Feds Bust Cable Modem Hacker
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Cable, Modem, Hacker, FBI, Oregon | Themes: The Internet, Business
Take note: never hack a cable modem.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston said yesterday that an Oregon man was arrested on charges of developing and distributing cable network hacking tools. Twenty-six-year-old Ryan Harris of Redmond, Oregon, along with his company TCNISO, is accused of developing and distributing products that allow users to modify their cable modems to receive Internet connection without paying for the service.
According to the report, the illegal activity endured from 2003 to 2009. TCNISO, under Harris's direction, developed and distributed hardware and software tools to its customers. The modified cable modems appeared on ISP networks without authorization as legitimate, paying customers. Ultimately, TCNISO's customers received premium high-speed Internet access without paying the monthly fee.
"The Indictment also charges that TCNISO and HARRIS offered ongoing customer support, primarily through forums that it hosted on the TCNISO website, to assist customers in their cable modem hacking activities," the FBI reports.
Harris was charged in a six-count indictment with conspiracy, computer intrusion, and wire fraud. If convicted, Harris will face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, followed by a 3-year supervised release. Harris will also face a $250,000 fine and restitution on each count. Harris was originally charged on August 16, but wasn't arrested until October 23.
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Excessive punishment. Punishable offense though...
Stupid punishments... really stupid. People who kill one another don't even get this crazy amount of time and bonds/fines!
Can we use this as proof that the US ISPs are gimping service for no reason since the boosted users didn't bog down other users internet?
Stop capping us and we won't need to hack!
Can we use this as proof that the US ISPs are gimping service for no reason since the boosted users didn't bog down other users internet?
Thank you! I thought this as well.
Bad logic guys. One or two users doing this in a neighborhood won't make a big impact with an uncapped modem. Now if twenty or thirty users on a node did this, yes it would make a difference and you can bet the cable company would report them and shut off their service.
So when someone uses a hack modem to hijack your ISP account ... does that then kick your modem off the network?
Wow... I need to get one of these...
Thinking about upgrading to a 15 megabit down and 1 megabit up form my ISP... it's only $45 (with bundle, $54 without)... as compared to $35 for my 7.4/0.5mrgabit down/up...
But I'd love 100 megabit service. =D
Remember we used to fool our satellite dish for every channel for free... those were the days... (back when my mother knew more about tech than I did, and I didn't know how to remove the lock on 'adult' channels).
yeah ... only in america ... land of the free and ... um ... what was the other thing ?
Can we use this as proof that the US ISPs are gimping service for no reason since the boosted users didn't bog down other users internet?
Thank you! I thought this as well.
This doesn't mean that at all... The way you guys jump to conclusions borders scary. How do you even know the other users speeds weren't affected? Mayeb a complaint started it all. Please attempt to THINK.
yeah ... only in america ... land of the free and ... um ... what was the other thing ?
The greedy?
He could have just copied a sponge bob dvd and gotten the same fine with less attention. How stupid is our judges and whacked out system
What I never understand is that other countries like China can hack our country at will and even have tons of sites and tutorials encouraging others to hack places like the USA without any penalty.They can break into government systems, steal, plant malware and ddos our websites etc but some guy in the USA gets hacks to get some free internet and he is treated like a murderer. I mean yes he should be punished for breaking the law but come on, they should be using eye for an eye here not eye for a body.
Thats crazy, one of my friends in Boston does this as well, I bet he got allot of his information from the TCNISO website...I would tell him over AIM, but he isn't online.......uh oh
Dumb ass should have left the country.
Excessive punishment. Punishable offense though...
Punishable, but ISPs stop bending us over and ramming a screw driver up our asses for "reliable" internet that doesn't get throttled, capped, and so offer faster speeds at more responsible prices, so the bandwidth toggle isn't an issue.
Excessive punishment. Punishable offense though...
True...true, killers usually get about that.
True...true, killers usually get about that.
Yeah, exactly! Here's an idea... why don't these FEDs and other law enforcement agencies go after real criminals? Gangs are a huge and ever-expanding problem in our country. They are responsible for murders, rapes, human trafficing, drug trafficing, various other violent crimes as well as just random acts of violence. How about we make some progress on that front, and then get back to the guy hacking his cable modem a little later.
Codesmith, to answer your question: no. You need to get a hold of a mac from another CMTS from that provider typically. The cable providers can actually track you down, but it's fairly difficult, especially if you change your cloned mac once a day or whatever and don't just go uncapped. They would be able to tell which of the two macs is legit and then find the cmts/upstream combination and then get a field tech to pull legs off of that upstream until your hacked modem dropped. This would narrow the scope and they would keep going until they got your pedastal. They would unplug each wire from the ped until they found the one going to your house. This type of work would not be done during the day, as each upstream would have from 50-250 users, so if you turned your hacked modem off at night this would also screw them.
Dumb ass should have left the country.
what was the point of u posting that?
Modifying or replacing firmware is not uncommon amongst the technically savvy. It seems kind of foolish for the cable company to use the bridging device to regulate the available bandwidth. That's something that should be handled on their end. Ideally a subscriber should be able to use any capable device for routing/bridging without bypassing service restrictions.
US America - The big lie of freedom and justice.
-You will only get justice if you can pay for it!
If only this were a joke.
20 years for "stealing" cable? He only could've gotten more time if they also caught him snorting kiddie porn on the back of one of his hacked cable modems. Wait sometimes serial killers get more than 20 right?
Outrageous in how the punishment and the crime don't quite jive. No reasonable American judge will let this stand.