Comcast Super Bowl Porn Hacker Pleads Guilty

A man who made the Super Bowl a little more super – or much less super, depending on your take – will avoid going to the big house.

Thousands of football fans in Tucson, Ariz., were watching their beloved Cardinals take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII nearly three years ago. The Cards had just scored to take the lead with a few minutes to go. Then, instead of a kickoff, Comcast viewers were treated to 37 seconds of ... pornography.

That’s because Frank Gonzalez thought it would be the prank of the year to do so, one can only imagine. No doubt he and his buddies got a real hoot out of it.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty Thursday to computer tampering, which will require him to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three years probation, assuming the judge goes along with the deal when Gonzalez is sentenced on Dec. 1. His crime will also be downgraded to a misdemeanor from a felony.

So how did he do it? Gonzalez was actually working for Cox Communications in 2008 and early 2009, but was able to access Comcast’s system because he was a liaison between the two cablecos.

High-definition viewers were spared any of the “extra" content; only those watching in standard definition saw it. (And you wonder why it costs extra for HD? Of course, I jest.) The Arizona Daily Star quotes KVOA-TV – the station airing the game – as saying “the station’s signal didn’t have porn on it when the station sent it over to Comcast." So apparently there was no porn conspiracy here.

Comcast has said it made security upgrades after the game. Good idea? Yeah, I think so.

Sadly for the Arizonans, the porn is probably what they’ll remember most since their team went down to defeat in the final seconds.

And yes, I’m aware there was ample opportunity for puns and innuendo in this post, but I figured I wouldn’t steal all of your fun.