£1.2m streaming equipment seized in Farnborough data centre raid

Police shut down an illegal streaming operation at a Hampshire data centre, seizing over £1.2m in equipment and arresting two people.

Farnborough data centre raided over illegal streaming network

More than £1.2m worth of equipment has been seized after police shut down an illegal streaming operation at a data centre in Farnborough, Hampshire, bbc.com reports.

The operation was led by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at the City of London Police. Officers worked alongside Sky to dismantle pirate infrastructure hosting clusters of high-bandwidth servers that supplied illicit streams to thousands of users across the UK.

Two people were arrested during the raid. A sum of £700,000 was recovered from one of the individuals. Both have since been released under investigation, and the seized equipment is now subject to forensic examination.

Det Sgt Ben Hobbs, from PIPCU, said the operation — triggered by a report of suspicious activity — highlighted how widespread illegal streaming had become in the UK. "If you plan to stream, ensure you only use official and not pirated sources to protect yourself from the risks," he said.

PIPCU warned that illegal streaming services can compromise electronic devices and expose users' personal data, including banking information, to criminals.

Matt Hibbert, group director of anti-piracy at Sky, said illegal streaming was "part of organised criminality that undermines the creative industries and causes harm to consumers." He added that continued partnership between police and industry was "essential to disrupt these operations, protect our content, and keep consumers safe from the harmful risks it poses."

Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)