"Dean Jarratt" wrote in message
.. .
Yes OK, if it takes a hacker too long to crack the encryption it would not
be worth it...it probably isn't worth it anyway because you can rent a DVD
for less than Box Office charges...but 'theoretically' it is possible to
defeat Sky in this way...

Sky certainly seem to have managed to deliver a very secure delivery mechanism
that so far has resisted any hacking attempts.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anyone to do it.

I believe that by giving access to read/write data, a utility could be
written and installed on the SKY+ HD which decrypts incoming signals, hence
taking away the need for a sky subscription and card.

Except that process would appear to be very complex, else it would have been
done by now.
The market is clearly lucrative enough to attract the best hackers, yet no one
has come close AFAIK.
Remember that Sky uses a complex mixture of software and hardware for its
encryption.
And installing your own program to run on Sky+ takes a lot more than just
cracking the encryption routine.

Loz

In article , Dean Jarratt wrote:
I believe that by giving access to read/write data, a utility could be
written and installed on the SKY+ HD which decrypts incoming signals, hence
taking away the need for a sky subscription and card.


In principle, yes.

In practice... I don't know what approach is taken by Sky to the encryption,
but I do understand software encryption via public/private key exchange. The
critical difference between Sky transmissions and a fixed encrypted media (eg
DVD) is that Sky are free to change the encryption key whenever they feel
like it, or even the encryption mechanism, since they control both ends of
the transaction. Hence I think it's complete non-starter - even if someone
did crack today's mechanism or key, they'd just switch to a new one via a
software update.

--

F

"Ferger" wrote in message
...
In article , Dean Jarratt wrote:
I believe that by giving access to read/write data, a utility could be
written and installed on the SKY+ HD which decrypts incoming signals, hence
taking away the need for a sky subscription and card.


In principle, yes.

In practice... I don't know what approach is taken by Sky to the encryption,
but I do understand software encryption via public/private key exchange. The
critical difference between Sky transmissions and a fixed encrypted media (eg
DVD) is that Sky are free to change the encryption key whenever they feel
like it, or even the encryption mechanism, since they control both ends of
the transaction. Hence I think it's complete non-starter - even if someone
did crack today's mechanism or key, they'd just switch to a new one via a
software update.

and they can factor the serial number of the specific instance of hardware (the
sky box) into the algorithm making it very complex.

loz