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How A Contractor Exploited A Vulnerability In The FCC Website (wirelessestimator.com)
RendonWI writes: A Wisconsin wireless contractor discovered a flaw in the FCC's Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) database, and changed the ownership of more than 40 towers from multiple carriers and tower owners into his company's name during the past five months without the rightful owners being notified by the agency, according to FCC documents and sources knowledgeable of the illegal transfers. Sprint, AT&T and key tower companies were targeted in the wide-ranging thefts... Changing ASR ownership is an easy process by applying online for an FCC Registration Number (FRN) which is instantly granted whether the factual or inaccurate information is provided. Then, once logged in, an FRN holder can submit a form stating that they are the new owner of any or multiple structures in the database.
As soon as it is submitted, the change is immediately reflected in the ASR.
Why doesnt the summary indicate in any way what was gained by the perpetrator in doing this?
"His name was James Damore."
What a jackass... now the FCC is going to burden us honest folk with extra paperwork. I liked being able to submit my AU to the ULS and it being approved the next day automatically.
"Scanner's going off captain!"
"Yo, lock in on it son. Here at the FCC, it's our job to eliminate illegal radio stations, and inappropriate language!"
"Yeah, well...thanks a lot for the ****ing backstory."
"Wha-You watch your ****ing mouth you ****ing ***k."
And then there was a vulnerability.
"We're closing in on the signal sir! And then we'll drop the hammer, right?"
"Huh? Oh, oh yeah we're gonna drop the hammer. Hey uh...does this make look fat?"
"No. But your ass does!"
He tries to scam major companies with lots of money. You know plenty of books will be thrown at him and he'll end up in prison for a while. If you're going to scam, only scam tiny companies or poor people. Those who don't have any connections to get back at you.
From the article: "It is unknown why Nix changed the ownership of the structures or what benefits would be derived by being able to identify that Aura owned a $12-plus million group of towers."
This seems like a 'Step 2: ???' kinda plan, since the FCC database gets you exactly nothing in terms of money, or ability to transfer ownership of the towers.
Weird.
A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
What a jackass. As if the contractor wasn't going to get caught. At some point the rightful owners were going to find out. I bet the person who switched the records voted for Trump.
When I, a small wISP owner, want to access a tower I look up the tower owner in the FCC database. I then contact said owner and proceed to work out a lease agreement. When I, a small wisp owner, want a bank loan I attach my FCC Database records as part of proof of ownership. The structure itself very often does not have records with the county like land does. The land can be owned by J. Q. Public, Et Al. Now I have $12M worth of assets and can get a 3 to 5m loan with a very attractive rate because its so far under my asset value.
I think the article is a bit pretentious, to me this sounds a little like listing a house for sale on a realtor website/MLS system despite not holding the title. It may be annoying to the homeowner when they start getting people looking around but anyone actually trying to go through a purchase process is going to find out pretty quickly that the person attempting to sell the property isn't the legal owner. While it could cause some snafus with issuing maintenance fines/warnings, I doubt any would be overly serious.
The average IQ of a Trumo voter is 40.
Pot. Kettle. Black.
You aren't exactly impressing me with your inability to spell a commonly used 5 letter word.
I guess you never made a typo. The o is right next to the p. Mistakes happen. Fuck off spelling nazi.
"Changing ASR ownership is an easy process by applying online for an FCC Registration Number (FRN) which is instantly granted whether the factual or inaccurate information is provided. Then, once logged in, an FRN holder can submit a form stating that they are the new owner of any or multiple structures in the database. As soon as it is submitted, the change is immediately reflected in the ASR."
That is a breathtakingly bad process. Epic, in fact.
Thousands of security analysts around the country are feeling light-headed right now and are looking for a place to lay down. Thousands of others are reaching for aspirin to to try damp down the near-fatal brain cramp they got when they read this magnificent example of sheer bureaucratic stupidity.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
My news source says that this guy was actually legitimately buying the towers, but because of some backroom HILBAMA scheme after he spent the money it got reversed, he was blamed for hacking.
As far as motivation, according to several anonymous sources that couldn't be contacted for further details, word on the street was this guy had a lot of secret details THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW about the REAL story of..... BatBoy!
No one really know what Mr. Nix was or is trying to accomplish by trying to take owner ship, but after having many phone calls and meeting him at a hotel parking lot in Wadena MN with the local PD on site. Well I believe that Mr. nix has Some drug problems as well as mental. And now I'm not saying that to be a smart As$.. I worked that case on try clean up the site's that he has been trying to live on that is owned by Subcarrier Communications. Mr. Nix has broken into about 9 of Subcarrier sites in 2 states. My company "Multi Purpose Dan LLC" from N.C has been working for Subcarrier for 4 years now in over seeing the sites mostly on the east coast but from time to time I go on to new turf.