Hacker modems face 20 years in prison

As you know, many providers limit the maximum bandwidth for each subscriber: someone gets megabits, someone two, and someone 256 kbit / s, depending on the tariff plan. However, several years ago, hackers learned how to change the firmware of a cable modem in order to increase speed and change the MAC address of a device. For example, the popular Motorola Surfboard 5100 model is subject to modification. It is still unclear whether such a modification is against the law if the device belongs to the subscriber and it does not violate the rules for using the service. In the context of a speedy trial, this question will be answered.

As the FBI press release said yesterday, 26-year-old cable modem expert Ryan Harris, known for his name DerEngel, was arrested a week ago and placed in a preliminary detention cell. One of the world's best specialists in his field wrote the book Hacking the Cable Modem about modem flashing and founded the company TCNISO, which was engaged in the sale of modified devices and software for their "overclocking". Now the engineer faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $ 250 thousand.

The hacking operation began in November 2008, when one of the FBI agents bought several cracked modems from an online store ( agent report to PDF ). The investigation led to Harris, although he has no relation to this store, but he is the author of the hacking toolkit.

TCNISO's business was to sell the modified Sigma and Sigma X firmware (the second one blocks the modem from test requests from the provider checking the originality of the firmware), a hacked version of the Surfboard 5100 modem with this firmware, as well as the Blackcat hacker program. According to the authorities, Harris earned more than $ 1 million from the sale of these materials from 2003 to 2009.
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TCNISO equipment has been used by many other hackers in their professional activities. For example, a 13-year-old teenager Dshocker in 2005 caught on using stolen credit cards and organizing a botnet. He masked his actions with a fake MAC address using the Sigma firmware and did not pay his ISP. Upon reaching the age of majority, the teenager received 11 months in prison. And this is not the only case, according to IDG News.

The TCNISO website is now in Down, but other shops with the same product can be found on the Web.