MediaDefender Hacker Speaks Out
Written by Enigmax & Ernesto on January 14, 2008In September 2007, anti-piracy company MediaDefender’s emails went public after a hacker gained access to their systems. The attacks cost the company a huge amount of money, not to mention acute embarrassment. Now the person behind the attacks speaks.
The whole Media Defender scandal needs little introduction. The anti-piracy company is incredibly unpopular with most of the file-sharing community, so when they fell victim to a hacker and their company secrets spread all over the Internet, few held much sympathy for them.
Soon it became known that a shadowy group known as MediaDefender-Defenders appeared to be behind the attack - they host the Media Defender emails on their website to this day, but little was known about the chain events, or who was behind them - until now.
In an interview with portfolio, the hacker (using the pseudonym ‘Ethan’) explains how things led up to the leak. Ethan, a polite high-school student who lives with his family, was on his Christmas break when he first gained access to the anti-piracy companies servers by exploiting a weakness in their firewall. This was the end of 2006, at a time when business was still good for Media Defender, with revenue standing at nearly $16m.
The interviewer, Daniel Roth, says he communicated with Ethan on pre-pay phone to ensure security. Meeting after school in a local bookstore, Ethan handed over a flash drive holding confidential Media Defender information, explaining that the initial security breach hadn’t amounted to much and that he had difficulty in gaining the interest of fellow hackers. However, a few months later Ethan decided to go back and take a second look - which bore more fruit - giving him access to the company’s email, it’s networked resources and even its telephone system. He then explains how he passed on some of the information to a fellow hacker who gained access to Media Defender servers and used them for denial-of-service attacks.
Logging in a handful of times each month through the summer of 2007, Ethan started to get bored with ‘Monkey Defenders’ - his pet name for the anti-piracy outfit. Deciding to go out with a bang, he and the Media Defender-Defenders gathered thousands of the company’s internal emails and published them on web.
A text file included with the emails stated: “By releasing these emails we hope to secure the privacy and personal integrity of all peer-to-peer users. The emails contains information about the various tactics and technical solutions for tracking p2p users, and disrupt p2p services,” and “A special thanks to Jay Maris, for circumventing there entire email-security by forwarding all your emails to your gmail account”
Just days later, slamming the anti-piracy company again and again seemed to be the aim of Ethan and friends, as they released a private telephone conversation with the New York attorney general’s office, a P2P tracking database, followed a few days later by all of Media Defender’s anti-piracy tools.
Ethan said that he didn’t set out to ruin Media Defender: “In the beginning, I had no motivation against Monkey Defenders” he said. “It wasn’t like, ‘I want to hack those bastards’. But then I found something, and the good nature in me said, These guys are not right. I’m going to destroy them.”
Ethan, who is now sought after by the FBI because of the leaked emails, is getting close to this goal. It all went downhill for MediaDefender after the leaks got out. In November it turned out that MediaDefender’s parent company ArtistDirect lost almost $1,000,000 because of the hack, and their stock price plunged soon after that.
To make it even worse, a week after the sensitive information was made public, the Pirate Bay launched a counterattack against their arch rival. They decided to use the information from the emails to file charges against some of MediaDefenders customers including Paramount Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Music Group for corrupting and sabotaging their BitTorrent tracker.
There is no doubt that the pirates have won this battle, and it will be very hard for MediaDefender to regain their credibility. To quote MediaDefender CEO Randy Saaf: “This is really fucked…”. Yes, I’m afraid it is Randy.
Previously: Video: How People Are Tracked Using BitTorrent
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104 Responses
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Ethan is the man!!
This will never end, and there will never be any winner.
The only losers will be big media corporations who still don’t have a clue on how to work with these services instead of trying to stamp them out.
Good luck with your future endeavors Ethan!
“In November it turned out turned out that MediaDefender’s parent company…” - fix this :)
P.S. Ethan, you rule!
You are all retards. this story is fake.
@54
Dont be like that, you talk like Randy Saaf
hah [quote comment="263861"]if ethan get caught he will be asked to working for the FBI.. :D[/quote]
More like he will be sent to fmita federal prison. I laughed when I saw that he gave the “journalist” a 10 year old address, picture, and first #s of SSN. Like that is of any significance (you can determine the first few num’s based on where they were born). Anyone can produce that with the info that guy provides on his personal webpage, and a service like Zabasearch.
“he first gained access to the anti-piracy companies servers by exploiting a weakness in their firewall”
is a pretty damn lame statement to make. I know how script kiddie Ethan got access and he deserves a lot of credit for blowing the lid on Media Defenders. Information wants to be free! But he should stop giving interviews and disappear. Assuming he proxied all his connections, they won’t catch him.
“A special thanks to Jay Maris, for circumventing there entire email-security by forwarding all your emails to your gmail account”
Poor Mr. Jay Maris is a scapegoat for Ethan’s diversion.
Thank you very much Ethan, good job :)
Hope many will folow
What evidence do you have to back up that this anon should be the “hacker”?
Why did he wait so long to speak if it is really in his interest to do so?
Why does he write “we” in the initial statements accompanied by the leaks, if he is just one person?
Why would a guy being chased by the FBI Narrow down the number of possible suspects down so much?
1. male
2. US high-school student
3 Living with his parents
+ if the FBI finds out where this journalist met with the guy, then they know it is a bookstore near him. All the feds now need to do is knock on a few doors.
And this kid has also been entertaining all his friends with his endeavours…
This story is simply not plausible.
“…giving him access to the company’s email, it’s networked resources and even its telephone system…”
I’ve heard of people who are consistently unable to make the it’s-its distinction, but I’ve never seen this.
The apostrophe doesn’t belong; please get rid of the “it’s” and replace it with “its”.
[quote]Why would a guy being chased by the FBI Narrow down the number of possible suspects down so much?
1. male
2. US high-school student
3 Living with his parents
+ if the FBI finds out where this journalist met with the guy, then they know it is a bookstore near him. All the feds now need to do is knock on a few doors.[/quote]
Of course you’re right…
For many artists, it is as difficult to write a song (and often it requires more equipment) than it is for a computer programmer to write software. A song can take months. An album can take years. But should a song be available for free? Or, does a song have an inherent worth that deserves to be paid for?
Generally speaking, songs and software are both forms of Intellectual Property (IP). Like Physical Property, IP is owned and protected for a number of reasons..
1. Mental effort goes into making Intellectual Property.
2. Time goes into making Intellectual Property.
3. And lastly, financial investment goes into making Intellectual Property.
So why should you care about IP?
Without mental effort, time and investment, there would be no Internet. There would be no operating systems and no hardware.
So if the popular notion of The Pirate Bay takes hold in that all ideas should be free, will we ultimately destroy the Internet?
Certainly, if we devalue one form of IP (the lowly song) and destroy it in the name of nihilism, it may be a slippery slope to the destruction of other forms of IP.
Ronald Reagan said in the 80s that careers in computers would replace menial labor jobs. And indeed, as developed countries embraced computers, labor jobs went to developing nations. With this trend, the value of the mind was elevated. But now, with the ultimate survival of IP in question, where are we going for our future?
If ideas have no value, then do we, as modern thinking nations have no value? With this in mind, it may be possible that illegal downloading will lead to the downfall of society as IP crumbles beneath our fingertips and a ripple effect takes hold in the global economy.
Folks, TPB’s attitude is a fallacy and a siren of destruction. As they sap billions of dollars out of the world economy, they are initiating and encouraging a larger trend of collapse for the $1 trillion (USD) IP industry. When this $1 trillion industry falls, it will spill over to other sectors of the economy. Ordinary jobs will be endangered and the world will fall into a global depression never before experienced in modern times.
Mark these words; if you pirate, you are contributing to the slippery slope for which there is no escape. No matter who you are, what you do or where you live, your job and future is intrinsically linked to the future of IP.
That is awesome!
Go Ethan!!!
FYI, FBI: Ethan is Britney Spears. GET HER!
@ 62
You do realize that an artist (that has signed with a label) gets his money from performances, not sale of recordings, right? An I’m calling BS on “…it is as difficult to write a song (and often it requires more equipment) than it is for a computer programmer to write software.” Come to think of it, I’m not even sure what you’re trying to say with this. Are you saying it’s more difficult than or as difficult as?
Rather than dwell on that, I’ll just go point for point
“1. Mental effort goes into making Intellectual Property.”
With you there.
“2. Time goes into making Intellectual Property.”
Time goes into any activity.
“3. And lastly, financial investment goes into making Intellectual Property.”
Here I have to disagree. The financial cost is insignificant. Anyone can afford pencils and paper.
“Without mental effort, time and investment, there would be no Internet. There would be no operating systems and no hardware.”
Those are products. Actual, physical, things.
“So if the popular notion of The Pirate Bay takes hold in that all ideas should be free, will we ultimately destroy the Internet?”
Well, considering that the internet is based around the free flow of information, and ideas are just a form of information, I’d say ‘No.’
“Certainly, if we devalue one form of IP (the lowly song) and destroy it in the name of nihilism, it may be a slippery slope to the destruction of other forms of IP.”
Slippery slope indeed. As in “slippery slope fallacy”.
“Ronald Reagan said in the 80s that careers in computers would replace menial labor jobs.”
He was wrong.
“If ideas have no value, then do we, as modern thinking nations have no value? With this in mind, it may be possible that illegal downloading will lead to the downfall of society as IP crumbles beneath our fingertips and a ripple effect takes hold in the global economy.”
Wow. Just wow. You didn’t even try to cover up your invalid logic. I’m going to break this down ever further.
“If ideas have no value, then do we, as modern thinking nations have no value?”
1.Who ever said ideas don’t have value? We just think they should be shared freely.
2.A nation is composed of people, territory, cities, etc. Not ideas.
“With this in mind, it may be possible that illegal downloading will lead to the downfall of society”
This makes no sense whatsoever. Even accepting your statement that illegal copying will crash the economy (a ludicrous statement in itself) that is just economic damage. Not even the great depressions destroyed society.
It’s clear that you have little experience in the area of coherent and logical thought.
PS. Oh, and you misspelled ‘conscience’ too.
Hey feds, Ethan’s IP is 127.0.0.2 … he’s ultra-1337 (or something). You should be able to find him now :)
I seriously don’t think these things would happen if major labels found a different approach to circumventing piracy.
How about a flat monthly or weekly fee for all the music you wish to download? I’d actually feel sort of bad to pirate anything if they did that, and I’m a poor college kid.
If the FBI finds “Ethan”, I am sure they will work out something in return for jail, or not being allowed near a computer.
The FBI actually needs more “Ethans”, especially for Home Security Operations.
Never Say Never…
Dear: This is your Conscious Speaking
You came to the wrong forum to proselytize intellectual concepts with P2P sharers. You have to do much better in order to persuade and change the hearts and minds of P2P sharers.
P2P is never going to disappear, as long as the internet/web lives and breathes.
Your intellectual discourse will just fly by people’s head. Come up with something that we have not heard before. That IP (intellectual property) discourse is already passe. Very boring.
P2P = Creativity
Here comes the neo-nazi/’wannabe Hitler’ of this feud(lol).
@62:
I don’t know how to say this without sounding immature, but heres goes: (remember that I don’t know you and I’m using a stereotype[there's a reason people use sterotypes, think about it]) I fucking hate you (before you read on, I do NOT want to kill you).
That is all.
@65:
You’re on the right track.
To the rest of you:
I (probably) do NOT hate you, but you dissapoint me. Your so called beliefs are nothing more than the desire of getting stuff for free and mankind’s rebellious instinct.
[quote comment="263482"]@ #3- On the contrary, my doubtful friend. This war IS going to be won by the Pirate side. The industry is already showing clear signs of teetering as their revenues continue to slide and they increasingly clutch at whatever straws they can to prop themselves up in the face of a world that no longer needs their outmoded and obsolete business model.
They are being taught on a daily basis that NO ONE owns or controls a society’s entertainment or information. They can no longer hold our shared common culture for ransom.
Take a deep whiff. Smell that? It’s the smell of victory for freedom of information and it’s the smell of fear as arrogant, greedy corporate behemoths that have raped their customers for decades wake slowly up to the fact that they are dying.
Yarrr, mateys! Hoist up the sails.
Ramming speed![/quote]
The war on piracy cannot be won. Not yet.
(WARNING PERSONAL BELIEFS AHEAD)
Wikipedia “anarchism”.
The “war,” as you people are calling it, is going to get worse before it gets better. Companies are starting to feel the pinch, and so they’re all getting more strict about their copyright regulations and doing everything they can to protect their “intellectual property,” stepping on all of our rights and privacy in the meantime.
Within a number of years, it will get so bad that people will simply be unable to take it anymore. Consumers will stop responding in any way to their tactics and simply cease to be willing to pay for their products. We, as pirates, are the first of those consumers. We think it’s bad enough already.
As the companies get even more worried, they’ll put more pressure on governments to pass laws to help them. The moment this sort of law starts getting passed is the moment that the general public won’t stand up for it anymore at all.
So in the end, the companies’ tactics will crumble, and the lawmakers will backtrack. The winners will not be pirates, however, but people in general. It won’t be the concept of piracy on peoples’ mind at that point, but the ideals of actual freedom and privacy.
With lobbyist forcing strict copywrights, HW vendors including native HW HDCP functionality, SW following suit (VISTA is nothing but a DRM gotcha) and the US thinking it owns the world so it’s all right to control those foreign swedens living in the far nordic reaches of the U.S. of Assholes to do as they say. I don’t see how anyone can spend one dime or pander to these corrupt organizations. Dissent is patriotic.
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