Army Sergeant Admits Stealing Identities From Military System

COLUMBUS, GA – Ammie Brothers, a 29-year-old U.S. Army sergeant stationed in Columbus, Georgia, has admitted to a cold-blooded breach of trust, pleading guilty to pilfering sensitive personal information from the Army’s own computer system. The scheme, spanning over two years, exposed the private lives of fellow soldiers and potentially put them at risk of financial ruin.

The Justice Department announced the guilty plea today, a result of a joint investigation led by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman, U.S. Attorneys Neil H. MacBride (Eastern District of Virginia) and Michael J. Moore (Middle District of Georgia), and Director Daniel T. Andrews of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit. Brothers entered her plea before U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Columbus.

According to court documents, between April 24, 2009, and October 5, 2011, Brothers repeatedly hacked into the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) accounts of two victims. The AKO system holds confidential personnel files for all members of the armed forces. She gained initial access by posing as the victims and calling the AKO help desk, successfully obtaining temporary passwords by providing their Social Security numbers and dates of birth. It’s a disturbingly simple tactic that exploited a known vulnerability.

A search of Brothers’ Columbus home turned up a trove of stolen data – printed documents ripped from the AKO system containing victims’ Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and employment histories. The haul even included the Social Security number of one minor child. But the theft wasn’t the end of it. Brothers confessed to repeatedly harassing the victims by phone and illegally accessing one victim’s credit card accounts, racking up unauthorized charges.

Brothers was originally charged on February 14, 2013, in a five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia. She pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to information from a U.S. Army computer system. The prosecution, handled by Trial Attorney Peter V. Roman, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Kelly, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Crawford L. Seals, will seek a maximum sentence of five years in prison at the October 24, 2013, sentencing hearing.

This case serves as a stark reminder that even those sworn to protect can become predators. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit deserves credit for uncovering this betrayal. For inquiries, contact The Office Of Public Affairs at 202-514-2007 or Sue McKinney, Public Affairs Specialist, United States Attorney’s Office at (478) 621-2602.