RiseStar
January 29th, 2001, 03:29 PM
Mercury News
In what may go down as a crushing blow to Super Bowl XXXV, the nation's
leading satellite television provider delivered an electronic knock-out
punch to dish owners who've been stealing service.
DirecTV broadcast an electronic signal to the millions of satellite dishes
throughout North America Sunday to detect and disable unauthorized access
cards used to steal service.
``It says to the hacked card: Go kill yourself,'' said Larry Rissler,
DirecTV's vice president of the office of signal integrity.
DirecTV said this electronic countermeasure -- dubbed by satellite signal
pirates as ``Black Sunday'' for its ruthlessness -- was timed for maximum
effect. It coincides with the biggest televised event of the year, the Super
Bowl. Even though the NFL championship is broadcast over the air on network
television, some viewers must rely on cable or satellite because of poor
reception.
No legitimate satellite viewers lost their service but an estimated 200,000
dish owners with pirated access cards got zapped. DirecTV has about 9.5
million subscribers in the United States.
The competing satellite TV service, Echostar Dish Network, is believed to
have done the same thing Tuesday, knocking out pirates on its system.
Echostar spokesman Marc Lumpkin said the company would not comment on
security issues. Dish Network has more than 4.5 million subscribers
nationwide.
DirectV's electronic bullet was brutally effective.
``It took out everything,'' said a 28-year-old Canadian who operates a TV
pirate site called Pirateden.com ``It damaged the card so it's not usable at
all,'' said the man using the Internet name Risestar. ``There's no
recourse.''
The electronic blow is the latest in a series of efforts -- both
technological and civil -- DirecTV has used to stamp out theft of service.
DirecTV began its pursuit of pirates about six years ago, when hackers
figured out how to get satellite programming for free. The key is not in the
dish that collects the broadcast signal or in the receiver that tunes it,
but rather in the access card that DirecTV activates whenever a user
subscribes to the service.
Each receiver is equipped with an access card -- a credit card-size smart
card embedded with a microchip. Each chip has a unique code that identifies
the subscriber -- and tells the receiver which channels he or she has paid
for.
The piracy involves rewriting code on the cards, usually by experienced
software programmers, to receive all available channels on the service --
including pay-per-view and premium movie channels, as well as sporting
events that might normally be blacked out.
The hacked cards are sold openly over the Internet and through conventional
means: through newspaper classified ads and free-circulation ad circulars.
The portion of the cards damaged in the counter attack is used to start up
the satellite receiver. Just as a computer boots up each time it's turned
on, so does the card in the satellite receiver. The attack disrupted the
start program, Risestar said.
``They sent down a signal that was able to determine if the card that was
being used in a machine had been modified,'' he said. ``If it was modified
at all, it corrupted a key portion of the card that made it impossible to
boot up.''
The company's electronic bullets occur frequently, Risestar said, and
usually the damage is minimal, targeted mostly to other parts of the cards.
``This one was harsh, severely damaging,'' he said. ``They don't do this one
very often.''
DirecTV has pursued pirates through the courts, including one case in
British Columbia that resulted in a $30 million award.
It also worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles to
crack an alleged piracy ring. That case resulted in the indictment last
August of 15 people accused of selling access cards that had been
reprogrammed to deliver all of DirecTV's 225 channels -- and all its
pay-per-view events -- for free. The pirates reportedly sold the hacked
cards over the Internet for prices ranging from $200 to $800.
DirecTV has won $55 million in judgments since it began prosecuting pirates
in 1996.
``It's a huge problem,'' said DirecTV's Rissler, a retired FBI agent.
``Quite frankly, the disappointing part of it is the willingness of people
to use these things -- These are the same people who wouldn't even think of
taking a grape off an open air fruit market, because it's a tangible thing.
Their concept of theft is couched in terms of tangible things.''
In what may go down as a crushing blow to Super Bowl XXXV, the nation's
leading satellite television provider delivered an electronic knock-out
punch to dish owners who've been stealing service.
DirecTV broadcast an electronic signal to the millions of satellite dishes
throughout North America Sunday to detect and disable unauthorized access
cards used to steal service.
``It says to the hacked card: Go kill yourself,'' said Larry Rissler,
DirecTV's vice president of the office of signal integrity.
DirecTV said this electronic countermeasure -- dubbed by satellite signal
pirates as ``Black Sunday'' for its ruthlessness -- was timed for maximum
effect. It coincides with the biggest televised event of the year, the Super
Bowl. Even though the NFL championship is broadcast over the air on network
television, some viewers must rely on cable or satellite because of poor
reception.
No legitimate satellite viewers lost their service but an estimated 200,000
dish owners with pirated access cards got zapped. DirecTV has about 9.5
million subscribers in the United States.
The competing satellite TV service, Echostar Dish Network, is believed to
have done the same thing Tuesday, knocking out pirates on its system.
Echostar spokesman Marc Lumpkin said the company would not comment on
security issues. Dish Network has more than 4.5 million subscribers
nationwide.
DirectV's electronic bullet was brutally effective.
``It took out everything,'' said a 28-year-old Canadian who operates a TV
pirate site called Pirateden.com ``It damaged the card so it's not usable at
all,'' said the man using the Internet name Risestar. ``There's no
recourse.''
The electronic blow is the latest in a series of efforts -- both
technological and civil -- DirecTV has used to stamp out theft of service.
DirecTV began its pursuit of pirates about six years ago, when hackers
figured out how to get satellite programming for free. The key is not in the
dish that collects the broadcast signal or in the receiver that tunes it,
but rather in the access card that DirecTV activates whenever a user
subscribes to the service.
Each receiver is equipped with an access card -- a credit card-size smart
card embedded with a microchip. Each chip has a unique code that identifies
the subscriber -- and tells the receiver which channels he or she has paid
for.
The piracy involves rewriting code on the cards, usually by experienced
software programmers, to receive all available channels on the service --
including pay-per-view and premium movie channels, as well as sporting
events that might normally be blacked out.
The hacked cards are sold openly over the Internet and through conventional
means: through newspaper classified ads and free-circulation ad circulars.
The portion of the cards damaged in the counter attack is used to start up
the satellite receiver. Just as a computer boots up each time it's turned
on, so does the card in the satellite receiver. The attack disrupted the
start program, Risestar said.
``They sent down a signal that was able to determine if the card that was
being used in a machine had been modified,'' he said. ``If it was modified
at all, it corrupted a key portion of the card that made it impossible to
boot up.''
The company's electronic bullets occur frequently, Risestar said, and
usually the damage is minimal, targeted mostly to other parts of the cards.
``This one was harsh, severely damaging,'' he said. ``They don't do this one
very often.''
DirecTV has pursued pirates through the courts, including one case in
British Columbia that resulted in a $30 million award.
It also worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles to
crack an alleged piracy ring. That case resulted in the indictment last
August of 15 people accused of selling access cards that had been
reprogrammed to deliver all of DirecTV's 225 channels -- and all its
pay-per-view events -- for free. The pirates reportedly sold the hacked
cards over the Internet for prices ranging from $200 to $800.
DirecTV has won $55 million in judgments since it began prosecuting pirates
in 1996.
``It's a huge problem,'' said DirecTV's Rissler, a retired FBI agent.
``Quite frankly, the disappointing part of it is the willingness of people
to use these things -- These are the same people who wouldn't even think of
taking a grape off an open air fruit market, because it's a tangible thing.
Their concept of theft is couched in terms of tangible things.''