3 ms·

A while back (probably 10+ years) I read a cool article on the cat and mouse game between cable TV hackers and the security team at one of the big US cable TV c

by ajb 4y ago

A while back (probably 10+ years) I read a cool article on the cat and mouse game between cable TV hackers and the security team at one of the big US cable TV companies. At a certain point, the hackers had the upper hand and had broken the security of the smart cards which were in use. But the security team turned it round by delivering a sequence of small, seemingly innocuous OTA updates to the card software, locking hackers out of the population of valid cards. Or something like that. Does anyone remember this article/event?

mcwhy 4y ago
Those games are still going on, and according to various sat-tv forums recently movistar is fairly successful at it.
ayende 4y ago
That was DirectTV, I think. See: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/01/01/25/1343218/directvs-secret-war-on-hackers https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/01/01/25/1343218/directv...
- ajb 4y ago
  That was it! Thank you.
- jaywalk 4y ago
  This event was what got me interested in satellite TV hacking. Fun times back then.
FreezingKeeper 4y ago
How about the time when one pay TV company (Sky, owned by News Corp at the time) was said to have hacked a rival and released the hack on the internet for pirates to use? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17522112 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17522112
- ajb 4y ago
  That was amusing as well
aaron695 4y ago