Slashdot Mirror
364 Idaho Inmates Hacked Their Prison Tablets For Free Credits (bleepingcomputer.com)
According to local Idaho media, 364 inmates across at least five institutions exploited a vulnerability in their prison-issued tablets to assign nearly $225,000 worth of digital credits to their accounts. They were then able to use these credits to buy music and games. Bleeping Computer reports: The hacked tablets have been used at low-security level prisons across the U.S. for a few years now. They've been offered through a partnership between CenturyLink and JPay. Spokespersons for both companies said the vulnerability inmates exploited was identified and fixed. Officials from the Idaho Department of Correction (IDC) said there was no loss of state funds as a result of the hack, as inmates transferred only JPay-managed (fictitious) digital credits to their accounts. Most inmates transferred small amounts of credits to their tablet accounts. JPay said it recovered more than $65,000 worth of digital credits from the 364 inmate accounts. The company has suspended the ability to buy games and music via digital credits on the tablets of offending inmates. Email functionality was left intact, and the company plans to recover the incurred losses.
Good job. Let the prison-industrial complex take it on the chin for once.
> ...fictitious digital credits...
> ...company plans to recover the losses...
Yes, that should take about a minute since $0 = $0.
E
What'd they do, steal a spud or two? What the fuck is there to do in Idaho? What kind of name is Idaho for a state anyway? Let's forget about Idaho and talk about Wyoming. What kind of name is Wyoming for a state anyway? Now, Montana. That's a state! And what a name!
Tablets in prisons make correctional officers and managers happy. Inmates maintain community ties, they have something to do with their time, and like any privilege that can be taken away it's a tool the administration can use to control behavior.
I always thought it was the other way around.
Since these are low security prisons, prisoners should be allowed to watch TV in several lounges, listen to an AM/FM radio in their cells, and use a land-line phone for a few minutes a day. Other than that, they should have access to carefully selected books, and newspapers. No internet access at all, not even email. For maximum security prisons, prisoners should get a few minutes a week on a land-line phone.
Allowing internet access to convicted criminals is NEVER a good idea!
Trump will hang either way
the whole thing makes it seem like they did something horrible, when all they did was game the system to get some more games and music to pass the time with. I'm not opposed to that either. Prison shouldn't be about punishment, it should either be about containment (e.g. folks so dangerous we can't have them running the streets) or reform. Anything else is just sadism.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
So they gave tablets with weak security to inmates at a prison.
And the tablets had a mechanism to buy services - music, games, etc.
And 364 convicts broke the security and stole services - an average of $618 worth each, as much as $11,000 in one case.
Why is this surprising?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I'm a dental floss tycoon.
It must have been some harmless fun, lord knows they need it.
[($)]
"Hacking" used to be completely orthogonal to criminality.
Now it's a standard scareword and will mean whatever the idiots using it say it means this time. This "editor" and this "news source" are serial abusers of the word, but they're not in prison so it must be alright.
All prisoners should be forced to read random Facebook posts and Twitter feeds
all day. Recidivists must also watch all Trending vids on youtube.
So, tough guy, are you really sure you want to hold up that liquor store?
USB, USB, USB!
$17 for a 15-minute local phone call it about time for rates to come down.
under Obama. Trump raised them again...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
What the fuck is there to do in Idaho?
Drugs. And then what else are police going to do? Only 0.6% of Idaho's population is black, so harassing black people only occupies so much of their time. What's better than the low hanging fruit of drug users, especially in a state that's rabidly anti-pot, lacking even any form of medical marijuana use.
Jpay is a company built on exploiting inmates. They make Uber look like saints.
They'll likely all get the hole and extra time - exactly what those running the system wanted to happen. It's called a honey trap. Those morons would have never caught it if they didn't know ahead of time.
Why would anyone harass blacks? You risk getting AIDS that way, more than by sharing needles even.
Quite illogical and irrational.
Luckily the things they "stole" doesn't have any tangible monetary value so the the "victim" didn't actually miss the money.
You could easily correct the issue by deleting the files and it isn't destruction of property.
Or, since the price is set differently for different markets, you could just revalue it to $0 for prison inmates and then there is no monetary damage.
As in designed to be trivially hacked perhaps?
we miss you fz, you would have enjoyed the current state of the entertainment branch
FWIW, retribution (punishment) can help provide closure to victims.
I'd say that's a distinct possibility.
Aren't people allowed to be rabidly anti-pot if they want to? Or does everyone have to agree with you, else they're horrible monsters?
Here's a thought: books. Maybe magazines or comic-books for the illiterate.
Much cheaper. Far less danger of misuse.
Damage the book or other reading material - lose your privileges.
Keep acting up - solitary.
Keep acting up - bread and water.
Keep acting up - forced labor.
Keep acting up - medicated.
Keep acting up - execution.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
... What we all knew all along: hackers are not geniuses but criminals. Their "skills" are actually quite mundane, their knowledge easily obtainable, any small-time street thug can do what they do. Society must understand that hackers are not misguided otherwise intelligent individuals, but average and below-average good-at-nothings whose abilities we will not miss. They must be ostracized and prosecuted. Parents: if your kids show any interest in "hacking", notify a counselor and have any computing equipment they have access to confiscated. Stop hackers now.
If they personally want to be, of course that's fine. Inflicting the greater harm of prohibition on other people, including non-users impacted on two ends from black market issues and civil rights loss, however, does indeed make them 'horrible monsters'. It's sadomoralism: inflicting greater harm on everyone to send a moral message than the harm that would exist if you simply allowed the activity and provided education, treatment, and rehab. It extends to all drugs, but pot is by far the most egregiously awful since it lacks the physical harm and addiction of hard drugs.
Wow! People with time on their hands can conquer just about anything. Kids and Criminals. Maybe these convicts have potential with the DOD. A recent story said that the DOD can't find & hire enough Cyber-Warriors to meet their needs. Right now these convicts are under Government authority and control. I'll bet any of them would jump at the chance to leave prison and work for the USA Federal Government. What a missed opportunity by the DOD. Regrettably, most will return after committing more crimes or run for office and become politicians. It's a real opportunity for the DOD to rehabilitation these convicts and keep them out of our Legislative Houses.
That's Funny! If I had mod points, I would mod you up as "funny".
Seems like you're kind of stupid. Maybe Slashdot's not for you.
1. Only here victims have no say in such punishment.
I don't know where your "here" is, but in the United States (where this article originates) victims often DO have a right to speak or submit a statement to the court prior to sentencing.
2. Therefore, such "closure" cannot be possible.
Well, no, that doesn't follow, at all. Victims consistently report that seeing the offender punished helps them to let go and move on. This is completely independent of them providing input to the sentencing. The two are not causally related.
3. Nevertheless, you are just a sadist projecting.
Again, no. I never said it was good to punish people, I merely reported one of the outcomes of that punishment. In point of fact, I am an ex-con, and I was once the one being punished. I take NO pleasure in the pain of others.
One of us is projecting, but it isn't me.
Oh, I have WAY TOO MUCH experience with the law. Also, a better-than-layman's understanding of it.
You said:
Victim statements are considered prior to sentencing so they already have a say
Nobody said they didn't. WTF are you talking about? I said retribution helps victims feel closure. This happens whether they submit statements or not. It is almost universally reported.
You also said:
the law is applied radically differently and sometimes not at all.
Which has fuck all to do with my statement. When someone gets robbed, they feel better if they see the robber get punished.
Or haven't you noticed fuckface von clownstick breaking laws left and right with impunity as he rapes and pillages the USA?
Okay, one more time. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY STATEMENT ABOVE.
It is ironic to me that you started your incorrect and irrelevant observation about me with the word 'clearly'. Somehow I suspect you often mistake error for clarity.
Let me just ask a possibly stupid question here...
Why are prisoners getting tablets to begin with? Most people who live in my community can't afford the school-mandated tablets already. Why is taxpayer money being wasted on buying tablets for prisoners while low income parents in my own neighborhood can't buy the tablets for their children that the government requires them to buy?
Seems stupid and wrong to me.