Man Gets 10 Years For VoIP Hacking

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Man Gets 10 Years For VoIP Hacking

Posted by timothy on Monday September 27, 2010 @12:08AM from the just-think-what-that-is-in-minutes dept.

angry tapir writes "A US court has sentenced a Venezuelan man to 10 years in prison for stealing and then reselling more than 10 million minutes of Internet phone service. Edwin Pena, 27, was convicted in February of masterminding a scheme to hack into more than 15 telecommunications companies and then reroute calls to their networks at no charge. He must also pay more than US$1 million in restitution, and will be deported once his sentence is served."

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Free calls by fvandrog · 2010-09-27 00:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Free calls for all US prisoners shortly.
1. Re:Free calls by thynk · 2010-09-27 00:48 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  and if those were txt messages, it would hold my teen daughter over through at least 6 months.
  
  --
  
  Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
2. Re:Free calls by Wansu · 2010-09-27 02:57 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  More bars in more places ...
  
  --
  Wansu, th' chinese sailor
Stupid criminal... by ProdigyPuNk · 2010-09-27 00:13 · Score: 4, Funny

Pena is the first person to be charged by U.S. authorities with VoIP hacking, but he almost avoided prosecution. He skipped bail after his arrest, and was only captured after his Mexican girlfriend turned him in in early 2009.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. NEVER, EVER let your girlfriend know what is going on if you are commiting crimes/running from the law/etc. It gets you in trouble every time.
1. Re:Stupid criminal... by delinear · 2010-09-27 00:19 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I've said it before and I'll say it again. NEVER, EVER let your girlfriend know what is going on. It gets you in trouble every time.
  FTFY
2. Re:Stupid criminal... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-27 00:32 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Most slashdotters won't ever be in that situation. (They never commit any crimes)
3. Re:Stupid criminal... by Vanderhoth · 2010-09-27 00:48 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Sure compromise is good but what difference does it make whether I take the trash out "RIGHT NOW honey!" or if I wait until tomorrow morning as I'm headed-out to work?
  The difference is if I take it out "Right Now honey!", she can clean up the mess the raccoons, stray dogs and crows make of it over night.
  
  That gets me out of having to take it out until the next morning.
  
  Normally my wife and I don't argue about stuff, but when she becomes overly insistent something needs to be done right away, or in a very specific way, I'll either give her the yes dear and do it my way anyway or I'll do it her way and make her deal with the consequences. Sometimes she's right and I'm wrong or she's just lucky, but she's pretty well learned if she's going to argue with me instead of doing something herself she had better have a logical argument for it. Like wise, I've learned most of the time it's not worth arguing with her.
  
  I still wouldn't tell her if I was on the run. She'd probably turn me in for not taking the trash out when she told me to.
4. Re:Stupid criminal... by PoissonPilote · 2010-09-27 02:41 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  This man is the true gentleman of our modern times.
5. Re:Stupid criminal... by Vanderhoth · 2010-09-27 03:39 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Better to be married, having regular sex and be happy then to be single and happy. :)
  
  My wife is very good to me for the most part. Sometimes she does get on my nerves when she pesters me to get things done and I wish she'd spend more time doing whatever it is she's spending the time insisting I need to do, but for the most part she gives me time to do my own thing, and really is only asking/reminding me to do my part. I get distracted and often put off doing chores so I can program, draw, work on a 3D model, do some word working, etc...
  
  My wife is my best friend, she's hot, I enjoy her company and the sex is great... And she's a massage therapist so it's not hard to forgive her when she's being a "Mother Hen". Besides pretty soon we'll have kids and she can use all that time, energy and training she spent on me to pester them instead.
6. Re:Stupid criminal... by Vanderhoth · 2010-09-27 05:06 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  More proof men are turning into submissive women.
  And by that you really mean your bitter that your Mother/girl friend/wife/female boss/little sister orders you around and instead of seeing an successful/assertive women, you'd prefer to do what you're told and bitch about them behind their backs?
  
  My wife does what I ask her because I respect her and do what she asks. Relationships are a two way street. Good luck getting in one.
Interesting criminal justice system in the US by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-27 00:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

Spend money 'punishing' him and then immediately deport him. Rehabilitation seems to have no meaning there.
1. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by ProdigyPuNk · 2010-09-27 00:19 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  There's millions of people that WANT to be in this country. Why would we want to keep those whom have already shown themselves to be criminals?
2. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by CrashandDie · 2010-09-27 00:31 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Then why bother spending some $800k on him in the first place if he's not wanted? So the next country gets a nice guy? Yeah. Right.
  Either give him a few years and make a good citizen out of him, or kick him out of the country. Doing both is just plain stupid.
3. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by commodore64_love · 2010-09-27 00:46 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Do you think the EU would have handled it any differently? I don't. They deport people all the time.
  I think the sentence is okay but excessive. 10 million minutes times 0.01 per minute (wholsesale) == $100,000 damage to the company. Ten years for stealing such a small amount of money is ridiculous, as is the extra 1 million fine on top of it. The CEOs stole 1,000,000 times that amount from US taxpayers and get no punishment.
  
  --
  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
4. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by kevinNCSU · 2010-09-27 00:51 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Maybe because "Come to our country, commit crimes, and simply get asked nicely to leave" isn't a sign we're interested in putting up? It's called a penal system for a reason. Rehabilitation has always been a tertiary goal behind punishment and deterrence. That doesn't mean it's not important, but you're acting like it's the entire point of a prison sentence, which it absolutely is not.
5. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by nedlohs · 2010-09-27 00:56 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If you just kick him out then you've created a whole army of criminals.
  Someone needs killin', get a Mexican or Canadian across the border and have them kill them. If they gets caught they just gets sent home anyway - to sneak back across next time you need someone offed.
  Foreigners should get a free try at robbing Americans blind, if they get away with it then they are rich. If they get caught they just get sent home just as if they never tried in the first place.
  The prison system is not all about rehabilitation - there are at least three other components:
  1. Keeping dangerous people away from society at large - clearly not an issue here since deporting does the same thing.
  2. Deterring other people from doing the same thing by showing them the potential consequences - this clearly does apply here.
  3. Retribution - just plain punishing the criminal for the sake of punishing them.
  Different places have different emphasises on each element. Some leave some out entirely.
6. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by icebraining · 2010-09-27 01:14 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Why does US society owe this crook any damn thing?
  It's not about owing him anything. It's about releasing a someone who will repeat he's crimes or someone who won't. I know what I prefer.
  
  YOU want "rehabilitation"? Let's see what you say when a convicted but "rehabilitated" pedophile moves in next to you and your 4-year-old daughter.
  The pedophile will be released anyway. But I sure would prefer one that had psychological help and treatments to help prevent relapses than one who didn't.
  Besides, we're talking about someone who "hacked" a VoIP system, it's not exactly a violent criminal. Keeping him among violent criminals for 10 years will certainly make him so, though.
  
  --
  Dilbert RSS feed
7. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by nicolas.kassis · 2010-09-27 01:25 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  So what you are saying is that the prison system is a failure. I agree with that. The idea of rehabilitate people isn't bad it's how the system attempts (well they don't even try) to do it that is the issue.
8. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by petermgreen · 2010-09-27 01:26 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Really without knowing where the calls were going to it's not really possible to put a figure on the damage. If it's geographic numbers in the USA your figure is probbablly about right, if it's mobiles in caller pays countries it could easilly be ten time higher and if it's premium rate numbers, satphones or shithole countries it could be much higher still.
  
  --
  note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
9. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by c6gunner · 2010-09-27 01:56 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  That's wrong - deportations usually involve hearings, but not always, and they usually don't involve convictions.
10. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by kevinNCSU · 2010-09-27 02:14 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  A tertiary goal is still a goal. Like I said, it not that rehabilitation isn't important it's just not the entire point of a prison sentence. The GP I'm arguing with says we should just let the criminal go free since we're not going to keep him in our society. If the only point of prison was rehabilitation this would make sense. But punishment and deterrence have always been a factor is sentencing and as far as I'm concerned it should be.
  The fact that you don't want jail to be an "easy ride" makes me think that you agree, but maybe you're not comfortable admitting that we're punishing fellow human beings by taking their freedoms away and locking them in a little room. "Rehabilitation" sounds a lot more pleasant, you can sentence someone to a lot of years of that without even feeling guilty and that's why it's dangerous to think that's the central tenant of what we're doing now cause it ain't even close and never has been. Jail is serious punishment, and should not be taken lightly.
11. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by giorgist · 2010-09-27 02:16 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  What about ... let that be a lesson to all you from overseas. Otherwise ... why woudl you not cross the border and comit a crime ?
  You have nothing to worry about, they will just deport you
12. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by kevinNCSU · 2010-09-27 02:22 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I think that means it should never be applied to promote rehabilitation. As in, you shouldn't sentence someone to prison to rehabilitate them. This is 100% correct. If rehabilitation is your main goal you send them to counseling or some other form of actual rehab, not prison. Prison is for punishment.
  That being said, however; Once an offender IS in prison to serve his punishment he should still be offered a program or help to have a chance to be rehabilitated and functional member of society once his punishment duration is served. It's just he shouldn't be sent there for that express purpose.
13. Re:Interesting criminal justice system in the US by SethJohnson · 2010-09-27 03:21 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Prison has many purposes in our society.
  
  1) retribution: basically, punishment. The prisoner is paying his debt to society. This also acts as a catharsis for the prisoner himself.
  2) specific deterrence: The prisoner will think twice about committing another crime.
  3) general deterrence: others will think twice about committing crime when they see others being jailed for it.
  4) rehabilitation: so the prisoner can change his ways. Maybe he will learn skill for the outside world so that he need not turn to crime again.
  5) utilitarian: somply to keep the prisoner from committing more crimes.
  
  In this case, 2,3, and to some extent, 5 applies.
  
  Seth
  
  --
  $5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Why bother serving sentence? by danking · 2010-09-27 00:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

The one thing I don't understand is why have him actually serve his sentence? Doesn't this just cost people more money in the end. It may be worth while to have him stay until he has re-payed the $1 million, assuming he even has the ability to re-pay the money but why not just deport him right away.
1. Re:Why bother serving sentence? by delinear · 2010-09-27 00:27 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Well jail time is theoretically about rehabilitation, but in practice it's about deterrence. It wouldn't deter anyone from following in his footsteps if he was sent home without serving jail time (I think the $1m repayment part is just wishful thinking). Mind you, how do you rehabilitate someone whose crime is purely financial in a society that's largely focused on the pursuit of money, or prevent others copying him? In that case his "crime" was merely being caught, and every criminal assumes he's smarter than the last guy and won't get caught, so the effectiveness of such a sentence even as a deterent is doubtful.
2. Re:Why bother serving sentence? by petermgreen · 2010-09-27 02:16 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  We have had prisons for many years, yet people still commit crimes
  True enough but the real and largely unanswerable questions are
  1:How many more would commit crimes if there were no consequences to doing so?
  2:Is locking people up the best type of consequence to use for deterrance purposes?
  
  --
  note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Headline by jra · 2010-09-27 00:18 · Score: 2, Insightful

"Man gets 10 years for felony commercial theft of service".
There. FTFY.
No hacking involved here; nothing to see; move along.
Computer Fraud and Wire Fraud, Some Hacking by eldavojohn · 2010-09-27 00:28 · Score: 5, Informative

"Man gets 10 years for felony commercial theft of service".
I believe the actual charges were one count of computer fraud and one count of wire fraud. Which has a pretty serious maximum punishment.

There. FTFY.
No hacking involved here; nothing to see; move along.
Well, I don't know if I'd agree there was no hacking involved. It sounds like he used someone in Washington state named Moore to run port scans on all the big routers for VoIP hardware. Moore (serving two years) would then brute force attack these routers for login information. Pena dumped Moore twenty large and then acted as a salesman. After selling the phone service, Pena would reprogram the vulnerable networks so they would accept his rogue telephone traffic. Pena didn't seem to do much hacking, Moore was apparently just a brute force hacker that preyed on stupid VoIP companies who used four number prefixes as passwords.

I think the general public considers port scanning and brute force attacks to be hacking. At least the news reports it as such.

--
My work here is dung.
1. Re:Computer Fraud and Wire Fraud, Some Hacking by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-09-27 02:57 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I think the general public considers port scanning and brute force attacks to be hacking. At least the news reports it as such.
  You wouldn't?
  I mean it's the most surefire way to get into a system. May take a while but if you can set up an attack that no one notices, you've got all the time in the world to go work your job, spend time with the wife, work up that Alabi, etc etc.
  People have considered much less to be hacking. Some think that when you use social engineering to discover the answer to someone's secret question to access their twitter account that it's hacking... At least a port scan is something you wouldn't know about if you didn't at least have a basic understanding of how computer networks work.
Re:Got what he deserved by CrashandDie · 2010-09-27 00:34 · Score: 3, Insightful

Except for the fact that the US judiciary system fails, once again? Not only are they spending a few hundred thousand dollars on making him pay in prison, his sentence his heftier than what a good bunch of rapists and cold blooded murderers would get, but after the supposed rehabilitation process, they're kicking him out of the country.
Being blind doesn't mean there's nothing to see, it just means there's something wrong with the way you see things.
sounds fair by bsDaemon · 2010-09-27 01:15 · Score: 2, Funny

that's only like ~30 seconds in jail for each minute of phone service he stole. At least they didn't sentence him to full price.
Re:You know what gets me? by tehcyder · 2010-09-27 01:15 · Score: 3, Insightful

The man is obviously very capable and smart and for that he is getting punished instead of the telecom companies who let this happen in the first place.

He is being punished because he committed a crime, not because he's a clever geek.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Que PENA Amigo! by xtracto · 2010-09-27 01:22 · Score: 2, Interesting

Well "Es Una Pena" (it is a SHAME) that he committed such a crime, but it is also shameful that none of the several articles mention his real last name which is PEÑA (with an Ñ).
let's see how /. copes with that... *click preview*
It seems ok..

--
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Re:Got what he deserved by icebraining · 2010-09-27 01:28 · Score: 2, Interesting

Use electronic tagging. Help him get a job (any job, even crappy, he doesn't get to choose, obviously), subtract X% every month to make him pay the money.
Advantages:
1) Costs less money - he pays for his own bills, like food and electricity, and can pay X per month to support the tagging system
2) At least some of the money will actually be paid back
3) He won't live among violent criminals, which would probably make him one.

--
Dilbert RSS feed
Re:Should he be... by Guppy06 · 2010-09-27 02:46 · Score: 2, Interesting

"There are murderers that serve a shorter sentence!"
Name one person who was found guilty of murder in the US who got a shorter sentence.
Re:What's wrong with that? by Jurily · 2010-09-27 06:29 · Score: 2, Funny

$1 million is restitution? That's barely 1 copyrighted song.
Funny because it's sad.