The Civil Guard arrests six people for stealing passwords from a cable television operator

The detainees accessed the operator's servers and registered fictitious users. Subsequently, with the passwords in their possession, they installed pirate decoders in homes that allowed people to watch pay television channels for free.

The Civil Guard, in the 'Escalador' operation carried out in the provinces of Huelva, Barcelona and Valencia, has arrested six people and charged another three with stealing passwords from a cable television operator to activate pirate decoders. The detainees accessed the operator's servers and registered fictitious users. Subsequently, with the passwords in their possession, they installed pirate decoders in homes that allowed people to watch pay television channels for free.

They are charged with the crimes of fraud, damage to computer systems, discovery and disclosure of secrets and fraud of electrical fluid and similar.

During the operation, the agents carried out three home searches where they seized 21 hard drives, 34 pirated decoders and 12 computers with thousands of passwords to be used in pirate decoders and carry out attacks on the communications operator.

Mode of operation

The detainees used their computer skills to access the servers of a well-known telecommunications operator. Once inside, they registered fictitious users, modifying and postponing the invoice issuance dates by 20 or 30 years. In this way they prevented an alert from being generated for unpaid invoices and thus the manipulations of the customer bases were not detected.

When those involved had the necessary serial numbers in their possession, they marketed “pirate” decoders to their clients that they configured with the complete package of channels offered by the company, thus obtaining a decoder valid in the operator's systems, but outside the control and management of the company.

Some of those arrested advertised these decoders on the Internet, for which buyers paid up to 150 euros.

Among those detained is a worker from a service company hired by the operator. This person accessed the company's computer systems through other colleagues' passwords so as not to leave a trace of his participation.

Once he obtained the necessary serial numbers, he assigned them, like the rest of those now detained, to pirate decoders that he later put up for sale.

The operation has been carried out by the Telematic Crimes Group of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard together with the collaboration of the security department of the affected company.