Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and their counterparts from the Kenya Copyright Board (KCB) revealed on Monday, April 17, that they had tracked and arrested an engineer and his team involved in the illegal sale of login credentials.
In a statement, officials from KCB stated that the station from where the team operated was found hidden in a remote area in Eldoret - 10 kilometres from Eldoret Town.
According to the officials, the engineer leading the operation and his three employees had illegally subscribed up to 2,010 individuals to premium streaming sites.
“During the operation, Detectives from DCI’s Crime Research Investigation Bureau (CRIB) assisted the Copyright Inspectors to track the control room location where they found live operations going on.
“The main suspect was found with his 3 employees and were arrested at the remote area in Eldoret town,” the statement read in part.
The officers detailed that they took over the panels noting that many of the subscribers were given illegal access to movies and show streaming sites complete with premium log-ins.
Further, the statement noted that the subscribers had free access to sports streaming sites, free HD and HDR series streaming sites, music streaming sites and podcast streaming sites.
“The inspectors managed to take over the panels with over 2010 subscribers.
“It was involved in the illicit sale of login credentials, granting unauthorised access to TV show streaming and Premium and Compact logins,” the statement added.
The authorities further noted that the seized items will be forwarded to the DCI cyber crime unit for further analysis.
“The Copyright Inspectors also seized other contrivances which they will forward to DCI Cyber Crime Unit for examination and analysis for electronics and Banking fraud to strengthen the case,” added the board.
According to the Copyright Act, "the authorization of the right holder of a program shall not be required to decompile the program, convert the program into a version expressed in different programming language, code, notation for the purpose of obtaining information needed to enable the program to operate with other programs."
Earlier in September 2021, DCI warned Kenyans against online scams used to steal from unsuspecting Kenyans noting that it had become rampant.
The authority asked Kenyans to be wary of engaging in online transactions with companies, agencies or individuals without credible information about them.
