James Delahunty
26 Oct 2011 3:33
Anti-piracy firm back tracking down web pirates in France.
Back in May, plans to implement a three strikes policy in France that could lead to the disconnection of Internet users caught sharing illegal files were put on hold after it was revealed the company tasked with tracking activity had been hacked.
Trident Media Guard (TMG) was found to be using very insecure servers that were easily penetrated by hackers. They were running a custom administrative program written in Delphi, which didn't require any authentication at all, meaning anyone could connect to port 8500 and start sending commands.
Even though the commands that could be carried out were limited, they were sufficient for hackers to figure out how to do, more or less, whatever they wanted. Hackers had figured out that they could specify any FTP server as the update server and deliver their own malicious updates to be installed.
TMG had to provide details on the breach to the French government. Since the breach, TMG has tightened up its security and the French data authority says it is now happy with the level of security deployed, meaning TMG can continue to track IP addresses of suspected Internet pirates.
Offenders will receive three official warnings about their activities. If the piracy persists, the alleged pirate is reported to a judge who can hand down a range of punishments, the most likely of which would be disconnecting them from the Internet.