169 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
169 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
Syndicated Hack Watch Column 02-93 (March 93)
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Title: Red Hot Dutch To Be Banned?
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This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
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This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
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This other Eden, demi-paradise,
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This fortress built by Nature for herself
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Against infection and the hand of war,
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This happy breed of men, this little world,
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This precious stone set in a silver sea,
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Which serves it in the office of a wall,
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Or as a moat defensive to a house,
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Against the envy of less happier lands.
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William Shakespeare - King Richard II
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The porn channel Red Hot Television may well be banned by the UK
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government. It is no longer called Red Hot Dutch since it does not
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uplink from Holland any more. It now uplinks from Denmark. Some
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how the title "Red Hot Danish" would not sound right and it
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appears that Continental Television, the owners of Red Hot
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Television opted for the more conservative name.
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The current feeling among some of the more conservative members of
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the UK government is that Red Hot Television is polluting and
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corrupting the British public. It is in a sense a cultural
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insularity. As you can see from the quotation from Shakespeare's
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Richard II, this element of insularity existed even then. Perhaps
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these people are the victims of selective amnesia.
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Shakespeare's writings were often of a more colourful nature than
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these people would ever care to admit. The reason that this
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information is not immediately obvious is because it requires some
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knowledge of the slang of Shakespeare's time. Regicide and
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homicide. Sex and politics. If Shakespeare was around today he
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would probably be working in Hollywood.
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The prime minister of the UK mentioned in a speech recently that
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the UK had a thousand years of history to be proud of. A thousand
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years? What happened to the other thousands of years? The years of
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Celtic history, of Roman history, of Anglo-Saxon history? It seems
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that this thousand years of history began with the Norman invasion
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of Britain.
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This culture of which the British are proud is a tapestry woven
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from the threads of many cultures. The epic Beowulf, reckoned to
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be the first epic in the Anglo-Saxon language is actually based on
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the Irish epic Tain Bo Fraic. The Anglo-Saxon king who wrote
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Beowulf was educated in Ireland. Throughout England, the Celtic,
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Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman influences can be seen in the
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landscape and heard in the everyday speech. Other influences from
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subsequent migrations are also making themselves felt.
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Seen in the light of the previous paragraphs, the arguments in
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favour of maintaining cultural sanctity by banning Red Hot
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Television is not logical. But then the psychology of human beings
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is never logical. Many of those in favour of banning it are male
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and either in or past their forties.
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Of course there are other arguments in favour of banning the
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channel. Some of these are based on the fact that the movies are
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exploitational and immoral. In the background you can almost hear
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that great moralist Saint Augustine feverishly indenting
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parchment. Interestingly enough Saint Augustine became extremely
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moral when after a life of debauchery he was afflicted with
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impotence.
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Legally, the UK Government are on even thinner ice. If they
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proscribe Red Hot Television, they are, in the opinion of some
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legal experts, in contravention of EC law. The situation may arise
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that while it might be legal to ban Red Hot Television under UK
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law, it would be illegal for the UK government to ban the channel
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under EC law. EC law has precedent over national law.
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However, the EC may chose to allow the UK government to interpret
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the law in a flexible fashion. In the light of the present
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situation, it would be stupid for the UK government to ban Red Hot
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Television. By forcing the channel underground, they would cause
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the viewing figures to mushroom. Now if they were clever, they
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would create a new tax.
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The programming on Red Hot Television is definitely hard core
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porn, one viewer referred to it as zero-simulation programming. In
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its defence it could be argued that there is a similar level of
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programming available via TV1000 or Canal Plus.
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Title: The Advent Of Opt Out
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While in the United States, local advertising on cablenets is the
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norm, it is relatively new in Europe. Perhaps there is an
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exception in the UK. The Independent Television Franchises in the
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UK who sometimes slot in advertising during networked programmes.
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Cablelink are awaiting the licence from the Irish Government to
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sell opt out advertising time on various channels. Apparently Sky
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One and Sky News will be restored to the Cablelink cable and MMDS
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nets after this licence is granted. Cablelink will then sell
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advertising time which will be inserted in place of the UK
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originated adverts.
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Among the subscribers on Cablelink's nets Sky One is sorely
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missed. Sky One however is not considered that much of a loss and
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many people would prefer CNN.
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The likelihood of Cablelink being granted a licence to sell opt
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out advertising may have increased. The advertising revenue cap
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that the Broadcasting Act had placed on the state monopoly
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broadcaster, RTE has been removed. There are also some rumours
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that RTE is thinking about running a channel on ASTRA.
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Title: Red Hot Television To Scramble With Enigma on March 20th
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Red Hot Television will introduce its new Enigma 1 scrambling
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system on March 20th. The new scrambling system is based on line
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video cut and rotate scrambling and is believed to have other
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elements that have not yet been announced.
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At one stage it was considered that Red Hot Television would use
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the Cryptovision scrambling system. There has been no reason given
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for Red Hot Television's choice of system. Some hackers believe
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that the reason could be connected with the present deployment of
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Cryptovision. This system is used in Scandinavia on cablenets and
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also in Ireland on the Cablelink cable and MMDS nets. With a
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potential pirate market of some 200,000 decoders in Ireland, the
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system could become the target of a hack. At present the main
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deterrent in Ireland is the fact that hacking a cable system for
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the purposes of commercial piracy is a crime punishable by a fine
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of twenty thousand pounds and or a two year prison sentence.
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Anyway the Irish hackers are currently more concerned with hacking
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satellite borne channels as the law does not cover these channels.
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Title: Card Tricks EuroCrypt Update
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It appears that the Card Tricks Pseudo Card has greatly disturbed
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FilmNet and TV1000. The response from the would-be viewing public
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was phenomenal. The release date for the P-card is now March. The
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sheer quantity of orders has caused a backlog.
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What is now apparent is that the EuroCrypt card system has been
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compromised. The EuroCrypt system was based on the concept of the
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detachable secure microcontroller. This concept is a good concept
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though any hack on such a system would be catastrophic.
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There are three types of hack; non-critical, critical and
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catastrophic. A non-critical hack can be rapidly overcome by a
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slight modification to the system and often has a lifetime of a
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few weeks. A critical hack is naturally more dangerous. While it
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does attack the very heart of the system, it is possible for the
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system to recover. The catastrophic hack is perhaps the most
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dangerous for a system. In order for the system to recover, an
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element or indeed the complete system has to undergo a redesign.
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The hack on the EuroCrypt system can be designated a catastrophic
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hack. The central element of the EuroCrypt system, namely the
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smart card, must now be redesigned. This would not be a major task
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as it would involve replacing the existing EPROM card with an
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EEPROM card. The problem here is that the control word generation
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algorithms and the HASH algorithms have to be rewritten.
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The new smart cards will be EEPROM and therefore slightly more
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secure than the EPROM type that has just been hacked. One thing is
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certain, those associated with the EuroCrypt system will never
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again have such blind faith in the system.
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