Access
Card DirecTV’s means of providing certain
programming to HUCards certain households, depending on what is paid for.
The access card has memory on it, which means it can store data. The
card is known as a "Conditional Access Module," or CAM. Each card
has a unique identification number (called the CAM ID) which is how
DirecTV can add or remove programming from each and every individual
card. The cards are very similar to standard smart cards, but they
implore advanced security measures to ensure that the card cannot be
tampered with using a standard smart card reader/writer. In the span
of DIRECTV, there have been 3 different generations, or versions of
the Access Cards, and they are named according to the letter that
precedes the identification number. In chronological order, these
cards were the F, the H, and the HU. If you buy a DIRECTV system
today, it comes with a HU, because the first two generations of
cards were susceptible to security hacks- people found ways of
breaking the cards security, and adding their own programming HUCards info.
DirecTV's access cards follow an industry standard in smartcards,
known as ISO7816. Hence, any standard ISO7816 smartcard programmer
can read and write these cards with the proper software.
CAM ID A unique
identification number present on the memory of each and every
DIRECTV Access Card, and also explicitly printed on the back of the
card. IRD The common term for satellite receiver. Receiver’s
also have unique identification numbers.
Marrying When an
access card that has just come hot from the factory (ie brand new,
or "virgin") is activated for programming by DirecTV, the card
writes down the receiver’s identification number into its memory.
The card then uses this number to prevent it's being moved to
different receivers. In essence, the card and receiver have
"married" each other. If you then remove the card and place it into
another receiver, you will get an error message, because the access
card is married to the first receiver is was activated inside.
Datastream (aka Stream, Signal, Satellite Signal) The datastream is
just that- a stream of data. It is specifically the waves of
encrypted (scrambled) data that are sent down from DirecTV’s
satellites up in space. When you tune to a channel, it is encrypted.
The access card then computes the datastream, and if the card says
the channel is authorized, it descrambles the signal for the
television.
Programmer
An ISO7816 smartcard reader/writer that plugs into
your computer’s serial port and permits a hacker to read and write
to any ISO7816 smartcard, such as the access cards.
Update (aka USW) A
change in the code on the access card, usually done to destroy cards
with hacks on them, or to add some fuctionality (such as interactive
TV) to the access card. USW stands for Update Status Word, and
simply counts the number of times the card has been updated. A card
with a USW of 5 has been updated 5 times, for example.
H-Cards do not
currently get updated anymore...code changes are done through
something that is a little different, called a dynamic HUCards HULoaders HUUnlooper update.For a
more detailed explanation of a dynamic update, see "Dynamic Update"
below in this dictionary. absolutely no reason to believe that DSS hacking is some sort of singular exception to this rule.
DSS hacking is, and will always be, inevitable. Regardless of how sophisticated DTV's encryption techniques become, whatever
barrier one man can create, another man will most assuredly prove his ability to breach that barrier. The only hope DTV has is to
make breaching its encryption as inconvenient an option as possible in order to HUCards HULoaders HUUnlooper weed out it's biggest enemies, the card programmers and their customers.