Tennessee man dodges prison after bragging about government hacks on Instagram

Nicholas Moore, 25, received one year of probation after pleading guilty to repeatedly accessing user accounts on the US Supreme Court’s electronic filing system, AmeriCorps, and the Veterans Administration Health System using stolen credentials. Between August and October 2023, he posted screenshots of victims’ personal information to an Instagram account branded @ihackedthegovernment. The source of the stolen credentials was never disclosed.

Prosecutors declined to seek prison time, citing Moore’s long-term disabilities and mental health needs, and asked only for 36 months of probation. US District Judge Beryl Howell instead imposed a single year. Moore told the court he had made a mistake and wanted to be a good citizen.

The case sits at the intersection of weak credential hygiene across federal systems and the reliably self-defeating behavior of an attacker who documented his own intrusions on a public social account. Breaching the Supreme Court’s filing system at least 25 times drew a misdemeanor charge carrying up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine — a sentencing ceiling that tells you how the federal code continues to treat credential-based unauthorized access to judicial infrastructure.