FOX employee busted for warez

[Moloko_Plus]

MARCH 17--The piracy wave vexing Hollywood has hit particularly close to home for one studio, The Smoking Gun has learned. Secret Service agents last month raided the Los Angeles home of a Fox Entertainment employee suspected of involvement in an online conspiracy to distribute pirated films like Old School, X-Men 2, and The Matrix Reloaded. According to the below Secret Service affidavit, more than a dozen illegally duplicated movies were actually housed on a Fox computer server (along with pirated computer software and games), where they were accessed by members of a "warez" group trafficking in such bootlegged material. Lisa Yamamoto, the 45-year-old Fox employee whose home was raided, is allegedly a key member of that "warez" group. Last November, in the course of an investigation into an unrelated computer intrusion, Fox gumshoes stumbled upon the cache of pirated films, and immediately called in the feds. Along with unwittingly storing the titles, Fox was also paying for the bandwidth used when ring members downloaded the films. Yamamoto, who has yet to be charged in the probe, did not respond to phone or e-mail messages left for her by TSG. (8 pages)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0317041foxwarez1.html

(Kinda sucks she got caught, but what do you expect when you're uploading and storing on FOX's servers?)

[BJ_M]

geez -- that was dumb on so many levels ...

[DeleriumMDK]

In a Warez group, with activity based on Fox' server? Ok thats just stupid. Im a bit indifferent towards warez really, it won't go away...but this person deserves to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for being dumb enough to do this how they did.

[The village idiot]

I think it is more common than you might want to think about. Not just the movies, but all kinds of "stuff" being served from company servers. Even better if that company has an FTP set up for business use, then the bandwidth is easier to hide.

[flaninacupboard]

It really makes you wonder.....

Doing it from home is stupid enough if you work in the industry, doing it AT WORK is just...... indescribable.

[iooi]

It just goes to show how little some companies take notice of what goes in and out of their servers....Maybe they should sack the persons who are responsible for them.....They are just as at fault as anybody.

Took them long enough to work out who was doing it.

[zoneless]

Well, they might be dumb, but that might be the only way to get the movie from the studio to home. Who knows if the studio has rules restricting people from bringing in computer or media?

[Moloko_Plus]

This reminds of a recent headline back in january:

In December, 2001, the FBI executed search warrants, and obtained consent for additional searches, on computers located across the country. The servers involved in these three cases were known as ONLY THE FINEST WAREZ, which was being run at the Bank of America in Boston, MA by ZIELIN, without the bank's permission; CITY MORGUE, which was run out of a house in North Easton, MA by NEAS; and SHAYOL GHUL, which was run out of a Verio Data Center in Sterling, VA, by WOODS, without the company's knowledge or permission. Other servers, and the unauthorized locations from which they were operated, include: uNF (State of Nebraska Department of Roads); SCARECROW (Qwest Communications lab in Balston, VA); CORE DUMP (cable television company in Maryland); PORK CHOP EXPRESS (computer communications company in Brandon, FL); and LAND OF MILK AND HONEY (Tulane University in New Orleans, LA). Another, known as WONDERLAND, was run out of an apartment in Ames, Iowa. The site operator of that server, CHRISTOPHER MOTTER of Ames, Iowa has already plead guilty here in New Hampshire and been sentenced to two years in federal prison.

So it does happen quite a lot.

The link to that article is at: http://www.cybercrime.gov/zielinPlea.htm

[Vanderlow]

So it would have been smarter for her to use a server from home?

[Vanderlow]

So it would have been smarter for her to use a server from home?

[BJ_M]

So it would have been smarter for her to use a server from home?

she had one at home also --

you can read the whole detailed report on the smoking gun web site ...

[iooi]

So it would have been smarter for her to use a server from home?

But they would'nt get the same bandwidth from there......
I guess she hoped no one would be able to track the files to her...

[Capmaster]

(Kinda sucks she got caught, ...........)

And why is that again ....?

[themichael]

In large companies the IT deparment is loved like the red-headed bastars at a family reunion. First out the door for budget cuts. "Hey Fred, did you get my email about my email not working?"

Most managers think "those computer guys" are just playing games and downloading porn between setting up offices.

One day somebody brought in Nimda. Physically. On a floppy. The outside world was cut off until the gateways could be patched and scaning software installed. Needless to say every internal server ran an unpatched version of IIS. Chaos for 2 weeks. The plus side is they did find about 10 servers and several terabytes of storage they forgot they had.

Personally I was using 20gig a month in d/l bandwidth. Streaming audio (not serving, listening), d/l'ing freeware, external web storage (good thing -NIMDA caused several server deaths), surfing, Google (you can use a lot of bandwidth looking up information you are suppose to have but nobody seems to know where the copies are they paid for) and getting Linux iso's (nothing like a shared optical connection!! 1Mbs!! Full CD iso's in an hour!!)

about 6 years ago they busted a big child porn website. They guy was an IT manager in a major company. Very popular site, lots of downloads. Was up for a couple of years before he got caught.

[glockjs]

the saddest part about the story is using fbi resources. of all the terrorist, drug dealers, murderers, yadda yadda etc etc...some how movies and music got more important than protecting everyday life.

[808smokey]

the saddest part about the story is using fbi resources. of all the terrorist, drug dealers, murderers, yadda yadda etc etc...some how movies and music got more important than protecting everyday life.

Well said. All depends who has the most $$$$

[MikieV]

... Most managers think "those computer guys" are just playing games and downloading porn between setting up offices....

Personally I was using 20gig a month in d/l bandwidth. Streaming audio (not serving, listening), d/l'ing freeware, external web storage (good thing -NIMDA caused several server deaths), surfing, Google (you can use a lot of bandwidth looking up information you are suppose to have but nobody seems to know where the copies are they paid for) and getting Linux iso's (nothing like a shared optical connection!! 1Mbs!! Full CD iso's in an hour!!) ...

So, "most managers" have the right idea, its' just the specifics they aren't clear on?

Mike

[themichael]

Well except for the Linux ISO'sand audio, the rest of the bandwidth was for my job.

It's hard to get a radio station to come in when you are surrounded by transmitters, 100's of computers, and many feet of concrete.

And in defense of the "computer guys", it was the warehouse people that were trading porn.

[BJ_M]

its always the warehouse people and porn and the accounting dept with mp3's

[MikieV]

Well except for the Linux ISO'sand audio, the rest of the bandwidth was for my job.

Fair enough, my post was made from work - while surfing the web on one of my many "breaks".

Mike

[Kingnog]

Lisa Yamamoto, the 45-year-old Fox employee whose home was raided, is allegedly a key member of that "warez" group.

^ Does that sound funny to anyone else? hahaha