Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?

[Martyn]

tbh if i had a bt phone line, i would have ditched ntl/vm along time ago..

Why don't you have a BT phone line?

[chickendippers]

Originally Posted by alex z

i know of someone who for just £30 quid comes to your house takes the card out the box puts it into a card adaptor connected to his laptop clones the card onto a blank one.

Well report him them: http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/tv-fraud.php

[Sirius]

My feelings are that as Virgin Clamp down on paying users with draconian STM then the more these same users will turn to having backup connections via dodgy modems.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Sirius

My feelings are that as Virgin Clamp down on paying users with draconian STM then the more these same users will turn to having backup connections via dodgy modems.

With the advent of the 'S' service it's not hard to imagine people using the S service along with a telephone line and M TV to keep the connection to the home running and running a cloned modem.

[100meg]

Originally Posted by Sirius

My feelings are that as Virgin Clamp down on paying users with draconian STM then the more these same users will turn to having backup connections via dodgy modems.

nail head

[joglynne]

A fraudster is starting a two-year jail sentence today after being found guilty of a set-top box scam which could have cost a satellite firm millions. <snip> Boswell pleaded guilty to selling unauthorised decoders, after the court heard he had made £360,000 profit from his illegal operation.

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/...led.5157239.jp

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by joglynne

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/...led.5157239.jp

Excellent news, While virgin are at it they should check out Bowlers as well. Virgin would have there eye's opened if they visited that place on a Saturday, there is more set-tops and modems there than in Virgins warehouses

I thought the V+ boxes were secure but ive just seen one with full tv package no on demand though sold to someone for £100 by a VM installer

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I thought the V+ boxes were secure but ive just seen one with full tv package no on demand though sold to someone for £100 by a VM installer

I heard they are like rocking horse do do to get hold off.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Sirius

I heard they are like rocking horse do do to get hold off.

Yep, and pointless as fully functional non-V+ HD compatible PVRs that work are easier to get hold of.

Roll on the encryption upgrades, won't put a stop to stuff but at least raise the bar a bit.

Originally Posted by Sirius

I heard they are like rocking horse do do to get hold off.

I might set up a meeting to see what the score is bare in mind I will not be buying one of these as I do not steal cable but I am interested in knowing the ins and outs which I will not be posting here obviously

---------- Post added at 13:56 ---------- Previous post was at 13:54 ----------

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

Yep, and pointless as fully functional non-V+ HD compatible PVRs that work are easier to get hold of.

Roll on the encryption upgrades, won't put a stop to stuff but at least raise the bar a bit.

I fixed a customers pc yesterday and on his desktop was a dhcp sniffer program I asked the guy about it and he bought a V box for 50 quid and updates the card for a tenner(off another VM installer). So it looks like they are more prevelent than I thought.

I have said it before and ill say it again VM are not doing enough top track recovered boxes if they can not keep their own house in order why should they expect us to report stuff.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

Roll on the encryption upgrades, won't put a stop to stuff but at least raise the bar a bit.

I remember years back that my old Software Engineering Management lecturer gave a lecture on designing security systems. He spent two hours on the lecture and the basic upshot of it was that while we can (and indeed, should) keep making security systems more difficult to crack, it's doubtful that we ever will invent an unbreakable one. At least the people who do will end up very rich very quickly.

Look at it this way. VM will not be employing the elite coders so there will always be ways of exploiting. Also the encryption hardware? is old so its unlikely it will ever be secure. VM do not like investing so an upgrade to that is unlikely so its here to stay

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

I remember years back that my old Software Engineering Management lecturer gave a lecture on designing security systems. He spent two hours on the lecture and the basic upshot of it was that while we can (and indeed, should) keep making security systems more difficult to crack, it's doubtful that we ever will invent an unbreakable one. At least the people who do will end up very rich very quickly.

Indeed, it's all about making that bar high enough that to spend any more time, effort and money on security would outweigh the benefits of doing so.

In VM's case migration to Nagra 3 is likely good enough once done. There's quite a bit going on with the cable modem side and a concerted effort to get some modems off the network.

I did laugh yesterday reading a guy who was having to post on a 3G stick as his dodgy modems (all 9 of them) were offline. Virgin are playing catchup on this and the TV issues after total mismanagement by ntl and Telewest, having built the network and installed hardware with little regard for service theft. Think the Register story of 50Mbit theft has stung some action out of the company.

VM would probably be in a better situation as a company had not their two component companies not left so much cleanup to be done. Would be good to see a concerted security effort right from physical security with armoured and buried cabinets through to software and CPE security through stronger encryption, BPI+, etc.

---------- Post added at 14:22 ---------- Previous post was at 14:04 ----------

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

I might set up a meeting to see what the score is bare in mind I will not be buying one of these as I do not steal cable but I am interested in knowing the ins and outs which I will not be posting here obviously

See PM, should save you a trek, too much detail probably for cracking-paranoid forums like this one