Comcast hackers sentenced to prison

Christopher Allen Lewis, a.k.a. “EBK”, and Michael Paul Nebel, a.k.a. “Slacker”, were sentenced to 18 months in prison for conspiring to disrupt service at Comcast corporation’s website in 2008. Lewis pleaded guilty to the charge on February 24, 2010. Nebel pleaded guilty on June 21, 2010.

Lewis, Nebel, and co-defendant James Robert Black, Jr., a.k.a. “Defiant”, were associated with the hacker group Kryogeniks. On May 28, 2008, they used their skills to redirect all traffic destined for the www.comcast.net website to websites that they had established.

As a result, Comcast customers trying to read their e-mail or listen to their voice mail were sent to a website where they found a message that read “KRYOGENIKS Defiant and EBB RoXed COMCAST sHouTz to VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.”

Approximately five million people per day connected to the Comcast website in May of 2008. These acts resulted in a loss to Comcast of approximately $89,000.

In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Kelly ordered the defendants to each pay restitution in the amount of $89,578.13. Black’s case was transferred to the Western District of Washington where he was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.