Verizon Technician Is Accused of Selling Customers' Call Records and Location Data To Private Investigator (ap.org) 50
A former Verizon technician who worked in Alabama is being accused of selling customers' private call records and location data to an unnamed private investigator. Authorities said the data was sold for more than four years, from 2009 to 2014. The Associated Press reports: [Daniel Eugene Traeger] logged into one Verizon computer system to gain access to customers' call records, authorities said. He used another company system known as Real Time Tool to "ping" cellphones on Verizon's network to get locations of the devices, according to the plea agreement. He then compiled the data in spreadsheets, which he sent to the private investigator for years, the court records show. "Between April 2009 and January 2014, the defendant was paid more than $10,000 in exchange for his provision of confidential customer information and cellular location data to the PL, an unauthorized third party," court records state. Though Traeger was based in the Birmingham area, the court records do not indicate whether the information that was sold involved Verizon Wireless customers in Alabama or elsewhere. He faces up to five years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending a lesser sentence since he accepted responsibility, according to terms of the plea agreement.
Once again... (Score:1)
Government hates competition.
Re: (Score:3)
Of course they do. The pioneering sociologist Max Weber defined the government as the group of people that enjoys a monopoly on force.
The question is how accountable you want the people who are licensed to use force (including powers of intrusion) to be.
Not true (Score:4, Insightful)
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The quote was certainly related to the mention of competition with government, and your sad attempt to make yourself feel smarter by dissing someone else, probably does, but that speaks not to the merits of that someone else. Sucks to be you still.
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Of course it does. How can you beat people up if you don't know where they are?
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Wow. Tool.
You will know when I'm trying to (sic) "quote from someone smarter than yourself", because that's when I will use "italics and/or bold font in quotation marks"
We are not discussing "physical force" See how I used the quotes there, tool? Its not in bold or italic because I'm not actually quoting your stupid ass, but instead I've just called attention to a phrase that is being discussed. I've still not quoted somebody "smarter than me"
Since we are learning the difference between a statement and
Re:Once again... (Score:4, Interesting)
Now I know (Score:2)
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Why is this illegal? (Score:2)
He faces up to five years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending a lesser sentence since he accepted responsibility, according to terms of the plea agreement.
I thought the U.S. had a third party consent doctrine, whereby no warrant is needed if your data is stored with a third party, in this case, Verizon. So, I don't understand what they're being charged with in this case.
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I assume the issue is that the employee was acting on their own, in violation of Verizon's terms of service. It would have been perfectly legal if they'd been selling the data to advertising partners instead, who would have absolutely no restrictions on who they then re-sell the data to. Honestly this P.I. is an idiot and threw someone in the line of fire for really no reason other than perhaps convenience.
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He faces up to five years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending a lesser sentence since he accepted responsibility, according to terms of the plea agreement.
I thought the U.S. had a third party consent doctrine, whereby no warrant is needed if your data is stored with a third party, in this case, Verizon. So, I don't understand what they're being charged with in this case.
This. I would think that at worst he would be guilty of breach of contract, exposing him to civil penalty, but I'm not sure what they can charge him for, unless it was something along the lines of hacking (i.e. gaining access to computers that he was not authorized to) or corporate espionage.
It's in the article (Score:2)
So yeah, those over broad hacking laws. Kinda sad to see 'em used for something I agree with.
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e.g. MAINWAY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
or other telephone company efforts like Hemisphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Bad Security (Score:3)
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They have common IT security practices.
Like Passw0rd as the general password for all accounts with sudo access? :)
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1 2 3 4 5 is a better password. I use it on my luggage.
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Re: (Score:2)
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Benchmarking? that should be automated.
One down.... (Score:3)
If you think this is an isolated issue you are sorely mistaken. I'll bet this is a mainstay for PI's around the country. Especially since it took 4 years to catch him. My guess without details is that he got caught when he started using the Location system since that's not something anyone besides SysTechs and LEO would need.
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"and then sodomized by a gang of homosexuals"
As opposed to being sodomized by a gang of heterosexuals?
Why do most people accept that once in prison, you will likely be raped? And few if any are concerned that that is tantamount to physical and psychological torture.
Cloud (Score:3)
This is news? (Score:2)
Anyone who thinks this doesn't happen a few hundred times a day with every telecom carrier you can think of is a bit out of touch. And it's hardly worrying next to the people paying off NSA analysts, contractors, and interns...
Money Talks (Score:3)
Everyone has a price.
Low paid call center employees just have a lower one.
You companies who seek to get the cheapest labor you can find would do well to remember this.
"I wonder how this open AP got connected to the corporate network ? "
Ea$y An$wer. . . . .