die@frog.UUCP (Dave Emery, Software) (12/12/86)
I post the following for information. I do not condone
breaking the anti-descrambling laws, nor do I have any active affiliation
with any of the people or organizations involved. But for those who are
curious about the technology and have money to burn (which, alas, poor
working stiffs with families like me don't) this may represent an
opportunity to find out how to conjure a key out of the black hole
of U7 on the VC-2000.
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There will be a conference on Providenciales Island in the
British West Indies on January 12, 14 and 16 at which certain of the
people who have cracked Videocipher II will explain some or all
of their magic "in depth". I do not know whether discussions open to the
public at these sessions will be serious or technical but the announcement
I received said "Many DESUG principals will be presenting papers
at the working sessions of the forthcoming 'Sunburn Summit'". DESUG
(the Digital Encryption Standard Users Group) is an association that includes
as members certain of the individuals who have been working on breaking
the Videocipher II.
Mention was made of offshore firms that are expected to demonstrate
working hardware (caveat emptor).
Access to at least some of the sessions is being offered to the
interested (and well-heeled) public at large -the announcement I received
said to call 800-351-8261 for a prearranged tour package that includes hotel
and plane reservations and so forth. Apparently Coop's Satellite Digest
lists more information about this tour package in the Dec 86 issue.
--
David I. Emery Charles River Data Systems
983 Concord St., Framingham, MA 01701 (617) 626-1102 uucp: decvax!frog!diewchao@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (William Chao <Wchao@topaz.rutgers.edu>) (12/14/86)
Read more about the cracking of Videocipher in January 1987 issue of Radio Electronics. In brief: it has been cracked and some people may be planning to sell the illegal copies as soon as a certain law/statue expires in April of 1987 (It has something to do with the way the signal is scrambled by using Defense Dept.'s encoding/decoding algorithm for classified transmissions) PLEASE READ R-E FOR MORE EXPLAINATION AND FURTHER DETAILS. William Chao wchao@topaz.rutgers