Hacker Admits Interrupting Super Bowl With Porn
TALENT
An Arizona man admitted in court Thursday that he used a computer to interrupt a Tucson-area telecast of the 2009 Super Bowl with a 37-second pornography clip. Frank Tanori Gonzalez pleaded guilty to two counts of computer tampering, Pima County prosecutors said.
Authorities have said that someone cut into the Comcast cable broadcast of the February 2009 Super Bowl between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers that went to viewers in the Tucson area.
Gonzalez was a Cox Communications employee who was working as a liaison with Comcast at the time of the incident, according to authorities.
The game was shown in Tucson on KVOA. The station sent its signals – both standard definition and high definition – to Cox Communications, which then sent them to Comcast. Only those watching the standard-definition feed of the game on KVOA saw the clip.
KVOA officials said the station’s signal didn’t have porn on it when the station sent it over to Comcast.
As part of a plea agreement, Gonzalez must serve three years’ probation and pay a $1,000 fine. If he successfully completes his probation, the crime will be designated a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
Comcast ended up offering a $10 credit to all of its 80,000 subscribers, whether they saw the brief X-rated clip or not. It wasn’t immediately known how many subscribers took Comcast up on its offer, but Assistant Arizona Attorney General Michael Jette said Comcast wasn’t seeking restitution.
