January 29, 2024 at 10:38AM
Three former DHS employees were sentenced for stealing government software and databases with personal data of 200,000 federal employees. Charles K. Edwards received 1.5 years in prison, Sonal Patel was sentenced to 2 years of probation, and Murali Y. Venkata received 4 months in prison. They shared the stolen assets with Indian software developers.
Summary of Meeting Notes:
Three former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees have been sentenced for stealing proprietary U.S. government software and databases, containing personal data of 200,000 federal employees. Charles K. Edwards, former Acting Inspector General of the DHS Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG), was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. Sonal Patel, a member of the department IT staff, was sentenced to 2 years of probation, while Murali Y. Venkata, also from the IT department, was sentenced to 4 months in prison.
They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft of government property, defraud the United States, and theft of government property between 2019 and 2022. The stolen assets were shared with India-based software developers to develop a similar commercial product for sale to government agencies. One of the databases contained personally identifiable information (PII) on 200,000 federal employees. Venkata attempted to delete incriminating evidence and obstruct the investigation when he learned about it.
It’s unclear if U.S. law enforcement will pursue the Indian developers involved in the case to secure the data and prevent its dissemination. Given the time that has passed, any measures may be deemed futile.
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