[red-iron-pine]

when I lived in NoVA I had a roommate that installed and serviced boxes that sound suspiciously similar.

SSL crackers to MITM all ISP user traffic

[Ms-J]

Certainly these devices exist and are installed daily to further steal our info, but are you sure these devices weren't DPI boxes? If you could give a little more detail I might know since I've worked with this type of equipment.