Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Comcast Hacker Pleads Guilty

February 24, 2010 - PHILADELPHIA—Christopher Allen Lewis, a.k.a. “EBK,” 20, of Newark, Delaware, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to disrupt service at Comcast corporation’s www.comcast.net website, on May 28 and 29, 2008, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy. Lewis was charged in November with James Robert Black, Jr., a.k.a. “Defiant,” and Michael Paul Nebel, a.k.a. “Slacker.” Black and Nebel are awaiting court dates.

According to the indictment, the three defendants were associated with the hacker group Kryogeniks and, on May 28, 2008, they used their hacking skills to redirect all traffic destined for the www.comcast.net website to websites that they had established. As a result, Comcast customers trying to read their e-mail or listen to their voice mail were sent to a website where they found a message that read “KRYOGENIKS Defiant and EBB RoXed COMCAST sHouTz to VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.”

Approximately five million people per day connected to the Comcast website in May of 2008. These acts resulted in a loss to Comcast of approximately $128,000. The diversion prompted an intensive FBI investigation. Comcast Corporation cooperated in that investigation.

Lewis will be sentenced on May 21, 2010. He faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and up to three years of supervised release. In addition, the court could order restitution.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Albert S. Glenn and Alexander T.H. Nguyen.

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