Federal Cybersecurity and Hacking

Nicholas Moore, 24, of Springfield, Tennessee, pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 16, 2026, to a misdemeanor computer‑fraud charge for repeatedly hacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic filing system and accessing other federal systems with stolen credentials. Prosecutors say that in 2023 he used someone else’s login to get into the Court’s filing system on 25 different days, pulled that person’s personal records, and then posted their information on an Instagram account labeled “@ihackedthegovernment.” Moore also admitted using stolen credentials to access a user’s personal data on AmeriCorps’ servers and a Marine Corps veteran’s MyHealtheVet account at the Department of Veterans Affairs, again posting screenshots of what he found on the same Instagram page. He faces up to one year in prison when U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sentences him on April 17, underscoring both the vulnerability of federal judicial and benefits platforms to credential theft and the relatively light maximum penalty attached to the misdemeanor count. The case comes as federal courts and agencies are under growing pressure to harden their online systems against low‑tech intrusions that can still compromise highly sensitive personal information.