SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




Verimatrix and Cryptography Research Develop Solution to Limit Set-Top Box Security Breaches

TMCnet Feature

October 02, 2013

Verimatrix and Cryptography Research Develop Solution to Limit Set-Top Box Security Breaches

Share
Tweet
By Christopher Mohr
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Verimatrix (News - Alert) and Cryptography Research have partnered together to develop a solution, a combination of hardware and software, that they feel is more effective at fighting digital piracy from compromised set-top boxes (STBs) typically provided by cable TV service companies to subscribers.


San Diego, Calif.-based Verimatrix creates solutions for securing digital television services including satellite, Internet and digital video broadcasts. Its Video Content Authority System (VCAS) is a platform that provides a more robust mechanism for protecting service providers’ revenue streams than previous-generation technology.

San Francisco-based Cryptography Research, Inc., meanwhile, researches and licenses semiconductor technologies to combat digital security threats that result in counterfeiting, piracy and fraud. Its technology has been used in a variety of sectors including government, entertainment, financial and telecommunications.

The main goal of most attacks designed to compromise STBs is to obtain control words (CW), which decrypt protected content so that subscribers can view it. In the past, non-invasive techniques that analyzed power levels known as side-channel attacks allowed crooks to snatch CWs and decrypt protected content.

Manufacturers changed set-top boxes (STBs) so that the CWs remained encrypted until inside the STB. Keys designed to provide an additional layer of protection were added to protect CWs.

All this accomplished was moving the vulnerability point to inside the STB. Pirates simply changed their attacks to obtain these keys, making it possible to obtain CWs and once again compromise the STB. These breaches, combined with growth of Internet-enabled devices made it possible to mass distribute bootleg STBs.

The best solution to preventing such key harvesting comes from a combination of hardware and software security. With the new architecture, CWs move within the STB’s chipset to descramblers instead of through external interfaces where they are easily harvested. Software components provide a mechanism for managing CWs that is more sophisticated and harder to compromise.

The solution that Verimatrix and Cryptography Research have teamed up to provide is critical to the long-term protection of digital entertainment content. This is especially true when the only distinction between smartphones, tablets and television sets seems to be the size of the devices, rather than their functionality.

With any advance in security, the question always remains: How long before hackers/pirates are able to compromise it and cheat the system again?




Edited by Blaise McNamee


View all articles


Comments powered by Disqus








Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy