Three Plead Guilty in Satellite TV Hacking Case (Kwak)

[A_Z_A]

Three Plead Guilty in Satellite TV Hacking Case

Three men indicted on a single count of violating the federal copyright law pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia Oct. 23.

According to federal prosecutors, the defendants, Jung Kwak of Oceanside, and Phillip Allison and Robert Ward, both of Seminole, Fla., admitted that beginning in March 2008 they hired computer hackers to break the latest D*sh Network encryption design so that the line of satellite receiver boxes sold by Kwak would continue to have a market.

Kwak is the owner of Viewtech, an importer of the satellite boxes that allow users to obtain a limited amount of free programming, most of it consisting of ethnic and religious programs. But by reverse engineering smart cards provided by D*sh, the boxes could obtain more signals illegally, prosecutors said.

By late 2007, D*sh created a new encryption scheme that would prevent the boxes from gaining access to the signal without purchasing a subscription, prosecutors said.

In his pleading, Kwak admitted meeting and paying $20,000 in cash to another person to dissect the D*sh smart card. Kwak also admitted he offered a $250,000 reward to hackers to obtain the latest D*sh smart card, according to federal prosecutors.

The three defendants face maximum prison time of five years and $250,000 in fines at their scheduled sentencing on Jan. 22.

Source: http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=141924

[A_Z_A]

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
October 23, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of California
Contact: (619) 557-5610
Three Plead Guilty to Violating Digital Millennium Copyright Act

United States Attorney Karen P. Hewitt announced that Jung Kwak, 33, also known as “Mr. Viewsat,” of Oceanside, California, Phillip Allison, 35, also known as “thebroken,” and Robert Ward, 54, also known as “TDG” and as “thedssguy,” both of Seminole, Florida, have tendered pleas of guilty to conspiring to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The three defendants were charged in a one-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury sitting in San Diego on July 9, 2009.

In connection with their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted that beginning in or about March 2008, they determined to hire computer hackers to break the latest D*SH Network encryption scheme, known as Nagra 3, so that the line of satellite receiver boxes sold by defendant Kwak would continue to have a market. According to the indictment, and in connection with their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted that Mr. Kwak owns and operates Viewtech, Inc., in Oceanside, California. Viewtech imports “free-to-air” or “FTA” satellite receiver boxes and sells them to the public through a network of retailers under the brand name “Viewsat.” According to the indictment, there is a limited amount of free programming available by satellite to owners of FTA receiver boxes, much of it consisting of ethnic and religious programming in numerous languages. Yet, millions of Viewsat FTA boxes have been sold to the public. The popularity of FTA boxes is due to the fact that they are designed to make it a simple process for a purchaser to obtain subscription-based satellite television, such as that offered by Echostar’s D*SH Network, for free. D*SH Network licenses copyrighted works from the copyright holders, encrypts the signal, and sells the right to view to D*SH subscribers. Subscribers to D*SH Network programming obtain from D*SH a “smart card,” which is inserted into a D*SH satellite receiver box. The smart card decrypts the programming that the subscriber is authorized to view. Over the years, D*SH has changed its encryption algorithms and employed other countermeasures to attempt to defeat theft of its signal. To illegally decrypt the D*SH signal, the FTA boxes must appear to have D*SH smart cards. That is done by reverse-engineering D*SH smart cards and creating computer code which, when downloaded to an appropriate FTA box, will emulate the existence of a smart card and trick the system. In the past, as D*SH encryption and countermeasures were defeated, the code has been posted on the Internet and made available for download to anyone.

In the late fall of 2007, D*SH announced that it had created a new encryption scheme and would start shipping new smart cards to its customers. As the new encryption scheme was deployed, owners of FTA boxes would no longer be able to view D*SH programming without a subscription, and sellers of FTA boxes would lose their market.

The defendants admitted in their plea that Mr. Kwak authorized Messrs. Allison and Ward to locate persons to work on cracking Nagra 3. Mr. Kwak agreed to provide funding and a substantial reward for success. Messrs. Allison and Ward admitted that they solicited a third party to join the scheme. Mr. Allison admitted purchasing a specialized microscope to be used in dissecting and analyzing smart cards for the third party and was reimbursed by Mr. Kwak. Mr. Kwak admitted meeting with and paying $20,000 in cash to the third party for photographs of a dissected smart card purported to be a Nagra 3 card. Mr. Kwak also admitted that he offered a reward of $250,000 if the EPROM (eraseable programmable read-only memory) for the Nagra 3 card could be obtained.

The defendants tendered their guilty pleas before United States Magistrate Judge Anthony J. Battaglia, subject to final acceptance of the pleas by United States District Judge Janis L. Sammartino on January 22, 2010, at 9:00 a.m.

This case was investigated by Special Agents of the Cybersquad of Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Diego.

DEFENDANTS Case Number: 09cr2646 -JLS
Jung Kwak Oceanside, California Age: 33
Phillip Allison Seminole, Florida Age: 35
Robert Ward Seminole, Florida Age: 54
SUMMARY OF CHARGE

One Count — Title 18, United States Code, Section 371: Conspiracy to Violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Maximum Penalty: five years’ imprisonment and $250,000 fine

AGENCY

Federal Bureau of Investigation

[Ladybbird]

The "Official" Announcement;

http://sandiego.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/sd102309.htm

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Now read this;

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/fake-pressrelease-flap/

and look at the secured official fbi press release site;

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/mueller082209.htm

See the difference in the emblems of the L/H/S of the address in the browser.?????

Now do a search on the net and see if you can find this "Press Announcement" in any of the Media.

Thanks A_K_A

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[buddyjh]

This is starting to sound like a soap opera

[NCOOLS101]

Originally Posted by buddyjh

This is starting to sound like a soap opera

[Ladybbird]

Originally Posted by buddyjh

This is starting to sound like a soap opera

Your psychic abilities are in tune with mine as usual.

Thread moved to rumour section as there is no evidential verification of its authenticity

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[car5469]

If this is true then Viewsat is done and there will be no N3 crack for a very long time, thus IKS will be the only working solution.

Lady, I can see that you are suspicious about this. You have mentioned in the past that there have been other false court documents and other such items like this to discourage people. I guess we will have to wait for verification before we can believe this but the rumors around this have been going strong.

I hope this is false!

[car5469]

I saw this article posted on the Denver Business Journal. I will assume they are credible which gives this article credibility. I guess Viewsat is done!

[Ladybbird]

Originally Posted by car5469

I saw this article posted on the Denver Business Journal. I will assume they are credible which gives this article credibility. I guess Viewsat is done!

Darn right I'm suspicious.

1) Why has only the Denver Business Journal picked this up? Why has no media from California or other areas picked up such a result on such a big "Case" involving Dish Network?

2) As I have posted before the "Official" fbi press release site that reported it does not have the secured official fbi press release site emblem on the top. Have a wee look yourself.

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[car5469]

I don't know what to believe. I guess it doesn't matter as there is nothing that I can do about it.

[Ladybbird]

Originally Posted by car5469

I don't know what to believe. I guess it doesn't matter as there is nothing that I can do about it.

Don't worry car, it aint over 'til that fat lady sings.. and as there are no fat ladies involved...........

Read this and give me your thoughts:

NAG3/N3 - Dish Network will not Destroy FTA

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