
Akhter admitted in a sworn statement that he had used his prodigious talents as a hacker to break into retail sites like Startbucks or WholeFoods, and use a code he created to load value onto branded gift cards that he had not paid for.
The George Mason graduate took an ordinary Whole Food $25 card, for example, and upped its holdings to $300.
He was caught because he bragged about his activities to a co-worker at the cyber-security firm where he had landed a job.
“I told my co-worker I used to own my own company and we were doing attacks against smart cards, gift cards and those things,” Akhter said in an interview with NBC4, reports InTheCapital. “I had a few gift cards with me and I showed him the gift cards and said ‘I know how to reload them for free.'”
More horrified than impressed, Akhter’s co-worker reported him to a manager and by July the young programmer found himself face to face with a gaggle of Homeland Security and Secret Service agents with a warrant to search his electronics.
Akhter, despite the fact that he faces jail times, seems laid back about his fate.
“I’ve heard stories of a lot of other hackers who have had similar experiences so I don’t think it’s a big deal,” he explained. “They should be more worried about what the tool can do if a malicious actor took it.”
Akhter defended his actions by noting he didn’t use the gift cards and this hacking was exploratory so that he could market his security company. Akhter notes his interest is in helping companies avoid these kinds of hacks, not in actually profiting from them directly. He has not yet been formally charged with a crime.
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