http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010126/bs/directv_countermeasures.html
> Friday January 26 4:25 PM ET
> Satellite TV Co. Goes After Hackers
>
> By MAY WONG, AP Technology Writer
>
> SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - After playing a cat-and-mouse game for
> years with hackers who steal its signal to get scores of free
> channels, the nation's leading satellite TV service struck back
> with an electronic attack so vicious the pirates are calling it
> ``Black Sunday.''
>
> DirecTV satellites delivered a special signal to its millions of
> receiver boxes in homes across North America last Sunday, telling
> the system to shut down the unauthorized access cards that
> pirates use to capture DirecTV gratis.
>
> The withering electronic countermeasure (ECM) forced thousands of
> satellite TV pirates to face the prospect of pulling out
> old-fashioned antennas to watch the Super Bowl.
>
> Writing the code to make DirecTV vulnerable once again to
> pirating could take weeks, if it's at all possible, several
> hacker Web sites reported.
>
> ``What I'm telling my customers is that it never hurt anyone to
> get out the rabbit ears or play with the kids for a few days,'' a
> Canadian access card dealer known online as ``DLCT'' said in an
> e-mail interview.
>
> Pirates could, of course, buy a legitimate satellite TV
> subscription, which costs anywhere from $22 to $250 a month after
> an initial outlay of around $150.
>
> DirecTV officials acknowledge that the company uses electronic
> countermeasures, a tool more typically employed in modern
> warfare.
>
> But they refused to specifically confirm or deny Black Sunday.
>
> ``Satellite TV is really growing in popularity, and we knew that
> if there is a group of engineers who can design this system,
> there'd be another group that will hack this system,'' said Bob
> Marsocci, a spokesman for El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV.
>
> With millions of dollars in potential revenue at stake, the
> company ``takes satellite signal theft very seriously,'' he said.
> ``We have an Office of Signal Integrity that works very closely
> with federal and state authorities.''
>
> Ever since DirecTV began six years ago, hackers have persistently
> figured out how to get around paying for it.
>
> Here's how: They buy a set-top receiver from a former subscriber
> or a gray-market dealer over the Internet.
>
> Each receiver is equipped with an access card, a smart card with
> an embedded microchip, that essentially runs the system.
>
> The card is programmed with a unique code, which lets the
> receiver take from the DirecTV satellite signal only the channels
> that the subscriber has paid for, and leaves the rest scrambled.
>
> Hackers have figured out ways to program cards that grant the
> receiver access to everything - like pay-per-view movies and
> sports events and other premium services. This is especially
> popular in Canada, where DirecTV is not licensed to provide
> service, and where selling hacked access cards and equipment is
> not a crime.
:)
> Every so often, DirecTV sends a message in its signal ordering
> the set-top receiver to alter the programming in hacked cards,
> confusing them and shutting them down. Hackers parried by making
> the cards ``read only,'' meaning no new data could be encoded on
> them.
>
> Then, according to the hacking community, DirecTV gradually
> planted a ``logic bomb in the access cards last year. It sent
> data a few bytes at a time to the set-top receivers that
> reprogrammed them so that they would not accept cards that had
> not also been reprogrammed.
>
> That forced hackers to make the cards ``writeable'' again.
>
> On Sunday, DirecTV delivered the digital coup de grace,
> permanently disabling the cards.
>
> ``They actually sent down multiple ECMs at once to make sure any
> and all hacked cards could be targeted,'' said ``DeeEssEss,'' the
> creator and operator of HackHU.com and DishNetHack.com, two
> Internet sites dedicated to the shadowy techno-wizards who pirate
> DirecTV and its rival EchoStar Communications.
>
> DirecTV has about 9.5 million subscribers in the United States,
> and EchoStar's DISH Network counts 4.5 million.
>
> DeeEssEss estimates 200,000 pirates were sent reeling by Sunday's
> attack.
>
> ``This latest one was a very good deterrent,'' DeeEssEss said in
> an e-mail interview. ``The more equipment people have to buy for
> new fixes, the less they will want to hack. Imagine you bought a
> card and programmer last week for around $350 total. This week,
> your card is dead.''
>
> Immediately following the attack, hacker community leaders issued
> pleas for patience. They said the brightest engineers were
> working on solutions.
>
> And so the game continues.
>
> ``This is the way it always is with security hackers, and they're
> always leapfrogging each other,'' said Josh Bernoff, a TV
> industry analyst with Forrester Research.
>
> Just this Wednesday, Arizona authorities arrested a former law
> officer and six other people for allegedly operating a satellite
> television hacking business. Charges are also pending against
> four other people.
>
> The thievery is nothing new. Cable TV providers have dealt for
> years with a similar problem - boxes sold in the black market
> that unscramble the encrypted cable programming signals.
>
> So far, most law enforcement actions have targeted manufacturers,
> dealers and distributors - not the end-users.
>
> Marsocci said DirecTV was preparing a project to educate
> consumers on the seriousness of signal theft.
>
> ``Most people would walk into a neighbor's home, and say, `Hey
> look, I get the satellite service for free' and they're most
> proud of it,'' Marsocci said. ``But it's the same thing as
> saying, `Hey, I just shoplifted this,' or `stole a car.'''
Er... no; when you shoplift or steal a car, you're stealing an
item that costs real money to be replaced, while if you steal
satellite service (or MP3s or warez or online news articles ;)
you're stealing bits that don't cost the producer anything
directly. (though it may cost them something by way of lost
revenue from potential sales, in some cases.)
> On the Net:
>
>
http://www.directv.com
>
http://www.hackhu.com
>
http://www.DishNetHack.com
--
Gerald Oskoboiny <
[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/