
******************************************************************
*---------------- Syndicated Hack Watch - September 1992 --------*
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*-------------- Special Projects BBS +353-51-50143 --------------*
*--------------        SysOp: John McCormac        --------------*
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*------------- (c) 1992 MC2 (Publications Division) -------------*
*--------------- 22 Viewmount, Waterford Ireland ----------------*
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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Skys's Movie Channels - Three Too Many?

Kentucky Fried Chip Update

Sky To Change Card Type

Euroswap Lives

BBC World Service To Go D2-MAC/EuroCrypt

Red Hot Dutch - Pirate Descrambler Adverts

Sky Sport Upgrade Problems


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Contact Numbers:

Voice: +353-51-73640
Fax: +353-51-73640
BBS: +353-51-50143  HST  -  Special Projects BBS
E-mail: mc2@cix.compulink.co.uk

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Three Movie Channels Too Many?

As  of  October first, the Comedy Channel, Sky's sickest  joke  is
dead. It will be replaced with a channel dedicated to old  movies.
The  market for classic movies is large and Sky hopes to tap  this
market.  The  promotional material for the  channel  is  certainly
good. Most of the films shown in the adverts are classics but they
are also available on terrestrial television.

While in the USA the current trend for the Autumn schedule is  sub
thirty  orientated  Sky seems to be making a grab  for  the  supra
forty  age  group. Many of the new series, including some  on  Fox
networks are aimed at the twenty to thirty year old market. In the
UK the trend seems to be reversed. This may be due in part to  the
current financial situation. Those in high mortgage situations  do
not have as much disposable income as those who have paid off  the
mortgage.

When  the  UK  comedy programmes were dropped  from  Sky's  Comedy
Channel, it was doomed. The audience were treated to a diet of  US
and Australian comedy programmes with the odd film thrown in  here
and there. The loss of the UK programming meant that plans to turn
the channel into a pay service were not really viable.

Sky  Gold, its replacement channel is a pay service and indeed  is
one that would be a viable pay service. Of course the  terrestrial
channels   would  dispute  that.  The  BBC  has  already   started
advertising its "Season Of Classics". ITV has started to screen at
least three network first run movies each week.

The  new  channel will be free for subscribers to  both  of  Sky's
existing  movie channels. It is available at a discounted rate  to
other  Sky  subscribers  who  only  get  one  channel.  This  will
effectively  produce a movie rich environment for the  viewer.  It
has also produced a richer target for hackers.

Clearly  Sky  has beaten Bravo to the market. There  were  rumours
that  Bravo,  the golden oldies channel on the  Intelsat  at  27.5
Degrees West, intended to move to ASTRA. Sky Gold will have thrown
a spanner in the works.

The  problem  at the moment for Sky is that they  now  have  three
movie  channels. Sky Movies Plus and The Movie Channel are  relics
of the bygone conflict between Sky and BSB. The current  situation
will not exist for long.

In the United States, there are three types of movie channel;  the
premium  first  run  channel, the general movie  channel  and  the
classic movie channel. The premium channel is where the movies are
pay per view. The viewer has the choice of getting these movies at
least  two months before they appear on standard  movie  channels.
The  general movie channel is a channel much in the mould  of  The
Movie Channel. The classic movie channel is where people pay again
for  movies that they have probably already seen and forgotten  to
video tape.

One of the central elements of a three tiered channel is a  proven
pay per view (PPV) system. The VideoCrypt system has a PPV element
though  it  is  as  yet  untested.  There  are  rumours  that  the
VideoCrypt  card  structure  is being changed for  the  next  card
issue.  Recently some information appeared in the satellite  press
about  Sky  going  PPV in about a  year's  time.  The  journalists
responsible  for the articles had been fed on press  releases  and
did very little analysis or investigative work.

Sky  may  introduce PPV with the next card issue.  The  next  card
issue  my occur before the end of the year. There are two  factors
that affect the new card issue - the availability of the new  card
and the KENtucky Fried Chip.


The KENtucky Fried Chip

The  latest  information on the chip is that it works.  Though  it
remains  to  be seen if the chip will work through the  next  card
change.  The hackers say that it will and naturally Sky pray  that
it will not.

There  is  a test that Sky could run to test the veracity  of  the
8052  in the decoder. First a memory address in the card would  be
read.  Then the memory address would have data written to it.  The
memory  address would then be read for a second time. The  results
of  the  two read operations would be compared. If they  were  the
same  then  the  card had not been written to and the  8052  is  a
KENtucky  Fried Chip. If the results were different then the  8052
is  a genuine 8052. It is simplistic. Perhaps too simplistic.  The
hackers would naturally have safeguarded against such a test.


Sky To Change VideoCrypt Card Type

The  present VideoCrypt smart card type is to be replaced  in  the
not too distant future. There are few details available on the new
card type but it is believed to be of US origin. Motorola has been
mentioned  as  a  possible supplier. However  the  fact  that  the
present card type, the Thomson ST1834, closely resembles the  6805
in code structure casts some doubt on this rumour.

The  new  card type will be an EEPROM version. The cards  to  date
have been EPROM types. This has resulted in a few very easy  hacks
on  VideoCrypt.  The latest version of the card (Version  06)  are
still EPROM but they have a voltage tripler on the card wafer.

Since  Sky  want  to  introduce pay per  view  soon,  a  new  card
structure would be required. The fact that the program in the 8052
has  been  dumped obviously influences the situation.  They  would
have  to change the original pay per view architecture so that  it
would  be card based and rely less on the 8052 routines. There  is
also  the risk that the KENtucky Fried Chip could be  modified  to
cope with pay per view as well.

The  pay  per  view routines in the  8052  are  almost  completely
compromised.  There is a routine that is not yet  understood.  The
token  system could possibly be rewritten so that the card  always
has  the maximum number of tokens available. This naturally  would
be disastrous for Sky's plan to introduce a pay per view system.


Euroswap Still Lives

The demise of Euroswap has not yet happened. Indeed they are still
very  much alive and though one of their phone numbers was  closed
down  the  others  are  still active.  The  one  closed  down  was
apparently  the  direct trade line. Euroswap now  only  deal  with
individuals.

According  to Euroswap the reason for the nuking of FilmNet  white
cards  was  non payment. A UK company had bought a number  of  the
white cards and had failed to pay for them. While this may be true,
in  some  cases,  it still seems that pressure  has  been  put  on
FilmNet to start nuking white cards.

Euroswap is still trading in one for one swaps. For a  commission,
they will trade your Sky Movies card for a FilmNet or TV1000 card,
though with TV1000's counter grey market operations, it is not  as
good a bet as FilmNet.

BBC World Service To Go D2-MAC/EuroCrypt

BBC's World Service television is to go D2-MAC. It is to drop  the
SAVE  system  that  it is currently using in favour  of  the  more
secure  EuroCrypt.  It is not yet known what time frame is  to  be
used.  The  SAVE system was a disaster for the BBC as  it  was  so
badly  hacked.

This  change  to D2-MAC may signal BBC's intent to move  to  ASTRA
when  ASTRA 1-C is launched. It remains to be seen if there  is  a
substantial market for the BBC programming via satellite. At  this
point the Super Channel fiasco should be recalled. It was intended
to   offer  the  "Best  Of  British"  to  Europe.  Europe   wasn't
interested.  The  BBC  on the other hand have a  better  range  of
programming  and  is currently being transmitted on  cablenets  in
Europe.

Red Hot Dutch - Adverts Appear

The adverts for pirate descramblers for the Red Hot Dutch  channel
have  started  to appear. The selling prices are in the  range  of
70.00.  It  is  a  show  of  how  popular  the  channel  is.  The
subscription for the channel is about 49 per quarter.

At  the  moment,  the  channel is using a  version  of  SAVE.  The
frequency of the sine wave was badly chosen as it is too far  away
from  the  sixth harmonic of the line frequency  to  cause  enough
destructive  interference.  It is therefore possible to  flip  the
invert switch on the receiver and get a passable picture.

A  rumour  that  the  channel is to change  to  a  higher  powered
transponder on ECS2-F1 has encouraged sales and subscriptions.  Of
course  the channel is going to change to Cryptovision later  this
year. Cryptovision is a more secure system in that it has over the
air addressing. The scrambling method used is line cut and rotate.
It  will  be interesting to see how Red Hot Dutch  reacts  to  the
first cases of overt piracy.

Sky Sport Upgrade Problems

Sky Sport went to pay status as of the first of September but many
paying  viewers  were left without the service. Sky had  tried  to
upgrade  the  cards and had asked viewers to  leave  the  decoders
switched on and the cards inserted. Some viewers left the decoders
on  and  the  card  inserted but the receiver  was  on  the  wrong
channel.

On  of the factors that might be worrying Sky is that the  viewers
affected might have KENtucky Fried Chips installed. The chip would
have  prevented cards being turned on or off. The chip would  also
prevent  the  card being upgraded. Luckily for  Sky  the  KENtucky
