Blind Hacker Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison

* By Kevin Poulsen A legally blind Massachusetts phone hacker was sentenced 
Friday to over 11 years in federal prison, following his guilty plea on 
computer intrus ion and witness intimidation charges earlier this year. < 
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/02/blind_hacker>Matt hew 
Weigman, 19, was sentenced in Dallas by U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. 
Lynn, according to the U.S.  Attorney's Office there.  There is no parole in 
the federal system, and little time off for good behavior, so the 135 month 
term will likely keep Weigman behind bars until 2018. Known in the telephone 
party-line scene as "Hacker," Weigman is widely considered one of the best 
phone hackers alive. Relying on an ironclad memory and detailed knowledge of 
the phone system, the teenager is known for using social engineering to 
manipulate phone company workers and others into divulging confidential 
information, and into entering commands into computers and telephone 
switching equipment on his behalf. The FBI had been chasing Weigman since he 
was 15 years old, at times courting him as an informant.  He was finally 
arrested in May of last year, less than two months after celebrating his 
18th birthday. "I've been interested in phones since I've been about 8," 
Weigman said in a 2007 < 
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/blind-teenage-h.html>in terview 
with Wired.com.  "I talked to technicians when they came down here to do 
things on my phone."

Weigman also admitted eavesdropping on customer service calls to Sprint, by 
dialing into a phone line used by Sprint supervisors to monitor their 
employees.  Weigman parked on the spy line to overhear customers giving out 
their credit card numbers, which he memorized and passed to accomplices. 
Weigman and his friends used the numbers to purchase computers and other 
electronics.

In his plea deal with prosecutors, Weigman, who was born blind, admitted to 
a long < http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/files/weigman_fact 
ual.pdf>criminal resume (.pdf).  Among other things, he confessed to 
conspiring with other telephone hooligans who made hundreds of false calls 
to police that sent armed SWAT teams bursting into the homes of their 
party-line enemies.

The FBI began investigating Weigman after he staged a 2005 hostage hoax that 
sent police to the Colorado home of Richard Gasper, a TSA screener whose 
daughter refused phone sex with Weigman.  When the FBI caught up with him 
more than a year later, cybercrime agent Allyn Lynd offered to make him a 
confidential informant, but called off the deal when AT&T discovered that 
Weigman was still manipulating the phone company. Lynd later told a police 
detective that Weigman couldn't stop hacking for more than 72 hours.

Weigman's current case began in April, the month he reached adulthood. 
William Smith, a Verizon security investigator who'd been monitoring 
Weigman's hacking and phoning in updates to the FBI, noticed that Weigman 
had used the name and identifying information of a Texas woman to turn on 
phone service at the East Boston apartment he shared with his mother and 
siblings. When Smith disconnected the fraudulent account, Weigman turned it 
back on again.  Then Weigman began making harassing phone calls to Smith at 
his house.  To trick the security worker into picking up the phone, the 
hacker socially engineered phone company employees into sharing Smith's 
billing records in near-real time, then used Caller ID spoofing to make 
Smith think someone was returning his own calls, according to court records. 
"For example, Smith 0would call a travel agency to arrange for a flight," 
the FBI's Lynd wrote in an affidavit.  "A few minutes later, he would 
receive a phone call which appeared to be coming from the travel agency that 
he had just booked a flight through.  When Smith answered the phone, Weigman 
would begin harassing him again."

Then on May 18, Weigman showed up at Smith's New Hampshire home with his 
burly older brother, and a party line friend named Sean Paul Benton. Smith 
felt intimidated and called the police, who arrested the hacker.

Benton, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice, was sentenced 
Friday to 18 months.

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