In addition to illegally distributing sports games for profit, the man also allegedly tried to extort $ 150,000 from MLB.
A 30-year-old Minnesota man has been charged with violating the computer systems of top sports leagues in the United States and illegally posting their content on his website for monetary gain, according to the United States Department of Justice (DoJ). One of the leagues that fell victim to the illegal streaming program estimated that it suffered losses of at least $ 3 million.
Joshua Streit, nicknamed “Josh Brody” online, would have had access to the computer systems of Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey. League (NHL) before illegally distributing their content on a website it operated for profit.
“We claim that Mr. Brody hacked the systems of several of our nation’s largest professional sports leagues and illegally broadcast live copyrighted games. Instead of stopping while he was in the lead, he reportedly decided to continue the game by extorting one of the leagues, threatening to expose the very vulnerability he had used to hack them. Now, instead of earning a salary, Mr. Brody faces federal prison sentence, ”said FBI Deputy Director Michael J. Driscoll.
According to authorities, as early as 2017 and until August 2021, Streit was actively operating a website called Hehestreams.com which was live streaming copyrighted content belonging to these major professional sports leagues, in particular the NFL, the MLB, NBA and NHL.
According to court documents, Streit would offer unlimited access to a full season of MLB games for $ 100 a year. Users willing to pay for these services could do so using a variety of methods including gift cards, credit cards, PayPal, or even cryptocurrencies. He was able to access copyrighted content using the stolen login credentials of the appropriate users of the websites.
In addition to his hacking and illegal streaming activities, Streit also blackmailed MLB into paying him $ 150,000 or he would disclose details of a “vulnerability” he found in the company’s computer systems. league.
