|
Hacker Testifies: Paid $20,000 by Fox News Parent Company |
|
|
|
Written by Lady Anker
|
|
Thursday, April 24, 2008 |
Christopher Tarnovsky, thought of as one of the "best hackers in the world", testified yesterday that he received concealed payments totaling $20,000 from News Corp, the parent company of Fox News, to develop a pirating program to make Direct TV more secure, according to Reuters.
Lawyers for EchoStar Communications and DISH Network claim that Tarnovsky was responsible for creating "the stinger", a device that can communicate with and reprogram other smart cards. A smart card uses a digital encryption system to control access to information such as television broadcasting signals.
The lawyers allege that under the direction of NDS, part of the News Corp family, Tarnovsky was paid to hack into the DISH Network, steal the security codes, create counterfeit Echostar cards used for the DISH and flood the market with the pirated versions, resulting in $900 million dollars in lost revenue and repairs.
Although Tarnovsky admitted to creating "the stinger", he claimed, "I never got money for reprogramming Echostar cards," and "Someone is trying to set me up."
However, fellow hacker Tony Dionisi testified on Tuesday that Tarnovsky bragged about creating "the stinger" and he knew of 50 EchoStar smart cards that were reprogrammed with the device by another hacker and NDS employee.
The trial is expected to continue for another two to three weeks. |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, April 24, 2008 )
|
|
|
