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Norwegian inmate hacks TV system to share porn, secret messages

Most humane prison in the world, indeed.

 

Curt Hopkins

Tech

Posted on Aug 24, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 2:39 am CDT

Norway‘s inmates enjoy some of the world’s highest-quality correctional facilities. Especially now that one of them hacked the prison television system in order to share porno and exchange secret messages with his fellows.

An unidentified inmate hacked the system at Halden Prison, according to TheLocal.no. Time magazine called Halden the most humane prison in the world.

Once hacked, inmates could use the state-of-the-art digital televisions to speak with one another and share pornography and other digital files.

The prison officials only noted the hijacking of the prison televisions when their data usage levels spiked.

“We reacted when we noticed unusually high data traffic and that inmates were having more than the normal trouble with their TVs,” said Halden’s deputy warden Jan Strømnes. “In addition, we found a handwritten note with a log-in on an inmate during a search.”

Halden was designed for rehabilitation, as opposed to punishment, and is built to resemble the outside world as much as possible, with flat-screen TVs, mini-fridges, and “en suite” tiled bathrooms.

Strømnes told Norway’s VG newspaper, “We examined the TV system for security and built it up again. Today, the inmates have only regular TV.”

The very definition of cruel and unusual punishment.

H/T VG | Illustration by Max Fleishman

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*First Published: Aug 24, 2015, 10:00 pm CDT