After what Thomas Swingler of CableHack.net was charged with earlier this year, Ryan Harris surely knew that he had a target on his back.
An Oregon hardware hacker and author has been hit with federal criminal charges arising from his longstanding business of selling unlocked cable modems that can be used to steal extra speed from a broadband provider, or obtain free service.
Ryan Harris, known by his pen name DerEngel, was charged in Boston with a conspiracy count, and charges of aiding and abetting computer intrusion and wire fraud.
"I read the indictment — it's complete bullshit," says 26-year-old Harris, author of the 2006 book Hacking the Cable Modem. "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."
The FBI press release lists Harris as being from both San Diego CA and Redmond OR. The indictment notes that his "primary place of business" is in the San Diego area, and that he also lived in Hong Kong.
Harris has been charged with six total counts of computer and wire fraud, aiding and abetting computer fraud, and aiding and abetting wire fraud. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine per count, and the requirement to pay restitution. Harris, who's free on his own recognizance, intends to fight the charges.
Harris is the project organizer of TCNiSO, a band of tinkerers specializing in cable modem hacking. For five years the group has been producing tutorials on how to bypass the firmware locks on Motorola Surfboard modems — a process that sometimes involves soldering a special cable to a hidden terminal inside the device, or exploiting a buffer overflow in the modem’s web interface.
TCNiSO also openly sells pre-modded modems for $100 which are already loaded with the group's custom firmware, which lets the user control the modem's functionality. Harris sold two unlocked Motorola Surfboard modems to an FBI agent through TCNiSO.net.
The group's work has been a boon to cable modem "uncappers," who use the customized modems to crank up the speed of their internet access by downloading special configuration files from an ISP's server. Users have also wielded the hacked modems to get free service by spoofing another customer's MAC address — an attack that only works from a home that's wired to the cable network but hasn’t had service officially activated.
A key issue is intent...the FBI thinks it's got evidence of Harris seeking information that would help him uncap modems.
Harris--same as Swingler--notes that there are legal uses for the uncapped modems. For instance, he claims that cable companies have purchased them for use as diagnostic gear. TCNiSO has supposedly brought in over $1 million since 2003.
Harris also notes that it's not gun dealers who kill people...
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