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Blind brother hackers appear in court

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 02 Nov 1999 15:02 GMT

Three Israeli brothers -- all blind, all hackers -- appeared in court in Israel Tuesday accused of 42 separate cyber-crimes.

The brothers, Munther Badir 22, Muzhir Badir 23, and a younger brother who cannot be named for legal reasons were arrested last month after allegedly hacking into the Israeli national telephone exchange.

All three brothers have been blind since birth but were able to weave their computer wizardry thanks to specially created Braille keyboards and voice activated gadgetry. The trio even ran their own computer consultation firm.

It seems the brothers' sense of humour knows no bounds as today it was revealed they stand accused of breaking into a mail order catalogue computer system and ordering... a 25 inch television set.

The prosecution also accuses the Badir brothers of jamming the telephone line of a nearby brothel as a favour to a competing establishment.

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