http://www.thisislondon.com/news/business/articles/timid54179

Lauren Chambliss in New York
14 October 2002

BY THE mid-1990s, when still in his twenties, computer hacker
Christopher Tarnovsky already had the cyber equivalent of a PhD, a
skill for pirating satellite technology and the nickname to match -
the Big Gun.

Now 31, Tarnovsky, has emerged as a central figure in a civil lawsuit
and a US Justice Department investigation in California, where the
murky world of corporate espionage is attracting authorities'
attention and turning into a public relations and legal nightmare for
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

News offshoot NDS, one of the satellite industry's top anti-piracy
firms, hired Tarnovsky in 1997. Technology companies often lure
talented hackers to help them build security-proof systems, figuring
what better way to keep out thieves than to use their expertise to
erect a more secure system. But employing the Big Gun has backfired on
NDS, which last week received 31 subpoenas from the US Justice
Department.

While working at NDS, Tarnovsky was known as Mike Smith, maintaining a
fake identity so that he could frequent hacker hotbeds without
revealing his cross-over into the corporate world. The Justice
Department is investigating whether there is merit to allegations by
Vivendi Universal and Echo-Star Communications - two of the biggest
satellite dish providers - that Tarnovsky did not end his pirating
ways after being hired.

NDS's rivals claim Tarnovsky continued to filter information to
websites frequented by cyber hackers, enabling TV thieves to create
false smart cards and, ultimately, to access pay TV free.

Over the years, a flood of counterfeit smart cards robbed Canal Plus
of more than $1bn and eventually helped cost former chief executive
Jean-Marie Messier his job. Canal Plus was among Vivendi's
under-performing units that caused the board to lose confidence in
Messier.

Vivendi recently pulled out of a civil suit filed against NDS after
News agreed to buy a major stake in Vivendi's Italian pay TV unit. But
the Justice Department continues to investigate NDS, led by chief
executive Abraham Peled, and Tarnovsky.

The corporate spy received his early training in computer technology
courtesy of the US Army, where he had top-secret clearance as a
satellite communications specialist in the mid-1990s while posted in
Germany. At the time, Germany was well known as a haven for hacker
activity through the Kaos Computer Club.

Although Tarnovsky has never been charged with a crime, before
secretly joining NDS he was thought to have been a programmer for a
Canadian counterfeiter Ron Ereiser, who openly sold bogus smart cards
that allowed users to bypass satellite TV providers and access the
service for nothing.

NDS is standing by its man, supplying him with an attorney and
insisting his only job has been to make their newest smart cards
resistant to cyber attack. In a Press release, NDS said the charges
were 'baseless and motivated by a desire on the part of certain
persons and entities to cause harm to NDS and to thwart legitimate
competition'.

-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomoattrition.org with 'unsubscribe isn'
in the BODY of the mail.

• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]