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Feds Bust Cable Modem Hacker
Several readers noted the indictment of hardware hacker Ryan Harris, known as DerEngel. Harris wrote the 2006 book Hacking the Cable Modem, explaining how to get upgraded speed or even free Internet service by bypassing the firmware locks on Motorola Surfboard modems. He has run a profitable business at tcniso.net since 2003, selling unlocked cable modems. (The site is now offline.) Harris has been charged with conspiracy, aiding and abetting computer intrusion, and wire fraud. Wired quotes Harris's reaction: "I read the indictment — it's complete bull****. I'll tell you right now I'm not going to plead guilty."
I didn't RTFA. If I read the summary right, ya may be he can be charged with DMCA, Copyright violation or those stuff .But "conspiracy, aiding and abetting computer intrusion, and wire fraud"? WTF is that!
It's like charging gunmaker with murder.
After reading the article (yeah, I'm new here), he was selling modems and it appears he wasn't moderating the forums properly. People were discussing how to steal other people's connections on their forums.
Gun sellers have powerful lobbyists on their payroll guaranteeing that the government will not interfere with their profits.
Who cares? The powers our government have assumed for themselves in the name of "fighting the War on Terrorism" won't be given up even if they catch "Terrorist #1" Osama.
Osama is more useful to power-hungry US politicians when he is free to roam than dead or captured.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
i buy it its mine if your going to put me in jail remember thats 40-60K a year to incarcerate and i guarantee you ill do this again and again.
AND i'll teach every damn criminal i can while in there MUHAHAHAHAHA
might just teach em more too
might as well everyone join the gangs after all WERE ALL CRIMINALS NOW
imagine if this shit were applied to cars trucks and lets say i dunno
harley davidsons OMG REVOLUTION
What has the DMCA got to do with this case?
Fran
:):):)
1st 1st Poster of the new Millennium!
As it is, when we have thieves in suits on Wall Street bleeding us dry like giant money-sucking leaches, contractors in war zones raping their employees and getting our soldiers killed, terrorists trying to infiltrate our borders and THIS is what federal prosecutors are doing with their time? Some joker modifying cable modems. You gotta be f'ing kidding me.
What makes you think that the government is only targeting these cases and completely ignoring the others you mentioned?
I never really understand the argument where there are more important things for such and such to be doing. There what tens of thousands of federal prosecutors in this country? More workers than work if you ask me... hmm... sounds like an economical fact.
And the argument that just because (fill in the blank) is going on and is much more serious, we shouldn't prosecuted lesser crimes...well, that's not exactly logical or desirable either.
Take the shoplifter I mentioned earlier, just because we have bank robberies going on, does that mean police shouldn't arrest shoplifters? If it was my music store, I'd sure as hell be angry and raising hell at City Hall if the local police said that to me.
Now, do I think they should trick them into incriminating themselves for more serious charges just to pad felony arrest numbers?
Absolutely not.
This IS a crime. It's defrauding the cable company by telling the CMTS to let you online when it shouldn't. I'm surprised it took this long to find him, TBH.
I can compromise an ATM machine with a crowbar, does that make ATMs open targets? No.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I looked over the article, and now I'm curious. The Slashdot crowd usually sides with the techie on incidents like this, but is it really justified here? The popular analogy here is that it's akin to charging gun manufacturers with murder. Guns have legitimate uses, such as hunting, or protection. What legitimate use does a modem hacked/modified to access an ISP's services without permission have? A better analogy here would be a gun manufacturer who sells a gun, a kit to turn the gun into an automatic weapon, and detailed instructions on how to get past the security of a specific bank. You can argue that the gun wasn't sold with the intent to facilitate a robbery, but you can't do it with a straight face.
Of course, I'm open-minded, so someone prove me wrong - tell me what legitimate uses these modified modems have. (Caveat: the use Harris suggested in the article won't fly, unless you can give some very good reasons as to why an ISP wouldn't simply use their own diagnostic gear.)
Completely irrelevant examples. The car was capable of it, and you are not stealing anything by modifying it. This is so obviously not on point, it is almost silly. Utility example is the same. As long as you are paying for what you use, there is no stealing of water resulting from you doing your own work. You really need to stay on point.
Emmanuel Goldstein would agree
that make American prisons hell holes that would shame a 3rd world country.
I wouldn't be surprised if following your advice is a quick way to get killed, and deserve it too. You don't know who has friends when you walk in, do you? Or who is badder than they look.
Modifying equipment to get a higher level of service than was paid for is, in fact, stealing. Morally and legally.
Uh, no. Modifying equipment is not stealing, especially when its your own damn property.
Using that equipment to steal is stealing.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Seriously, make slum lords live in their buildings, make the banksters who did the fraudulent mortgages...
Make Make Make Make MAKE!!!
All arguments for a nanny state. Consider the following:
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have" - Thomas Jefferson
"Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it." - Henry David Thoreau
Be careful what you wish for, or they will be coming for YOU soon. The problem is people wanting the government to MAKE other people do things. The solution is having people with sound ethics and principles, so that no one has to MAKE anyone do anything. This is called parenting, or raising your children properly. However it's a dying art, and we're left with half of the population of spoiled brats screaming for a government that will MAKE the other half of the population who are also spoiled brats do "x". What you will end up with in reality is a huge government that will MAKE everyone broke and oppressed, until the next revolution. History is full of these cycles, and people never learn. The collapse of a country is always preceded by a moral collapse.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Nothing other than it's one of Slashdot's favorite boogiemen and thus a good way to get excellent karma.
More accurately:
Car analogy.
You go to the gas station. You go inside and pay for $20 in gas. You go back to the pump, and modify it to give you $40 in gas instead.
Utility analogy.
The water company installs a meter at your house, to keep track of the water you use and charge you for it. You modify the meter to only report half of what you use.
Really, if you're going to use bad analogies, at least try to make them remotely accurate.
Does this mean aftermarket alterations to my vehicle should be illegal too?
Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
He says that the telcos bought some of his hacked modems to use as test/diagnostic equipment. If he has invoices and receipts, then he may have a legit defense.
As a lawyer I'd be interested in hearing what kind of defence that might raise. You never know, I might be able to use it sometime. ;)
Why would they (service personnel) want hacked modems?
That question is not relevant to the idictment against Ryan. You wouldn't be able to ask it.
So you're saying I should be free to enact the punishment of my own choosing instead? No need for the "rule of law" at that point, right? I'll just make it up as I go along.
I think most people would object to that sort of free-for-all.
Society bands together to protect itself, not just from those outside, but from those inside who choose to harm its' members. So, contrary to your assertion, we should punish people who don't have half-decent ethical restraints . We SHOULD make them suffer the consequences of their actions, so that, if their own ethical compass remains defective, at least the threat of punishment might be a deterent to recidivism.
So yes, if you don't pick up your dog shit, your front lawn SHOULD be turned into a public doggie comfort station, and you SHOULD have to pick up a MASSIVE AMOUNT of dog shit, so that maybe net time, you'll get your shit together and won't let your dog shit on other people's lawns.
If they happen to tear the road up more than others, then yes, they would be illegal.
For a more accurate analogy however, if your alterations somehow caused you to stop paying taxes for the roads, then yes, that would too be illegal.
Simply put, he sold something that sole purpose was to break the law, then yes, that (should) be illegal.
Rapist? We have some mine fields we need mapped out.
Your punishment is a bit too harsh. It's way too easy to become a "rapist"/convicted sex offender in this country; even if you never raped anyone.
Simple - he's then in a position to prove his claim that he's a legitimate supplier of legitimate goods, as acknowledged by experts in the industry purchasing and using his equipment.
Example:
Your client is arrested and charged with being in the possession of tools to facilitate crime, specifically a pry bar, which is used by burglars, and a body dent puller, which is used by car thieves to pop car locks. Also, a mask with filters, so he's also suspected of terrorism.
Your client then produces multiple invoices showing that he owns and runs a legitimate automotive garage, and those are just common tools of the trade - and the mask is OSHA-mandated safety equipment for anyone using a paint booth.
Heck, in Texas it's illegal to walk around with a pair of wire cutters in your back pocket - "might be used for cattle rustling." So what are they going to do - arrest electricians on house calls? They're in violation of the law, but the application of the law doesn't make sense in that context. Electricians need wire cutters.
In this case, though, he also posted a notice asking for a MAC address for a specific network. The operator of a network buying test equipment would already have these. That's an indication he's guilty, at the very least, in one specific case. He'll be smart to squawk loudly as a tactic to get a plea bargain, and that's what he's doing.
Thank you.
Please mod this guy up.
However, is the equipment provided to you by Comcast *your* property?, if it is (or if you bought a "premoded" one then there is no problem.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Ok for one, the FBI is not the agency that would be going after Osama. The FBI is the federal government's primary police force. As a police force, they are concerned with domestic matters. They deal with things inside the US. They do not chase people in other countries, they don't have any jurisdiction there. To the extent they operate at all in foreign countries, it is as legal attaches and such to give advice and support to local law enforcement.
Second, while this may be an alien concept to single-minded geeks, people and most especially organizations/agencies can and do work on more than one thing at one. Just because a group is working on X does not mean they cannot also be working on Y. You want this, particularly in the case of law enforcement. I mean my local police force has unsolved murders, a couple quite old. However I do not want them devoting 100% of their assets to that. I am glad they also spend time looking at current burglaries, assaults, and even simple things like directing traffic when a traffic light breaks. Just because there's an open murder case doesn't mean I want them ignoring all their other duties.
Finally, it may amaze you to learn this, but there are plenty of places hostile to America that someone might hide. When the people there don't like the US, and when it is completely and totally outside of the US's jurisdiction, it makes it real hard to do anything there. It isn't as though Bin Laden (if he's even still alive, guy may well have died of kidney failure) is sitting in a house in New York. He's hiding in a Muslim area in a country that doesn't much care for the US, and probably who's central government doesn't have good control of things. Can't just walk over there with an arrest warrant.
If anyone starts looking for these, keep in mind that there are two types of license-plate obscuring devices: those that are illegal, and those that don't work.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Offering "rewards" for a verified MAC address in a given region suggests he knew exactly what it was going to be used for, and he was making money off of it. That certainly nails him for aiding and abetting. Even if some of the other charges are bogus, he's hardly an innocent victim.