Three Charged in Connection with Comcast Service Disruption
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 19, 2009 |
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN LEWIS, a.k.a. EBK, JAMES ROBERT BLACK, JR., a.k.a. Defiant, and MICHAEL PAUL NEBEL, a.k.a. Slacker, were charged today by Indictment for conspiring to disrupt service at Comcast corporation’s www.comcast.net website on May 28 and 29, 2008, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy.
Lewis, Black, and Nebel were associated with the hacker group Kryogeniks. The indictment charges that on May 28, 2008, Lewis, Black, and Nebel used their hacking 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 on which the only thing that they could find was a message that read “KRYOGENIKS Defiant and EBK 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 $128,000. The diversion prompted an intensive FBI investigation that resulted in today’s charges. Comcast Corporation cooperated in this investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Albert S. Glenn and Alexander T.H. Nguyen.
| NAME | ADDRESS | AGE OR YEAR OF BIRTH |
| CHRISTOPHER ALLEN LEWIS |
Newark, Delaware | 19 years old |
| JAMES ROBERT BLACK, JR. | Tumwater, Washington | 20 years old |
| MICHAEL PAUL NEBEL | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 27 years old |
If convicted each defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and up to three years of supervised release following any imprisonment. In addition, the court could order the defendants to pay restitution.