Hyderabad cybercrime police probe Bihar hacker in piracy case

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad cybercrime police say the main accused in a nationwide film-piracy case is a man from Bihar identified in media reports as Ashwini Kumar. Police allege he hunted vulnerabilities in film distribution systems, downloaded final copies and fed pirated digital files into circulation.

Stolen DCPs played using KDMs; piracy ring sold copies for crypto.

According to investigators, the accused used so-called bug-hunting techniques and automated bots to penetrate servers belonging to digital cinema technology providers and media firms. He then extracted Digital Cinema Packages and used Key Delivery Messages (KDMs) or other delivery links to enable playback on theatre servers. Police told reporters he described selling copied films to syndicates and receiving payments in cryptocurrency.

Police said the accused first watches trailers on platforms such as YouTube and then targets titles he wants to access early. He allegedly deployed bot software to exploit outdated Windows systems on vendor servers, collected technical credentials and retrieved encrypted content. Investigators added he used video-editing tools to prepare the final pirated output for distribution.

Exhibition technology firms and distributors use secure workflows to send films to theatres. Content is delivered as a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) and, where encrypted, a theatre’s playback server requires a matching KDM — a time-limited XML key that unlocks the AES-encrypted files for a specific server. Police say the accused broke that workflow by obtaining DCPs and KDMs through hacked channels or by intercepting delivery links.

Says he used bots to target Qube and UFO servers, converted earnings to crypto

The probe revealed industry names such as Qube (Qube Cinema) and UFO Moviez in the chain of service providers that handle distribution and KDM delivery. Qube and UFO are established vendors in India’s digital exhibition market; vendors and exhibitors commonly use their systems for secure content delivery under DCI standards. Police said the accused exploited weaknesses in such systems to access films before release.

Police told reporters the accused learnt hacking from online videos and practised without using his personal phone for technical operations. He is reported to have said he could hack any company given time; authorities are investigating those claims and coordinating with other states where the accused allegedly accessed government and private servers.

Investigators said the case links movie piracy to cryptocurrency payments and anonymising tools such as VPNs and encrypted messaging. The cybercrime unit is tracing the money trail and other associates. The probe follows complaints filed with the Telugu film industry’s anti-piracy cell and subsequent arrests that uncovered a larger syndicate operating across several states.