Two ex U.S Navy officials face criminal charges of accessing and leaking confidential information of over 9000 individuals in return for cryptocurrency. The two were arrested and are expected to be arraigned in a court of law for the federal offense.
The two, who are a married couple, sold the confidential information over the dark web to exchange digital currencies. The two acquired confidential information through abuse of power. They forged a letter from a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier’s commander to execute their ill acts conveniently, among other offenses.
The culprits have been identified as Marquis Hooper and Natasha Chalk. Together they are facing federal charges for impersonation and a scheme to commit wire fraud.
The couple has previously had access to peoples’ confidential information due to their nature of work. In the year 2008-2018, Marquis Hooper worked as a serviceman. He has also worked in Japan as an information security manager on the Navy’s Seventh Fleet. Natasha Chalk, on the other hand, is a reservist at the Naval Air Station Lemoore.
According to court reports, the couple was paid over $160,000 worth of cryptocurrencies by the buyers. They acquired confidential information from a private database. As a remedy, the authorities will take back any asset acquired from the earnings of the sale of the personal information in the case.
Background information on the charges
According to court files dated August 2018, the plaintiff, Hooper, took advantage of his position to gain access to a private database referred to as Company #1. The database contained confidential information only accessible to authorized government officials and used for government purposes only. Contrary to this restriction, the couple intruded into the database, accessed the personal information, and later leaked it for financial benefits.
Consequently, the couple exposed more than 9000 individuals’ confidential information to third parties. Using the information already acquired, they attempted to log in to the complainants’ bank accounts.
The complainant locked the couple out of their database. This compelled the couple to look for an alternative way of re-accessing the database. Thus, they impersonated George Washington, the Commanding Officer of the USS, and signed a fake letter requesting access to the information.
