Cable Uncapper Faces Criminal Charges Ryan Harris (DerEngel) and TCNiSO face Federal heat Tuesday Nov 03 2009 10:21 EDT If you've been around the broadband industry as a user or employee for any length of time, you might be familiar with Ryan Harris -- pen name DerEngel. Harris has published a book (which we sort of reviewed) on hacking cable modems, and is the head of a cable mod organization known as the TCNiSO modding community. The community offers tips and tools on how to clone the Mac address of paying cable customers to get free service, or how to uncap the modem to get faster speeds. Harris finds himself on the receiving end of criminal charges in Boston, including a conspiracy count, and charges of aiding and abetting computer intrusion and wire fraud. According to the freshly unsealed indictment (pdf) against Harris, DerEngel earned over $1 million during the last six years by selling modified hardware. An FBI press release says Harris faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution on each count. Harris's run in with Uncle Sam comes on the heels of a case that brought charges against Pennsylvania resident Thomas Swingler for selling hacked modems. In Swingler's case, trouble came because his website proudly crowed about the modems' intended use while offering service theft tutorials. In most cases, cable modem modders fly under the radar -- provided they don't run their mouths about what they're doing. As Wired's Threat Level explores, Harris made the mistake of posting personally to his website, asking users for verified MAC addresses and configuration files. "I read the indictment — it’s complete bullshit." 26-year-old Harris tells Wired. "They’re filling in their own blanks. From my website I never would never sell to anyone who had the intent to break the law," he claims. Harris maintains that the unlocked hardware has legitimate uses, and likens his prosecution to arresting an arms dealer for murder. Uncle Sam is apparently unconvinced. |
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Whats the point?The book has been out for about 2 years. Why didn't the FBI go after him when the book first published? Can't they read at the FBI?
At this point, the damage has been done. Just making a big deal about it will just make it spread further and faster like a plague. I mean, look at DeCSS, the FBI tried to clamp that down but it exploded in their face and now there are more DVD rippers on the market than I care to talk about. Apparently, we don't learn from our own history.
I'll be an honest Abe that his book is hitting P2P networks as we speak and a surge of people using the information in that book more than ever.
I would like to thank the FBI for telling me about yet another book that tells me how to break the law.
Oh, and while we are at it, why doesn't the FBI go after people who wrote books on NMAP, or how to use the Nessus scanner. Some may argue that kind of information doesn't cost people money; but it does! In a shared hosting environment people only have a limited amount of bandwidth to use, and once they go over then sometimes the hosting provider will charge them an arm and a leg. And if someone is ripping through your site with a Nessus scan and the hoster doesn't have any rate limiting in place? Well, lets just say you better have enough credit on your credit cards to cover that bill.
Better yet, why doesn't the FBI go after the authors who describe, sometimes in detail, how to commit a perfect crime (ie how to kill someone and get away with it). Or, is the FBI only concerned about monetary losses and not human lives?
So much for our first amendment rights in America.
I think the FBI's time would be better spent tracking down people who put skimmers on ATMs or attempts from the US to hack into other people's servers (like mine! UGGGHHHH! Seriously, people, root is disabled on my servers.). | |  morboComplete Your Transaction
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2 recommendations |
morbo
Member
2009-Nov-3 9:51 am
waste of timeWhat a waste of taxpayer time and money. Shouldn't the FBI be, I don't know, catching real criminals instead of being the bitch of cable isp? | |
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goodAbout time they clamp down on these hackers that are stealing internet. Anyone that gets free service illegally hurts the consumer in the long run. | |
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