Security News > 2021 > October > DOJ: Pirated sports streamer hacked accounts, extorted MLB
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has charged a man for illegally streaming MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL games via the web and hacking into sports leagues' customer accounts.
The charged individual is Joshua Streit, 30, of Minnesota, who allegedly streamed illegal re-broadcasts of major American sports leagues, including the Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, and the National Hockey League.
The Department of Justice says that Streit operated a "Live streaming" website for profit, offering access to the illegal sports content in exchange for subscription fees of $129.99 per season.
Prosecutors say that Streit gained access to the sports league's content by hacking into the accounts of the league's subscribers.
In addition to streaming the MLB's content illegally, Streit is also charged for attempting to extort the MLB for $150,000 by threatening to publish alleged platform access vulnerabilities that he abused to steal the streams.
Streit is alleged to have exploited a flaw in a third-party service's access token system, allowing "Hehestreams" users to access live sports streams by authenticating as legit users of the actual platforms.