
Not So Securus - Massive Hack of 70 Million Prisoner Phone Calls - uptown
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/11/securus-hack-prison-phone-company-exposes-thousands-of-calls-lawyers-and-clients/
======
Smerity
"Prison and jail communications is a $1.2 billion a year business, whose
handsome profits come from serving a captive and inelastic market."

Securus is used by more than 1.2 million inmates and make $404 million in
revenue, equating to an average of $336 per inmate per year, or $28 per month.
This for a service that's far more limited than equivalent cheap prepaid
mobile plans you'd be able to get.

Other than just being amazed at the potential violations of attorney-client
privilege, I'm stunned that they're allowed to price gouge a literally captive
market, and then offer kickbacks to those helping them keep their monopoly.

Given telecommunications can be lifelines to normality and returning to
society a well adjusted and prepared individual, it's tragic. Remember, many
people in prison in the US are there for non-violent offenses.

~~~
metasean
On the upside...

>(The Federal Communications Commission in October voted to cap calling rates
and fees, a move that Securus and other industry leaders had fought, claiming
the change would have a “devastating effect” on their businesses.)

>Given telecommunications can be lifelines to normality and returning to
society a well adjusted and prepared individual...

Sadly, those seem to rarely be goals of our current prison systems.

~~~
rdtsc
They are of the same caliber as the private prison system companies, which
actively lobby against de-escallating the War On Drugs as it will directly
affect their bottom line.

~~~
sdoering
Societies that privatize their correction system leading to inmates being raw
material for generating profits, are in my eyes not allowed to carry the name
'society' (coming from latin socius = companion or fellow)[0] anymore.

They are not fellows who correct and punish, they are slavers, outsourcing
slavery for generating tax revenue and private revenue alike.

I totally cannot understand any rationale behind a privatization of prisons,
as it totally runs contrary to what society should want to get out of a prison
system (rehabilitation, correcting wrong behavior, punishment).

I know, I might sound harsh, but I really have no idea how a society can want
a system like this, that extorts prisoners for privatized gains.

[0]: [https://translate.google.com/?ie=UTF-8&hl=de&client=tw-
ob#la...](https://translate.google.com/?ie=UTF-8&hl=de&client=tw-
ob#la/en/socius)

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thatswrong0
For more information about Securus, I'm going to have to rep PPI:

[http://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2015/06/19/securus-
profits/](http://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2015/06/19/securus-profits/)

[http://www.prisonpolicy.org/visitation/report.html](http://www.prisonpolicy.org/visitation/report.html)

[http://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html](http://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html)

My favorite bit:

> Securus’ gross profit margin... was a whopping 51 percent.

~~~
robzyb
A gross margin of 50% is not that impressive.

Also, a "gross margin" number is not very insightful without additional
information.

~~~
mattlutze
Gross profit margin is the gross profit divided by revenue[1]. Gross profit is
revenue minus the cost of the goods to the company[2].

Securis keeping 51% of the money generated by its business, after you figure
in what that service first cost the company, is indeed impressive.

What is also impressive though is if, as Securis' CEO suggests near the end of
this[3] article, after all that their net income is only 1.4%. Is he really
saying, there, that direct operating costs eat 99% of their gross margins, or
is he not telling the FCC that a big chunk of change is being "spent" as
operational costs on M&A and other re-directional consumables? My expertise is
quickly exhausted in the subject, but... it can't all be going to kickbacks to
the prisons.

1: [http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/101314/what-are-
diff...](http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/101314/what-are-differences-
between-gross-profit-and-gross-margin.asp)

2:
[http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/grossprofit.asp](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/grossprofit.asp)

3: [http://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2015/06/19/securus-
profits/](http://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2015/06/19/securus-profits/)

~~~
jacquesm
A net of 1.4% on a gross of 50% spells 'creative accounting'.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
I read it as "lots of salary and bonus".

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pilif
_> In addition to metadata, each phone call record includes a “recording URL”
where the audio recordings of the calls can be downloaded._

If the intercept has retrieved the recordings this way, it means that the
recordings are available for the public to download, only protected by the URL
being secret.

The article doesn't confirm that explicitly, but could be read that way.

~~~
gerhardi
The recording URL might well point to an VPN / private network address (at
least it should).

------
metasean
>“We will provide the most technologically advanced audio and video
communications platform to allow calls with a high level of security,” reads
the company’s Integrity Pledge.

I see the problem. It's really a case of simple miscommunication. They
specifically state that they " _will_ ", i.e. in the future "will" provides
this platform with a (note: the singular) high level of security. They do not
state that they " _are_ " currently providing these amazingly secure services.

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forgotpwtomain
Could we include the other part of the subtitle - it seems that without the
context of the second-part it will diverge this discussion strictly to the
"Hack" \- where as it really should read:

> Massive Hack of 70 Million Prisoner Phone Calls Indicates Violations of
> Attorney-Client Privilege

~~~
doug1001
good point--a Constitutional violation no less. I wonder if t's more than a
violation of the 4th Amendment, perhaps 6th as well ("effective assistance of
counsel" or something like that) In any event, an ACLU directory quoted in the
article says that this hack "[m]ay be the most massive breach of the attorney-
client privilege in modern U.S. history"

------
Asbostos
> The company’s contract specifically provides that calls “to telephone
> numbers known to belong [to] attorneys are NOT recorded” and that “if any
> call to an attorney is inadvertently recorded, the recording is destroyed as
> soon as it is discovered.”

This sounds like they can cover their ass easily by claiming not to know those
numbers were attorneys.

~~~
doug1001
that does indeed seem like the broadest CYA clause their lawyers could come up
with, but perhaps it's not broad enough, because consider how the The
Intercept was able to determine which of the calls were between prisoner and
attorney: The Intercept just checked (for a sample of the 77 MM records) for
membership of the phone number called, in a directory of lawyers and law firms
(obviously under-inclusive because this directory usually lists office lines
not individual lawyer's cell phones, as the article states). In other words,
those phone numbers were indeed "known" to belong to attorneys--in fact,
publicly known.

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ck2
If the average person doesn't seem to care if their calls are being recorded,
phones tracked and tagged to their contacts, they sure aren't going to be
motivated by the news that prisoners are being recorded.

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imron
A great piece of reporting, made worse by all the distracting and jiggly
animations.

~~~
walterbell
Depends on which sunglasses are used to view the animated messages.

