Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Why don't you have a BT phone line?

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

nail head

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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 ----------


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.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

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 ----------

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