giveupdave
November 16th, 2002, 02:16 PM
Found this over at ID disscussions. Thought you may want to know about it.
" OCRed this from http://www.satbiznews.com monthly magazine, thought it was interesting enuf to share.
____________________________
With hackers boasting that they are on the verge of cracking DirecTv Inc.’s newest conditional access card, the DBS service’s campaign to stop theft of its service took several twists and turns last month.
As hackers kept up their efforts, Direclv scaled back one of its most widely publicized anti-piracy activities—the swapout of its third -generation cards (known as the “Hu” or “P3” in favor of the new fourth-generation card (known as “P4”). At the same time, DirecTv’s policy of going after consumers who allegedly use hacked cards is facing a class action legal challenge. All of this went on as DirecTv’s legal battle with conditional access supplier NDS Group P.L.C. escalated (See “DBS Notebook,” p. 1).
According to several sources, the swapout of Direclv’s third-generation
card is being halted with more than 10 million P3 cards still in use. Many owners ofTiVo and UltimateTVdigitalVCRs with Hu/P3 cards are still receiving P4 replacements, sources said, but once that process is completed DirecTv does not plan to resume the P3-P4 swapout until sometime next year.
Why the digital VCRs are being targeted was not immediately known, though some consumers have been posting messages on the Internet suggesting there are technical issues with the digital VCRs that require them to be used with a P4 card. Several industry hands said they have been told DirecTv is delaying the card swap because of its expense and the company’s emphasis on lowering its operating costs for the remainder of the year to make its bottom line look better.
The Hu/P3 card Es generally believed
to be the most hacked satellite security card in history, with more than I million modified cards being used to steal DirecTv service in the U.S. (Satellite Business News, Aug. 14,2002).
During Hughes’ recent quarterly conference call with analysts, DirecTv President Roxanne Austin said the company was not going to discuss “when we are actually starting the Hu/P3 change out” in order to keep hackers in from figuring out the timeline. Austin also suggested that Direclv’s various anti-piracy activities have lead to a reduction in theft of the service. Last spring, when DirecTv announced the introduction of the P4 card, it said it planned on changing out its entire subscriber base.
The delay in completing the Hu/P3 card change out will clearly give satellite hackers more time to develop and
distribute software to steal DirecTv with a P4 card. And since it now appears the Hu/P3 card will remain in use for at least another year, many hackers claim there is little chance that there will be any gap between the time the Hu/P3 data authorization stream is turned off and a hack of the P4 is widely available on the Internet.
To support that boast, hackers now say they have written software to break the P4 card but they acknowledge that so far the software only works in conjunction with a personal computer and still has to be revised on a regular basis to keep stealing DirecTv. Most credible hackers say that they have not yet come up with a small software file that can be written to a P4 card, though some say the development of the computer based hack is the first major step toward that.
Some security hands question how a P4 hack can be verified until the Hu/P3 card data authorization stream is turned off, and at press time, Satellite Business News had not independently verified the existence of the PC-based P4 hack. DirecTv maintains it has seen no credible evidence of a P4 hack.
Meanwhile, agroup of consumers filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court Oct. 28 alleging that DirecTv’s practice of sending letters threatening legal action to consumers whose names appear on customer lists of alleged hackers violates various California unfair competition, civil rights, and extortion laws.
The consumers complain that DirecTv instructed law firms to send mass mailings of letters to people before investigating whether they had actually received equipment and/or used such equipment for illegal purposes."The purrose of this scheme was to intimidate and coerce persons into forfeiting equipment and to extort a sum of
money payable to DirecTv and its agents," the lawsuit alleges. "The further goal of this scheme was to deter any person from purchasing similar equipment in the future, regardless of their intentions and use for the hardware."
The lawsuit contends that the letters violate the law because DirecTv does not identify specific equipment it contends individual consumers possess, and it further argues that "none of the actual pieces of equipment, which are the subject of these demand letters, are contraband or illegal items. At most, they are pieces of equipment that have many innocent uses, but which under certain circumstances and if certain other conditions are met, could (in knowledgeable hands) be used to receive unauthorized satellite transmissions."
The consumers also allege that DirecTv cast a wide net by sending out letters to thousands of people with no in tention of actually taking legal action against the vast majority of them. DirecTv "gambled, successfully as it turned out, that a substantial percentage of the recipients, as unsophisticated consumers, would submit to the defendants’ demands due to confusion over the intimidating allegations
and factual misrepresentations contained in the letters, as well as financial inability to defend themselves against the draconian penalties threatened," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also alleges that the business records from which the recipients’ names were culled were "seized under hostile and unreliable conditions." It further contends that letters were sent to people that were never DirecTv subscribers or owned DirecTv reception equipment. "The items in question would have been as useless to a recipient who lacked a satellite dish as a shoe to a man without a matching foot."
The letters DirecTv sent out demand the recipient to stop stealing DirecTv’s service, send DirecTv hacked cards they use, as well as demands damages of amounts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, DirecTv spokesman Bob Marsocci said. DirecTv has filed hundreds of lawsuits against people who do not comply with the demands, he said.
At press time, DirecTv had been served with the lawsuit but was still reviewing it, Marsocci said. However,"It is in no way going to deter us from sending demand letters to people who are using hacked cards to steal our service," he said.
DirecTv is also turning to the Internet to try to dissuade consumers from stealing its service. DirecTv has commandeered about two dozen hacker web sites as a result of its legal efforts against alleged hackers.
Satellite Business News has confirmed that DirecTv or one of its law firms are now the registered owners of numerous web sites once operated by hackers.
Visitors to these sites are now directed to an anti-piracy web site operated by DirecTv with a graphic of flashing police sirens and the tag line "Satellite Piracy is Illegal."
The site also contains a scrolling message that explains:"Many illegal dealers’ web sites have been shut down. Some of these sites, when accessed, will redirect the viewer to this site. Others will still seem to be in operation. Simply put, don’t buy illegal devices you never know what it might cost you." DirecTv declined comment.
But sources contended the message is not meant to insinuate that DirecTv was trying to entice people to buy hacked cards or visit web sites that still sell them in an attempt to learn their identities.
The commandeered web sites also include a frequently asked questions section that explains what illegal conditional access cards are, the reasons satellite piracy is illegal, and also seeks to debunk several "myths" about how people can avoid criminal liability.
Meanwhile, hackers and other sources are also charging that DirecTv is working in association with one of satellite TV’s most well known hackers- Canadian Reggie Scullion.
One of the several web sites Scullion operates has in recent days been quoting from and referring to documents submitted under seal in the DirecTv-NDS lawsuit. The hackers and others charge Scullion is operating as a front for DirecTv as a result of the judgements the DBS service has won against him.
Scullion has been the subject of numerous criminal and civil proceedings and his piracy operations started in the C-band era with chipped VideoCiphers. In response to an Inquiry about the allegations, Marsocci said, "It’s speculation from the hacker underground, and we have long standing policy of not commenting on speculation ,especially from hackers."
___________________
CT"
" OCRed this from http://www.satbiznews.com monthly magazine, thought it was interesting enuf to share.
____________________________
With hackers boasting that they are on the verge of cracking DirecTv Inc.’s newest conditional access card, the DBS service’s campaign to stop theft of its service took several twists and turns last month.
As hackers kept up their efforts, Direclv scaled back one of its most widely publicized anti-piracy activities—the swapout of its third -generation cards (known as the “Hu” or “P3” in favor of the new fourth-generation card (known as “P4”). At the same time, DirecTv’s policy of going after consumers who allegedly use hacked cards is facing a class action legal challenge. All of this went on as DirecTv’s legal battle with conditional access supplier NDS Group P.L.C. escalated (See “DBS Notebook,” p. 1).
According to several sources, the swapout of Direclv’s third-generation
card is being halted with more than 10 million P3 cards still in use. Many owners ofTiVo and UltimateTVdigitalVCRs with Hu/P3 cards are still receiving P4 replacements, sources said, but once that process is completed DirecTv does not plan to resume the P3-P4 swapout until sometime next year.
Why the digital VCRs are being targeted was not immediately known, though some consumers have been posting messages on the Internet suggesting there are technical issues with the digital VCRs that require them to be used with a P4 card. Several industry hands said they have been told DirecTv is delaying the card swap because of its expense and the company’s emphasis on lowering its operating costs for the remainder of the year to make its bottom line look better.
The Hu/P3 card Es generally believed
to be the most hacked satellite security card in history, with more than I million modified cards being used to steal DirecTv service in the U.S. (Satellite Business News, Aug. 14,2002).
During Hughes’ recent quarterly conference call with analysts, DirecTv President Roxanne Austin said the company was not going to discuss “when we are actually starting the Hu/P3 change out” in order to keep hackers in from figuring out the timeline. Austin also suggested that Direclv’s various anti-piracy activities have lead to a reduction in theft of the service. Last spring, when DirecTv announced the introduction of the P4 card, it said it planned on changing out its entire subscriber base.
The delay in completing the Hu/P3 card change out will clearly give satellite hackers more time to develop and
distribute software to steal DirecTv with a P4 card. And since it now appears the Hu/P3 card will remain in use for at least another year, many hackers claim there is little chance that there will be any gap between the time the Hu/P3 data authorization stream is turned off and a hack of the P4 is widely available on the Internet.
To support that boast, hackers now say they have written software to break the P4 card but they acknowledge that so far the software only works in conjunction with a personal computer and still has to be revised on a regular basis to keep stealing DirecTv. Most credible hackers say that they have not yet come up with a small software file that can be written to a P4 card, though some say the development of the computer based hack is the first major step toward that.
Some security hands question how a P4 hack can be verified until the Hu/P3 card data authorization stream is turned off, and at press time, Satellite Business News had not independently verified the existence of the PC-based P4 hack. DirecTv maintains it has seen no credible evidence of a P4 hack.
Meanwhile, agroup of consumers filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court Oct. 28 alleging that DirecTv’s practice of sending letters threatening legal action to consumers whose names appear on customer lists of alleged hackers violates various California unfair competition, civil rights, and extortion laws.
The consumers complain that DirecTv instructed law firms to send mass mailings of letters to people before investigating whether they had actually received equipment and/or used such equipment for illegal purposes."The purrose of this scheme was to intimidate and coerce persons into forfeiting equipment and to extort a sum of
money payable to DirecTv and its agents," the lawsuit alleges. "The further goal of this scheme was to deter any person from purchasing similar equipment in the future, regardless of their intentions and use for the hardware."
The lawsuit contends that the letters violate the law because DirecTv does not identify specific equipment it contends individual consumers possess, and it further argues that "none of the actual pieces of equipment, which are the subject of these demand letters, are contraband or illegal items. At most, they are pieces of equipment that have many innocent uses, but which under certain circumstances and if certain other conditions are met, could (in knowledgeable hands) be used to receive unauthorized satellite transmissions."
The consumers also allege that DirecTv cast a wide net by sending out letters to thousands of people with no in tention of actually taking legal action against the vast majority of them. DirecTv "gambled, successfully as it turned out, that a substantial percentage of the recipients, as unsophisticated consumers, would submit to the defendants’ demands due to confusion over the intimidating allegations
and factual misrepresentations contained in the letters, as well as financial inability to defend themselves against the draconian penalties threatened," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also alleges that the business records from which the recipients’ names were culled were "seized under hostile and unreliable conditions." It further contends that letters were sent to people that were never DirecTv subscribers or owned DirecTv reception equipment. "The items in question would have been as useless to a recipient who lacked a satellite dish as a shoe to a man without a matching foot."
The letters DirecTv sent out demand the recipient to stop stealing DirecTv’s service, send DirecTv hacked cards they use, as well as demands damages of amounts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, DirecTv spokesman Bob Marsocci said. DirecTv has filed hundreds of lawsuits against people who do not comply with the demands, he said.
At press time, DirecTv had been served with the lawsuit but was still reviewing it, Marsocci said. However,"It is in no way going to deter us from sending demand letters to people who are using hacked cards to steal our service," he said.
DirecTv is also turning to the Internet to try to dissuade consumers from stealing its service. DirecTv has commandeered about two dozen hacker web sites as a result of its legal efforts against alleged hackers.
Satellite Business News has confirmed that DirecTv or one of its law firms are now the registered owners of numerous web sites once operated by hackers.
Visitors to these sites are now directed to an anti-piracy web site operated by DirecTv with a graphic of flashing police sirens and the tag line "Satellite Piracy is Illegal."
The site also contains a scrolling message that explains:"Many illegal dealers’ web sites have been shut down. Some of these sites, when accessed, will redirect the viewer to this site. Others will still seem to be in operation. Simply put, don’t buy illegal devices you never know what it might cost you." DirecTv declined comment.
But sources contended the message is not meant to insinuate that DirecTv was trying to entice people to buy hacked cards or visit web sites that still sell them in an attempt to learn their identities.
The commandeered web sites also include a frequently asked questions section that explains what illegal conditional access cards are, the reasons satellite piracy is illegal, and also seeks to debunk several "myths" about how people can avoid criminal liability.
Meanwhile, hackers and other sources are also charging that DirecTv is working in association with one of satellite TV’s most well known hackers- Canadian Reggie Scullion.
One of the several web sites Scullion operates has in recent days been quoting from and referring to documents submitted under seal in the DirecTv-NDS lawsuit. The hackers and others charge Scullion is operating as a front for DirecTv as a result of the judgements the DBS service has won against him.
Scullion has been the subject of numerous criminal and civil proceedings and his piracy operations started in the C-band era with chipped VideoCiphers. In response to an Inquiry about the allegations, Marsocci said, "It’s speculation from the hacker underground, and we have long standing policy of not commenting on speculation ,especially from hackers."
___________________
CT"