Comcast.net Hijacker Gets 4 Months

Comcast.net Hijacker Gets 4 Months

A former member of the hacker gang Kryogeniks was sentenced to four months in prison Monday for his role in a 2008 stunt that replaced Comcast’s homepage with a shout-out to other hackers.

James Robert Black Jr., 21,was known as “Defiant” when he and two other hackers hijacked Comcast’s domain name in May of 2008 — a prank that took down the cable giant’s homepage and webmail service for more than five hours, and allegedly cost the company over $128,000.

Visitors to Comcast.net had been redirected to a simple page reading “KRYOGENIKS EBK and DEFIANT RoXed COMCAST sHouTz To VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.”

“Mr. Black and his Kryogenicks crew created risks to all of these millions of e-mail customers for the simple sake of boosting their own childish egos,” Assistant United States Attorney Kathryn Warma told the court, according to a press release. “The callous disregard of the dangers posed to others, as well as the arrogance and recklessness displayed by these, and other hackers in committing such crimes should be considered by the Court as a factor that weighs in favor of a significant prison sentence.”

‘Kryogeniks’ hacker sentenced for Comcast hacking

No PII involved in this one, but since many may remember the case, I thought I’d post the follow-up. James Robert Black, Jr., a.k.a. “Defiant,” was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to four months in prison, four months of electronic home monitoring, 150 hours of community service, three years of supervised release and $128,557 in restitution for conspiring to damage a protected…
Kryogeniks Hacker Who Took Comcast Offline Pleads Guilty to Crime

Kryogeniks Hacker Who Took Comcast Offline Pleads Guilty to Crime

Christopher Allen Lewis, the hacker from a telephone hacking group called Kryogeniks, has pleaded guilty for taking Comcast's web site offline in May of 2008. Lewis is facing a charge that could land him in prison for five years and a $250,000 fine after his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to intentionally damage a protected computer system. The case is being tried in…