9/24/2019 Virgin Media Box Hacks
The leader of a gang who pirated Virgin cable TV to more than 40,000 users has been ordered to pay back more than £7,000 of illegal profits. Paul Hartrick was jailed in February over the scam, which broadcast Virgin’s encryption keys to specially-imported cable boxes which could then decode the channels for free. Hartrick was jailed for five years after pleading guilty, and on Friday Derby magistrates stripped him of £7,623 in cash found when police raided his home in Tamworth and business in Leicestershire. Hartrick and his accomplices – Melvin Howard, Anthony Ginnivan and Amber Ahmed – sold around 44,000 Starview cable boxes imported from Korea, for £120 each. A ‘farm’ of 13 boxes at Ginnivan’s house hosted 13 Virgin boxes with genuine subscriptions, which were hacked to reveal the encryption keys on the Virgin smartcards. The keys were sent to the Starview boxes via the internet, so they could decode Virgin’s TV channels without a subscription. Korean box manufacturer Irumtek, even sent a software engineer to help the gang to set up and improve the network.
Jeong Woo You was arrested and charged with fraud along with the others, but was released on bail and absconded, reports. Detective Constable Adam Govan, investigating officer in the case, said: “This was a sophisticated fraud, taking place on an international scale.
Jun 26, 2017 - Virgin Media have written to the 800000 customers who still use the Super Hub 2. Enter a new, strong password in the 'passphrase' box. Virgin tv customers can get gold, dave and other uktv back for good.Four million tv hack virgin media box all channels hack virgin media box all channels boxes across the uk losing access to the sought after channels.Thanks to this genius hack, viewers across the uk could have their.
“The jailing of these four men sends out a message that people who involve themselves in this kind of crime can be tracked down and will be brought to justice. “This may be seen as a faceless crime but in the end it is Virgin Media customers who lose out because the company has to raise prices to make up for its losses.” Virgin estimated the scam cost it up to £32million in lost revenue in the year in which it operated, from February 2010.
Virgin caught the pirates by switching off parts of its network until it could pinpoint the house in Littleover where they operated the set-top box farm for decoding the signals. Howard was jailed for two years and ten months, Ginnivan for two years and one month, and Ahmed received a one-year sentence. John White, head of group security at Virgin Media said: “Virgin Media’s dedicated security team worked closely with police forces and forensic teams to build this case relating to commercial TV fraud. “A testament to the diligence of the teams involved, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to a total of over eleven years.
“Aside from committing fraud against Virgin Media, the gang exploited consumers who were misled into spending hundreds of pounds on illegal boxes believing they would be able to access pay TV services without subscription. “The courts take this type of commercial fraud very seriously and this sentencing should act as a serious warning to members of the public to steer clear of selling or purchasing illegal TV or broadband equipment. “Purchasing unlawful equipment such as this only serves to fund organised crime and we will continue to investigate and prosecute individuals and groups connected with this type of fraud to the full extent of the law.
“Anyone with information about people supplying or using illicit equipment to receive Virgin Media TV channels can call a confidential hotline: 0800 096 7800.” Cover image: /Flickr.
Virgin Media has advised 800,000 customers to change their password immediately. The company’s Super Hub 2 router could be accessed by hackers, an investigation found. Virgin Media says the risk to customers with a Super Hub 2 router was 'small', but advised them to change both their network and router passwords if they were still set as the default shown on the attached sticker.
The advice followed a Which? Snapshot investigation which found that hackers could access to home networks and connected appliances in as little as four days. Ethical security researchers SureCloud gained access to the Super Hub 2, although Virgin Media said the issue existed with other routers of the same age, not just their model.
A Virgin Media spokesman said: 'The security of our network and of our customers is of paramount importance to us. 'We continually upgrade our systems and equipment to ensure that we meet all current industry standards. 'To the extent that technology allows this to be done, we regularly support our customers through advice and updates and offer them the chance to upgrade to a Hub 3.0 which contains additional security provisions.' If you are still using the default Super Hub 2 router password, here’s how to change it. First, connect a computer to the Super Hub using an Ethernet cable.
Then open a web browser and navigate to the settings page by entering the web address shown on the Super Hub sticker. Click Wireless Network Settings and enter your desired new passphrase into the Passphrase box.
There are separate options for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wireless networks. When choosing a new passphrase, Virgin Media recommends at least twelve characters with a mix of upper case, lower case and numbers.
After that, click Save Settings, and then close the administration interface. All computers and devices that were wirelessly connected to the Super Hub will now be disconnected, because they will still be configured with the old Wi-Fi network security key. Restart your computers and devices and try to reconnect to the Super Hub 2, and you should be prompted for the new passphrase.
If you ever forget your new passphrase, you can set it back to the default by resetting your Virgin Media Hub (this will also reset all other changes you have made to the Super Hub's settings) Once all computers and devices are reconnected to the WiFi network, you can disconnect the Ethernet cable from the computer. If you’re worried about the account details associated with your Virgin Media account, it's worth checking the website. Run by security researcher Troy Hunt – the free database tracks online breaches and allows anyone to check whether their email address has been included in a publicly-available leak. In this instance, you'll need to enter the login details associated with your Virgin Media online account to find out whether your account has been affected. The site will tell you when the breach occurred and exactly what information was impacted. You can also sign-up for alerts tied to any of your email addresses, so you will be notified as soon as another breach is picked up by the site.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |