Viewsat Owner Allegedly Offered $250,000 Reward to Smartcard Cracker - ABA DSS

**haddad287** · July 16th, 2009

Is this the end of viewsat?

The owner of a California-based company that sells "free-to-air" (FTA) satellite receiver boxes has been arrested on charges that he attempted to hire computer hackers to try and break the encryption scheme used to protect Dish Network's satellite programming signals. Jung Kwak, 33, owner of Viewtech, Inc., in Oceanside, Calif. was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA) in the U.S. District Court in San Diego on Monday. Charged along with him were two alleged accomplices in the plot, Phillip Allison, 35, and Robert Ward, 54, both from Seminole, Florida.

If convicted they face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to indictment papers, Kwak's company imports FTA receiver boxes and resells them under the name Viewsat via a network of retailers.
FTA satellite receiver boxes are designed to allow users to grab free satellite TV programming such as religious and ethnic content. Often they can be relatively easily tweaked to allow illegally access to paid satellite programs from companies such as Dish Network, owned by EchoStar Communications, for free.
A USB port on the satellite receivers allows owners to get and update codes for unscrambling signals simply by connecting their devices online. The relative ease with which the boxes can be modified for illegal use is a factor that has resulted in the sale of "millions" of Viewsat FTA boxes, according to the indictment papers.
In order to defeat such piracy, providers of subscription-based satellite TV programming encrypt their signals and provide smart-cards which subscribers insert into their receivers to decrypt the signals. The use of new smartcards based on one such Dish encryption scheme, called Nagra 3, in the fall of 2007 threatened to seriously impact Viewsat's market because it was considered to be an especially strong encryption scheme.
So Kwak is alleged to have asked Allison and Ward to hire computer programmers who would be able to crack the Nagra 3-based smartcards. Kwak agreed to finance the effort, in addition to rewarding anyone who succeeded in breaking the encryption.
When Allison and Ward are alleged to have found an individual in Florida who agreed to do the hacking, Kwak was said to have paid $8,000 for a special microscope to dissect and analyze the smartcard being used by Dish for decoding Nagra 3 encoded signals.
He is also alleged to have paid $20,000 in cash for photographs, purportedly of the dissected Nagra 3 card. He then indicated his willingness to pay an additional $250,000 if the hacker succeeded in breaking the code.
It was not immediately clear if the alleged hacker, who was not identified in court papers was an informant for the San Diego branch of the FBI which investigated the case. Neither was it clear what exactly triggered the investigation.
Mitch Dembin, assistant U.S. Attorney in San Diego, said today that he was not able to speak about the case that has not been publicly disclosed yet. But he said Kwak's attempts to get others to hack Nagra 3 appear not to have been successful as of the time of his arrest.
"As best as we can tell Viewsat was one of the leading sellers of these boxes," though there are several others selling such devices, he said.
"The use of FTA in order to obtain pirated satellite signals has been very big since Nagra 2 was cracked," Dembin said, referring to the previous version of the encryption technology that Kwak is charged with attempting to break.
It's hard to say how many of those who purchase FTA boxes are using it strictly to grab the freely available programming signals that they are officially meant for, he said. But the fact is that a majority of the over 200 free satellite signals that are freely available are religious and ethnic programs in languages other than English.
"The market for such programming is relatively small and doesn't support the millions of FTA boxes sold in the U.S. and Canada," Dembin said.
In most cases, the set-top boxes themselves are highly sophisticated and are clearly designed to capture far more than the free programming signals they as ostensibly meant for.
This is the second time in the last two years that EchoStar has been involved in a run-in with Viewtech. In 2007, EchoStar and its NagraStar unit, which makes the Nagra descrambling card, sued Viewtech for allegedly illegally bringing Dish programming to about two million homes in the U.S.
That suit had asked the court to enjoin Viewtech from selling FTA devices. The two sides settled the dispute last September.

Read the indictment here.

**SoDarkTheCon** · July 16th, 2009

Thanks for the poll, been widely covered the last few days...I think viewsat is under Big Brother control at the moment...would stay away from the site for awhile. Shame they were one of the best, and who knows...could come back strong from this speed bump.

haseeb · July 16th, 2009

I think he can pay all that off, but i dont think they will be the first with the hack anymore, maybe the pansat guys will prove themselves

**SoDarkTheCon** · July 16th, 2009

Good luck with pansat...seems they are having a hard time also.

haseeb · July 16th, 2009

they probably wont be able to,

**haddad287** · July 16th, 2009

How about cw?

**SoDarkTheCon** · July 16th, 2009

More of a chance from them, heard a few rumors, talked to a few others... seems being quiet could be a good thing for them.

phillipt67 · July 16th, 2009

Is he the actual owner of VS or just owner of distributing company?

roddo518 · July 17th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoDarkTheCon

Thanks for the poll, been widely covered the last few days...I think viewsat is under Big Brother control at the moment...would stay away from the site for awhile. Shame they were one of the best, and who knows...could come back strong from this speed bump.

Which one is the vs site? I want to steer clear but have used several over the past few years.

**SoDarkTheCon** · July 17th, 2009

I mean the actual Viewsat website, not the fta sites. Just a precaution...

phazer1 · July 17th, 2009

I think Mr Viewsat offered the wrong person $250,000,00. If I had the N3 hack I would take $250,000.00 down and $750,000.00 in 6 months if it lasted that long. Then MR Viewsat could sell it off to all the other STB mfg's at $250,000.00 a pop and make plenty of money and sell Sh-- loads of STB's. Does that sound like a good business plan. In my dreams. But what would I know I just read a lot.

treelover · July 17th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by phazer1

I think Mr Viewsat offered the wrong person $250,000,00. If I had the N3 hack I would take $250,000.00 down and $750,000.00 in 6 months if it lasted that long. Then MR Viewsat could sell it off to all the other STB mfg's at $250,000.00 a pop and make plenty of money and sell Sh-- loads of STB's. Does that sound like a good business plan. In my dreams. But what would I know I just read a lot.

He surely did offer the money to the wrong person or persons!!! Why would ANYONE here in the states attempt to "let the world know one is looking for a hired gun???"

NOw that his gun has BANGED, he is about to get BANGED! How can a smart person be soooooo dumb? Maybe he was not so smart after all.

Tree

**blackbeard73** · July 17th, 2009

First of all .... the allegations have to be proven in a Law Court ..... Then the Prosecution will have to prove that this guy is More than a mere dealer for Viewsat , and is in fact working on Viewsat's behalf in the cracking of the N3 code (Good luck on that one ! )... Personally , Idoubt very much that the outcome of this will seriously dent Viewsat's capability in the F.T.A business . Nevertheless , wether it's Viewsat or one of the other manufacturers .... I believe sooner or later ....this code will be cracked .... Patience is all we need .... and the T.V industry knows that full well .......Keep the Faith Brothers &Sisters ......it will soon be All Systems Go !

**aairon** · July 17th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillipt67

Is he the actual owner of VS or just owner of distributing company?

Viewsat is just one of many "rebranders" "distributors" the closest to an actual owner is this guy Kim, Hee-soo, CEO of OPENTECH.

The document that you will find below was compiled over a year ago by myself with the help of a European web site owner/Germany. Just click on the pdf and click on open to read it you can download if you want, it needs to be updated badly, but the open tech info is still valid, you can click on the link and see what the company does and who and where they are. The document was already posted here, click on this link to read, I think you will find it interesting to see who really makes all of these stb's lol.

Yes this is a link just click and click open. -->>ABA DSS - Free to Air Satellite TV Community
Oh and scroll down to OpenTech

ShamwoWImitator · July 17th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackbeard73

First of all .... the allegations have to be proven in a Law Court ..... Then the Prosecution will have to prove that this guy is More than a mere dealer for Viewsat , and is in fact working on Viewsat's behalf in the cracking of the N3 code (Good luck on that one ! )... Personally , Idoubt very much that the outcome of this will seriously dent Viewsat's capability in the F.T.A business . Nevertheless , wether it's Viewsat or one of the other manufacturers .... I believe sooner or later ....this code will be cracked .... Patience is all we need .... and the T.V industry knows that full well .......Keep the Faith Brothers &Sisters ......it will soon be All Systems Go !

What dose it matter if they prove it in court? He's sitting in jail with no bond when/if he dose make bond there will be strong restrictions on his movements. He won't be able to talk to the other defendants. So now that the fix they've been working on since November 2007 is gone and the people who worked on it are in jail or under state supervision. Where's the VS fix going to come from? They don't have to convict him they just have to keep him in the system until Viewtech goes broke.

R.I.P. Viewsat

phazer1 · July 17th, 2009

I think it will be found out that TDG's hacker referred to as the third party in the indictment is working for the Feds or is a Fed. If not why was he not indicted and arrested. Where did the Feds get all of there information for this case?

**slowboy** · July 17th, 2009

WELL I THINK VIEWSAT WILL STILL PUT OUT GREAT WORK FOR US JUST SET BACK A WATE FOR THE GREAT NEWS!!!!!l

**aairon** · July 17th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowboy

WELL I THINK VIEWSAT WILL STILL PUT OUT GREAT WORK FOR US JUST SET BACK A WATE FOR THE GREAT NEWS!!!!!l

I agree
I think at worst, that OpenTech will just find another 'Re Brander' here in the states, when the time comes, If viewsat proves to be to much of a burden.
You will see the same stb's with a slightly different look but all switches and buttons in the exact same locations, under a different brand. It's happened so many times to other brands I have lost track lol.

This is an example of 'ReBranding'!
The top one and the third down from the top are a pansat 2700 and a pansat 3500 the second one down and the bottom one are Vortex products lol. See a little resemblance? I thought so they are all made by a very large Korean company by the Name of Global technologies aka. GlobalTeq. They all play this game the 'rebranders' are of little importance there will always be 'rebranders' waiting in line.

**creativegenius** · July 17th, 2009

Likely from Wire Taps and from an FTA site that is no longer with us.

Creative Genius

Quote:

Originally Posted by phazer1

I think it will be found out that TDG's hacker referred to as the third party in the indictment is working for the Feds or is a Fed. If not why was he not indicted and arrested. Where did the Feds get all of there information for this case?

**SoDarkTheCon** · July 17th, 2009

Just wanted to know who the 19 were ?