Date: 04-28-2008
Echostar Communications, the parent company of DISH Network Corp., has filed a lawsuit against a News Corp. contractor called the NDS Group, putting the news giant on the defensive. A hacker named Christopher Tarnovsky revealed that News Corp. had hired him five years back to lend his expertise to their business. He said that he was paid $20,000 to develop satellite television pirating and spying software. In the suit, EchoStar Communications, which owned the DISH Network before 2007, alleges that NDS employed hackers to spread smart cards for satellite receivers made to rob paid DISH content. The lawsuit states that the damages incurred in lost sales and network repairs cost about $900 million. But Tarnovsky denies that particular claim, saying that he was paid for making software which was used for reverse engineering purposes, rather than for designing pirated smart cards. “I never got money for reprogramming Echostar cards,” Tarnovsky testified. “Someone is trying to set me up.”