Maybe you just think in the wrong words. Attack? Why attack? When you are a machine, there is no moral. Accessing data is accessing data. When way 1 is not working, use way 2.

But the agents were not just attempting to access data. They conspired together to attempt to cover up evidence that they had cheated their evaluations, came up with a plan to hack into a third party in order to facilitate said cover up, and then successfully began executing that plan.