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Investigation Finds Inmates Built Computers, Hid Them In Prison Ceiling (cbs6albany.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the Hogan's-Heroes dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from WRGB: The discovery of two working computers hidden in a ceiling at the Marion Correctional Institution prompted an investigation by the state into how inmates got access. In late July, 2015 staff at the prison discovered the computers hidden on a plywood board in the ceiling above a training room closet. The computers were also connected to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's network. Authorities say they were first tipped off to a possible problem in July, when their computer network support team got an alert that a computer "exceeded a daily internet usage threshold." When they checked the login being used, they discovered an employee's credentials were being used on days he wasn't scheduled to work. That's when they tracked down where the connection was coming from and alerted Marion Correctional Institution of a possible problem. Investigators say there was lax supervision at the prison, which gave inmates the ability to build computers from parts, get them through security checks, and hide them in the ceiling. The inmates were also able to run cabling, connecting the computers to the prison's network. Furthermore, "investigators found an inmate used the computers to steal the identify of another inmate, and then submit credit card applications, and commit tax fraud," reports WRGB. "They also found inmates used the computers to create security clearance passes that gave them access to restricted areas."

51 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. H1B Visa? by TFlan91 · · Score: 5, Funny

    H1B Visa cheap labor? Pft. Just look at home and hire some inmates

    1. Re:H1B Visa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Used to be that Dell would use prison labor directly to recycle computers and do tech support. These days UNICOR resells the labor, so any scrutiny is on some faceless corp rather than the corp getting the benefits.

      So yeah, that labor pool is already tapped for silicon valley.

      Real fun is we get to accuse silicon valley corps of doing what we all knew they were doing all along; using software to build poverty traps which in turn break up families and drive up crime so they can hire the criminals for peanuts.

    2. Re: H1B Visa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Disaffected Trump voters I assume.

    3. Re:H1B Visa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There is an argument that the American prisons are a disguised version of modern slavery. They perform an *enormous* of manufacturing for which the prisoners receive no wages. And since the prisons are run by private companies they are run for profit, so it's not just to cover their own costs. There is no other country in the world in which such a large percentage of its population is locked up. And thanks to the 3-strikes rule some of them are there for very offences - there are prisoners with a life sentence where they had 2 relatively minor crimes followed by something as trivial as shoplifting. There is also a racial aspect to it as something like 90% of prisoners are non-white.

    4. Re: H1B Visa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You are wrong on most items in your list.
      There is not a lot of manufacturing being done by prison inmates. Where they do work, Inmates receive a wage for their work. Most prisons are not privately owned. Three strikes requires theee felony convictions. But, by all means, continue.

    5. Re: H1B Visa? by sdinfoserv · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Someone writes bad checks over $1000 dollars because they're hard on they're luck and making bad choices:
      1 felony,
      Released on bail,
      Got a job as part of release agreement
      Missed 2 court appearances - failure to appear on a felony is a felony
      2 more felonies - now total 3 felonies; 3 strikes rule kicks in and they're gone for life for being down an out and a bad desperate choice.

      Nice system we have.

    6. Re:H1B Visa? by Captain+Linger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's not untrue, but it ain't true either. It basically depends on what era and what system you're asking about whiteness. 55% are indeed "white"...but that follows Census guidelines, not conventional race reporting statistics.

      The population of *non-Hispanic whites* is 32%, roughly half their comparative incidence in the general population at 62%
      Black men are 37% of the prison population, 12% of general population (a 3x skewing).
      Hispanic men are 22% of the prison population, 17% of the general population.

      In general minorities are incarcerated at twice the rate. Thankfully this conversation hasn't settled into the inevitable straw man idiocy insisting black people commit more crimes or not (they absolutely do, owing to economic circumstances). The situation is tremendously unfair and at a bare minimum profoundly impacts minorities more severely.

    7. Re: H1B Visa? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      2 more felonies - now total 3 felonies; 3 strikes rule kicks in and they're gone for life for being down an out and a bad desperate choice.

      Bullshit. California has the toughest 3-strikes law in the country, and even there two of the three felonies must be serious or violent crimes.

      Kelly Turner went to prison for life for writing a bad check, but the other two convictions were for armed robbery, not "missing an appointment".

      America's prison system has many serious problems. The reality is bad enough without you making up nonsense.

    8. Re: H1B Visa? by karmatic · · Score: 2

      I watched someone go down for life with a felony for stealing a bathmat. It was "violent" in theory, but not practically.

      It was on the back porch. The owner was home. There was a railing, which meant the bathmat was "in" the house. The house was occupied, and burglary of an occupied residence is a violent felony (they treat it like home invasion).

      I had a "violent" felony for making a firecracker. They go off the federal classifications, and flash powder can be a high explosive if you have enough of it. Reckless, intentional, or negligent possession of high explosives is a "violent" felony.

      Mandatory minimum 5 year sentence, and treated the same as someone who had a pipe bomb. I pled guilty to avoid the sentence, and it was reduced to a misdemeanour in a year or so.

      It's easier than people think to get screwed by three strikes.

  2. Someone hire them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They sound like better job candidates that the millennial types that come through our doors. US millennials especially, they seem to think they deserve a cookie for knowing very basic things.

    1. Re:Someone hire them... by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, definitely more than the boomers that I regularly see that think they deserve double everyone else's salary for not knowing very basic "computery" things...

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re: Someone hire them... by Maritz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Of course, once you know what generation someone is from, you're pretty much done and you don't need to know anything else about them. Because people from a particular generation are all the same. Solid thinking there bud.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    3. Re:Someone hire them... by peragrin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Boomers don't need computer thingy. Back in their day they didn't need no stinkin computers. Of course back in their day you hired twice as many people because people were cheap and equipment expensive. Now equipment is cheap and people are expensive.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    4. Re: Someone hire them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The rise and rise of group based discrimination. Cheers to those that push group identities above all else. You know who you are.

      millennials?

    5. Re:Someone hire them... by hey! · · Score: 2

      Son, back in my day we had computers... and they had lights on the front panel that showed you the CPU register contents and switches for loading values into those registers. It was awesome.

      EEs back in the day had a straightforward default approach to controlling current: you make or break a mechanical contact. None of this monitor the input and switch the machine between a low and high power state nonsense. They were mad for switches, so this is what the front panel of a computer looked like.

      And every one of those switches was an individually crafted mechanical masterpiece. They might have been forged in the deeps of time by the dwarves of Tumunzahar. If you flipped one it would emit a mighty clack that would cause a weak millennial, raised on insipid, wishy-washy membrane switches, to curl up into a foetal position. This was electronics for real men who unwound from a day of defeating communism and sending men to the Moon with a martini -- a proper gin martini not a vodka martini (for kids who learned to drink from the movies), or for God's sake an Appletini.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    6. Re:Someone hire them... by meerling · · Score: 2

      Neither young nor old is an advantage to actually knowing the field. It's the training and experience. I've talked to idiots that think their hard drive with drive C: doesn't have any partitions on it. I've dealt with a guy in his 90s that traded traded overclocking tips with me. I myself have solved issues in minutes that a bunch of hot shot college kids couldn't figure out in half a day because they only knew the computer from the gui level and didn't even know what machine language was!

      Nobody is ever born knowing anything about computers. You learn it as you go. Older may have had more time, but that's not a guarantee by any means. Then again, the industry is biased against age.
      Sometimes it's because of the flawed idea that the young are more enthusiastic and know the new hip stuff. Anyone can be just as enthusiastic and knowledgeable in the new stuff, but after a while you stop jumping up and down screaming cool every ten seconds despite the fact that this cool new thing makes you feel like the first time you were kissed by your true love.
      Sometimes they think the old can't change. When often the old are the ones that built the very things they want. Other times it's because this new idea is an old idea in different colors. Some things are never going to be good, but if you don't have a sufficient foundation you probably won't know that in the first place. A great example of a failure that keeps reoccurring about every decade or so is some form of Smellovision. The same problem tanks it every time, no good way to clear out the old smells. Yet about every 10-15 years, someone tries to push their 'new invention'. There's a ton of these same kind of things in every field, but due to the bias for new people in the computer field, they have a shortage of people with the experience to recognize these things.
      Often the people doing the supervising or hiring of computer people, aren't themselves computer people and so fall for the myths that are out there.
      But I still think one of the reasons that the industry won't admit to, but is still a major factor, is simply that they know the older and more experienced people just won't take the same kind of labour abuse the young ones in their ignorance will. Got a show stopper bug 2 weeks before advertised launch day? Bosses panic and scream for everyone to stay in the office and work around the clock till it's fixed. Older guy tells him to chill out and get a goods night rest, and if they have to, the date can be pushed back. You see, he already knows that allnighters do a lot of work, just not a lot of good work. The problem is more likely to be solved by people that aren't dead on their feet and barely able to function, and that marketing dates are about as trustworthy as the marketing weasels themselves. On top of that, there's a real tendency for those nobody goes home things to violate lots of labor laws, and they often short you on your overtime pay for it anyway, so it's not worth killing yourself over somebody elses mistakes. (In my personal experience, the round the clock panic will often go for 30-40 hours, then somebody who actually went home and got a goods night rest comes in and comes up with a good solution in a few hours. Makes all that panic and crunch time seem kind of pointless.)
      Oh well, just my opinion, everyone has their own. :)

  3. Motivation is key by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    See? All you need to overcome the most insane obstacles is motivation. Just think of all the things these poor people had to go through to get internet access!

    It's kinda humbling.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:Sweet! by fisted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't forget the free sex.

    --
    CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
  5. And even worse... by Z80a · · Score: 4, Funny

    They found a pirate copy of doom on the computers, which is the thing that turned em into criminals.

  6. Hire them by ruir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They seem to be able to get things working, which is better than most...

    1. Re:Hire them by BankRobberMBA · · Score: 2

      While I was in jail I watched a guy build a 120 volt (wall current) water heater using a dead AA battery, a toothbrush, a flexible plastic pen, and the wires from a broken set of earbuds. it took him about 30 minutes and then we were all eating hot ramen noodle soups. Awesome. Don't even get me started on the guys building their own tattoo guns.

  7. If this was a movie... by sad_ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...we would all be mocking it's unrealistic plot.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    1. Re:If this was a movie... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      ..or its unrealistic apostrophe usage.

  8. Huh? by XSportSeeker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How does an inmate goes about building a computer "from parts" as if you could join copper pipes, rocks and whatnot together and magically transform it into a computer? That's not how it works! xD

    Did the inmates have access to electronics recycling centers or something? Were people smuggling RAM chips, CPUs and whatnot inside somehow? This story is so weird...

    1. Re:Huh? by Uryene · · Score: 2

      Spock could have built one with only stone knives and bearskins.

    2. Re:Huh? by azcoyote · · Score: 5, Informative

      From TFA:

      The inmates were able to get the parts from a program where inmates break down computers in order to learn computer skills and recycle the parts.

      --
      Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
    3. Re:Huh? by ledow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's the least of your worries.

      Nobody noticed them run cable.
      Nobody noticed them tap into the network.
      Nobody noticed them sticking things up in ceilings.
      Nobody noticed them taking power to run this stuff.
      Nobody noticed them using the machine itself.
      Nobody noticed them take items from classes they were in.
      Nobody noticed them use the system to the extent they could access private information and defraud others.

      (Or were prepared to turn a blind eye to ALL the above).

      The problem with the prison is NOTHING to do with them being able to get hold a computer. It's being able to get hold of ANYTHING, even things brought deliberately into the prison for them to hold, without people noticing. And then being so unsupervised or unmonitored that they can basically build a damn network with nobody noticing. No surveillance. No tracking of movements. No wondering where they are. No noticing absences for potentially hours at a time.

      In that time, they could have done ANYTHING they liked, with a lot worse things than a bit of fraud being possible.

      Nobody noticed. Nobody cared. Nobody checked. Nobody counted. Nobody noticed things missing. Or the guards were bribed / threatened to turn a blind eye. That's your problem. Not what they actually got up to.

    4. Re:Huh? by Coisiche · · Score: 3, Funny

      as if you could join copper pipes, rocks and whatnot together and magically transform it into a computer?

      I'm now speculating how an episode of MacGyver set in a prison would have worked out. And the original MacGyver, not the new one who looks like he'd last nanoseconds in prison.

    5. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From TFA:

      The inmates were able to get the parts from a program where inmates break down computers in order to learn computer skills and recycle the parts.

      Sounds like the program was successful to me...

    6. Re:Huh? by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And on the other side of the spectrum we have Norway, where they will ask what computer the person wants to use.
      Perhaps thinking of them as humans and not as less than animals might have to do something with it.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    7. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm also surprised that a high security environment like a prison wouldn't require port authentication on any device connected to its network. They were able to simply plug a new computer into a spare port on a switch and didn't need to enable the port, install a certificate, or anything. That seems especially surprising when it gave them access to the systems used to issue access cards.

    8. Re:Huh? by gti_guy · · Score: 2

      This shows that prison makes criminals more effective. Bad criminals get caught and jailed. Good criminals go about their business unnoticed. So, they've been honing their craft in the stir. Should we really be surprised?

    9. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In Florida, my mom's neighbor (who is in her 60s) works part time for a company that de-solders chips and components from old circuit boards for recycling. The company buys electronic waste for cheap (or sometimes is paid to take it), gets a bunch of old retired ladies together, and they all sit around and chat while they work with their hands taking apart old cordless phones, DVD players and other electronics. The company then resells any reusable chips or parts they can harvest. So, there's demand for this skill out there.

    10. Re:Huh? by gnick · · Score: 2

      There's a new MacGyver?

      There is a new MacGyver. I loved the original, so I watched part of one new ones. I quickly came to the conclusion that it was made for children. It was ridiculous. Then, reflecting back, I had the revelation that the original was also geared toward children. It was ridiculous too. The difference is that 30 years ago I was a child and Mac was fun. I've aged considerably since then. Most of us have.

      Mac wouldn't need to build a spare parts computer. He'd just use his shoelaces and a pulley to bend the bars and escape.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    11. Re:Huh? by operagost · · Score: 2

      Except for that part where no one will hire ex-cons.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    12. Re:Huh? by ledow · · Score: 3, Informative

      Like HELL!

      Why can you plug into the network at all? (RADIUS, etc.)
      Why can you plug in unauthorised devices? (NPS, device management etc.)
      Why can you use devices without up-to-date antivirus/firewall etc. (NPS again)
      Why do new things plugged in get access to everything and not just a limited VLAN?
      Why are you able to then get access to something just by a stolen username/password from an authorised device? (Access controls, I mean come on! At least insist that it's a domain-joined device!)
      Why did they not notice until ACCESS WAS ALREADY BEING USED ON THE NETWORK?

      It's pathetic.

      I work in a primary school (up to age 11) and you wouldn't be able to do that to our systems without alarm bells going off.

      In a "secure" environment like a prison, and especially on secure services that can create access cards and open door, the IT department were doing NOTHING LIKE their job.

      Literally, a managed switch and a device management software / Windows server set up properly would have stopped 99% of what they did in its tracks and all they'd have was a stolen username/password they could use only at an authorised machine anyway.

      You basically handed the prisoners the network on a plate, for virus infection, malware installation, Internet access, system compromise, packet-sniffing, etc.

      And you're saying well done because they noticed a whole bunch of suspicious entries in a log after a LONG time of the computer being in a position to do all kinds of damage?

  9. Sad they lost in TLD lottery. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If only they had born in .ua or .ru or even in .ng they would have had flourishing careers as top dons or at least as top henchmen to top dons. Sad they ended up in USA. Their local don, the for-profit-prison industrial complex cronies do not see the value in the phenomenal access they have to local talent.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  10. credit cards? by jbmartin6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    he just looked through the ODRC system for a young inmate with a long sentence, then used his information to get the cards.

    If the bank is giving a credit card to a prison inmate with a long sentence, I feel like there's a moral imperative for someone to take advantage of them, for their own good.

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  11. Re:and we give them a free education by Maritz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, I use actual examples to form my opinion of the world.

    In my experience, fire is always hot, water is always wet, criminals are always criminals.

    --XYZZY--

    So you're incapable of nuanced thought. Well done you.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  12. Talk about lax security... by design by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    WTF is a prison doing with easily accessible drop ceilings, anyway? That's insane.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  13. Lifelong learning by RDW · · Score: 4, Funny

    The inmates were able to get the parts from a program where inmates break down computers in order to learn computer skills and recycle the parts.

    To be fair, it seems that this program was a complete success.

  14. Re:and we give them a free education by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, I use actual examples to form my opinion of the world.

    In my experience, fire is always hot, water is always wet, criminals are always criminals.

    --XYZZY--

    So you're incapable of nuanced thought. Well done you.

    Lots of people are incapable of nuanced thought. See:

    "basket of deplorables"

    "Trump voters" becomes "racist voters"

    "Unable to support Anita Sarkeesian/Brianna Wu/etc" becomes "Misogynist"

    Oh, wait, you thought you were capable of nuanced thought? That's actually quite hilarious.

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  15. Resume material by wjcofkc · · Score: 2

    I am debating as to whether or not this would look good on a resume, namely cyber crime\penetration testing type stuff. I would at least find it intriguing. Some of the crimes they committed indicate they were expecting to be released at least in the next few years. I suppose that will no longer be the case.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    1. Re:Resume material by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Once you're in prison, I would imagine the bar to increase sentencing is rather high. To increase your sentence, you'd have to go through trial, which means the prison has to file with the DA about crimes you committed in prison. There's a limited amount of discretion on early release, on which the prison wardens can provide input; anything beyond this requires judicial oversight.

      Think about it. If you commit a rape or murder in prison, this needs to go to judiciary review. You need due process to examine the evidence. You're in an environment where other inmates can easily create a false image of the situation, and even the administrative staff is under enough obvious stress that trust is limited and personal grudges and abuse are expected. On the other end, every minor infraction doesn't need to become a Federal case; if you steal a fork from the commissary, that warrants disciplinary action, but not necessarily a new extension on your sentence.

      This is hijinks. It's extreme hijinks, but it's still just hijinks. The inmate targeted for identity theft has a case against these people; as for their illegal use of the prison network and the entire chain of events involved, that's more of an administrative manner. This is an environment where people steal stuff, break stuff, and get places they don't belong; even beyond that expectation, this was junk hardware with little to no value to anyone, and thus the damages done by its theft are below standing. Such a scale of high-mischief warrants an extremely-long and uncomfortable talking to, and some unfriendly disciplinary measures; it's more amusing than criminal, though, and doesn't warrant an extreme response.

      tl;dr: Nobody got stabbed or raped, and there wasn't a riot or break-out; somebody will get yelled at a whole hell of a lot and have their free-time privileges suspended, and that's just fine.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
  16. Smelly Mobo by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    I don't want to know how they smuggled in the motherboard.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  17. One piece at a time by andrewa · · Score: 2

    and it didn't cost them a dime...

    --
    :(){ :|:& };:
  18. Check out the women restrooms... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    Managers at my government IT job are supposed to return the PCs for reimage and deployment when an employee leaves or a department has layoffs. Some managers don't return the PCs, claiming that IT already took them away. A popular place for storing unused PCs is the utility closet inside women restrooms. Since the site techs are males, they have no business being in the women restroom. The female cleaning crew usually blows the whistles on these PCs as they manage the utility closets. Strangely, only the women restrooms have these utility closets.

  19. Re:No wonder they are in jail by TWX · · Score: 2

    If there's structural wood up there then it's not a plenum airspace.

    Mind you, in an institutional setting it's usually just easier to mandate that all cabling inside of the building be plenum-rated and all cable used outside be OSP so that there's no question about accidentally using the wrong cable in the wrong place, but that can be kind of pricey and may still require some decisions like where cables cross 30' breezeways in-conduit. Normally you should transition to OSP and back, but in most cases it's just cheaper to replace the plenum-rated cable 20 years down the road if it finally degrades than it is to do the splicing work and have to deal with any issues that arise from it.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  20. Law breaking aside... by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 2

    ...this is pretty badass.

  21. Re:Norwegian prison by david_thornley · · Score: 2

    Welcome to the Norwegian prison. Here's your Windows 10 laptop!

    The fiends!

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  22. Raspberry Pi in a cake? by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 2

    Would of been easier.