De-scramble Cable with A PC

On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 12:52:16 -0400, "Peter Gottlieb"
wrote:

That works fine if the subscriber has your box under your control. However,
if someone has their own hardware, it will not be under your control and
will not respond to your requests to disable decoding.

I think he is talking something similar to what DSS uses where
decryption keys are sent and changed many times a second. The signal
and data stream are always there but the box no longer has
authorization to decrypt it.

The plant currently cannot support a separate on-demand feed to every single
subscriber. Think about it... let's say your system can handle 400
channels, and there are 25,000 subscribers. What would happen if each of
those 25,000 subscribers wanted something different (different channel,
different view, internet, paused, skipped ahead, etc.)?

You would be surprised what they can do. There is a whole new aspect
to CATV now called stream Management. But what is boils down to is the
majority of people watch the same shows at the same time. That's just
the way people are. Pauses view changes etc can be handled locally in
the box. The total number of streams that needs to be sent is far less
than the total number of viewers currently watching.

And on a broadcast system like cable, someone could always intercept a
signal meant for someone else...

Sure they can, but can they decrypt it?

It is not economically worthwhile to make a cable system impervious to
unauthorized viewing, if it can even be done at all. There is a balance
between cost-effectiveness and the number of people getting what they
shouldn't. In many cases the amount of true "lost revenue" is small enough
to not justify huge capital expenditures to replace the entire system.

It's getting cheaper every day.

Management's responsibility is to maximize return for the investors, not
completely eliminate unauthorized viewer priviledges. I hope they remember
that, for I have been known to be one of those investors.


"G" wrote in message
news:3Z2O9.98298$qF3.7704@sccrnsc04...
As a cable technician, I can tell you that to descramble the digital
chanells would be a very cpu intesive process. The head-end sends out 5
hits
per second to your cable box to tell whether or not you are supposed to be
getting cable. If something doesn't match it will stop sending signal to
your box.

"Zknb" wrote in message
...
I think he is talking something similar to what DSS uses where
decryption keys are sent and changed many times a second. The signal
and data stream are always there but the box no longer has
authorization to decrypt it.

The DSS people are playing this continuous game of cat-and-mouse. A friend
told me that one system the hackers used basically cloned an authorized
decoder. Technology keeps making a foolproof system difficult.

You would be surprised what they can do. There is a whole new aspect
to CATV now called stream Management. But what is boils down to is the
majority of people watch the same shows at the same time. That's just
the way people are. Pauses view changes etc can be handled locally in
the box. The total number of streams that needs to be sent is far less
than the total number of viewers currently watching.

Sure, local storage and all that, plus neighborhood store-and-forward
systems.

And on a broadcast system like cable, someone could always intercept a
signal meant for someone else...

Sure they can, but can they decrypt it?

I said that assuming they could. Even if an "unbreakable" cipher for video
is developed there is still the human element. A surprisingly large number
of unauthorized keys come from people on the "inside" of the distribution
network. If the management controls are tightened, the weak link just moves
up the chain. It will never go away.

It is not economically worthwhile to make a cable system impervious to
unauthorized viewing, if it can even be done at all. There is a balance
between cost-effectiveness and the number of people getting what they
shouldn't. In many cases the amount of true "lost revenue" is small
enough
to not justify huge capital expenditures to replace the entire system.

It's getting cheaper every day.

Same goes for the other side. Can't look at one side in isolation.


Management's responsibility is to maximize return for the investors, not
completely eliminate unauthorized viewer priviledges. I hope they
remember
that, for I have been known to be one of those investors.

I reiterate this statement.