knarf
04-13-2005, 06:59 AM
January 05, 2005
Many DIRECTV viewers are praying for a fix, but many are not aware that there was a fix for the P4 (Period 4) access card, which is currently being used. Here is the story of what happened.
How U.S. Customs Service Intercepted the P4 Fix
In 1997, U.S. Customs Service began an investigation of groups involved in the supply of pirate hardware and software which is used to provide purchasers with free satellite television programming. There are several groups, located in various countries, who are involved in this business.
One group of interest was the Paul Maxwell-King organization (xxx.maxking.com), which supplies pirate products for many satellite television systems around the world. PMK entered the U.S. market in 1998, supplying programmers and interfaces for the DIRECTV system, from Canada. PMK was raided in late 1998 by authorities who claimed that Maxking Interfaces Limited was involved in the development of a "fix" for the Sky Digital system.
Following the raid, PMK moved control of his company from South Yorkshire, England, to Tunisia, which is located in Northern Africa. Tunisia is a third world country which is a haven for terrorists. It maintains an open border with Libya, which is an enemy of the United States. The country is attractive to cyber-hackers because there is no specific law against the activity.
PMK’s primary U.S. distributor of illegal smart card programmers, unloopers and software, was Blue Sky Technologies, located in Tampa, FL. Blue Sky was involved in the design and manufacture of printed circuit boards. In a September 1999 raid, hundreds of pirate devices, and thousands of sales records were seized. One sale, for $2540, paid by credit card, was for an unlooper, to Steven R. Frazier (a.k.a. Steven Woida) who was well known in satellite piracy circles as one of the most talented hackers.
On August 22, 2000, Frazier testified before a grand jury in Tampa about his involvement in the satellite piracy business. He testified that the owner of Blue Sky traveled to Canada personally, to obtain the unlooper for him, indicating his importance to the PMK group.
At the time, Frazier and his group, ran an unlooper service, which is used by consumer pirates to reprogram access cards which have been turned off by ECMs (electronic countermeasures). He was ordered, and he agreed, to cease and desist in any activity related to the hacking of satellite television signals and to discontinue any contact with other cyber-pirates, including telephonic, e-mail and personal contacts. Frazier was unaware that authorities believed that if there was going to be a P-4 fix, he was one of the players who could lead them to it.
At the same time as his testimony before the Grand Jury in Tampa, Frazier was also meeting with a well-known digital engineer in New Mexico, whom he had solicited to assist him in reverse engineering the microprocessors in DIRECTV’s P-3 and P-4 access cards. Frazier supplied the engineer with P-3 schematics containing the Intellectual Property of DIRECTV. Frazier offered the engineer $50,000 "up front" to complete a hack of the P-3 chip. Frazier said that the group he represented had paid $150,000 for P-4 script information which allowed them to access the codes on the P-4 chip and write pirate software for it.
Until October 2002, there was considerable phone traffic between Frazier and the engineer. Their conversations revolved around the hacking of the P-3 and P-4 chips as well as those belonging to Echostar, Nintendo, Sony and other companies.
During October, 2002, Frazier met with another member of P-4 group, who was a well known computer hacker in Winnipeg, Canada. On October 4, U.S. Customs Service seized two packages directly from the New Mexico engineer. They had been mailed from a well-known cyber-pirate located in Winnipeg. The packages contained a personal check for $5,000 drawn on Frazier’s bank account, three computer chips, DIRECTV access cards and software which was part of the P-4 hack. Frazier was not aware that the engineer had been raided.
On October 9, 2002, Frazier was detained by a U.S. Customs agent in Denver as he returned to the U.S. from Winnipeg. His luggage contained computer chips and components used in the production of illegal programmers, computer schematics, diagrams and a packing list which indicated that Frazier had purchased more than 500 components of the type used in illegal programmers. The components were scheduled to be drop shipped to the address of the cyber-pirate company in Winnipeg. His laptop computer contained sophisticated software. The items were seized, but Frazier was released and allowed to continue his trip back to his home in Sacramento.
Later on October 9, Frazier’s girl friend made an airline reservation for October 11, from Sacramento to Cabo San Lucos, Mexico, with a stop over in Houston. U.S. Customs agents believed that he was fleeing the country so they got an arrest warrant for him, late at night, on October 10.
Frazier arrested on October 11 and he was jailed, because he is considered to be a flight risk. He was charged with violations of Title 18, Sections 371, 1341, 1343 and Title 47, section 605 (e)(4).
The group which Frazier was involved with, sold tens of thousands of programmers. They had plans to manufacture them in the U.S., ship them to Canada, and then import them back into the U.S. In addition to its work on DIRECTV’s P-4 card, the group was responsible for the hack on the P-3 card and the smart card used by DISH TV. They operated on a variety of websites. Frazier registered Microprotection.Com, which was used to receive shipments of programmers. There were 15 separate ECM’s on pirate DIRECTV access cards in 2001 and the group was able to counter all of them.
Because of his connections with the computer-chip hacking groups located in Tunisia, Canada, Hong Kong and elsewhere, Frazier has now made a plea deal to help authorities crack them.
U.S. Customs Service intercepted part of the P-4 fix, but it is still in the hands of rogue companies which plan to make millions of dollars from it. In the U.K., Sky was able to curb its piracy problems through a combination of technology, lawsuits and aggressive law enforcement. Several years ago, Sky was considered the most hacked satellite system on the planet, but it has not had piracy problems in the past five years.
Many DIRECTV viewers are praying for a fix, but many are not aware that there was a fix for the P4 (Period 4) access card, which is currently being used. Here is the story of what happened.
How U.S. Customs Service Intercepted the P4 Fix
In 1997, U.S. Customs Service began an investigation of groups involved in the supply of pirate hardware and software which is used to provide purchasers with free satellite television programming. There are several groups, located in various countries, who are involved in this business.
One group of interest was the Paul Maxwell-King organization (xxx.maxking.com), which supplies pirate products for many satellite television systems around the world. PMK entered the U.S. market in 1998, supplying programmers and interfaces for the DIRECTV system, from Canada. PMK was raided in late 1998 by authorities who claimed that Maxking Interfaces Limited was involved in the development of a "fix" for the Sky Digital system.
Following the raid, PMK moved control of his company from South Yorkshire, England, to Tunisia, which is located in Northern Africa. Tunisia is a third world country which is a haven for terrorists. It maintains an open border with Libya, which is an enemy of the United States. The country is attractive to cyber-hackers because there is no specific law against the activity.
PMK’s primary U.S. distributor of illegal smart card programmers, unloopers and software, was Blue Sky Technologies, located in Tampa, FL. Blue Sky was involved in the design and manufacture of printed circuit boards. In a September 1999 raid, hundreds of pirate devices, and thousands of sales records were seized. One sale, for $2540, paid by credit card, was for an unlooper, to Steven R. Frazier (a.k.a. Steven Woida) who was well known in satellite piracy circles as one of the most talented hackers.
On August 22, 2000, Frazier testified before a grand jury in Tampa about his involvement in the satellite piracy business. He testified that the owner of Blue Sky traveled to Canada personally, to obtain the unlooper for him, indicating his importance to the PMK group.
At the time, Frazier and his group, ran an unlooper service, which is used by consumer pirates to reprogram access cards which have been turned off by ECMs (electronic countermeasures). He was ordered, and he agreed, to cease and desist in any activity related to the hacking of satellite television signals and to discontinue any contact with other cyber-pirates, including telephonic, e-mail and personal contacts. Frazier was unaware that authorities believed that if there was going to be a P-4 fix, he was one of the players who could lead them to it.
At the same time as his testimony before the Grand Jury in Tampa, Frazier was also meeting with a well-known digital engineer in New Mexico, whom he had solicited to assist him in reverse engineering the microprocessors in DIRECTV’s P-3 and P-4 access cards. Frazier supplied the engineer with P-3 schematics containing the Intellectual Property of DIRECTV. Frazier offered the engineer $50,000 "up front" to complete a hack of the P-3 chip. Frazier said that the group he represented had paid $150,000 for P-4 script information which allowed them to access the codes on the P-4 chip and write pirate software for it.
Until October 2002, there was considerable phone traffic between Frazier and the engineer. Their conversations revolved around the hacking of the P-3 and P-4 chips as well as those belonging to Echostar, Nintendo, Sony and other companies.
During October, 2002, Frazier met with another member of P-4 group, who was a well known computer hacker in Winnipeg, Canada. On October 4, U.S. Customs Service seized two packages directly from the New Mexico engineer. They had been mailed from a well-known cyber-pirate located in Winnipeg. The packages contained a personal check for $5,000 drawn on Frazier’s bank account, three computer chips, DIRECTV access cards and software which was part of the P-4 hack. Frazier was not aware that the engineer had been raided.
On October 9, 2002, Frazier was detained by a U.S. Customs agent in Denver as he returned to the U.S. from Winnipeg. His luggage contained computer chips and components used in the production of illegal programmers, computer schematics, diagrams and a packing list which indicated that Frazier had purchased more than 500 components of the type used in illegal programmers. The components were scheduled to be drop shipped to the address of the cyber-pirate company in Winnipeg. His laptop computer contained sophisticated software. The items were seized, but Frazier was released and allowed to continue his trip back to his home in Sacramento.
Later on October 9, Frazier’s girl friend made an airline reservation for October 11, from Sacramento to Cabo San Lucos, Mexico, with a stop over in Houston. U.S. Customs agents believed that he was fleeing the country so they got an arrest warrant for him, late at night, on October 10.
Frazier arrested on October 11 and he was jailed, because he is considered to be a flight risk. He was charged with violations of Title 18, Sections 371, 1341, 1343 and Title 47, section 605 (e)(4).
The group which Frazier was involved with, sold tens of thousands of programmers. They had plans to manufacture them in the U.S., ship them to Canada, and then import them back into the U.S. In addition to its work on DIRECTV’s P-4 card, the group was responsible for the hack on the P-3 card and the smart card used by DISH TV. They operated on a variety of websites. Frazier registered Microprotection.Com, which was used to receive shipments of programmers. There were 15 separate ECM’s on pirate DIRECTV access cards in 2001 and the group was able to counter all of them.
Because of his connections with the computer-chip hacking groups located in Tunisia, Canada, Hong Kong and elsewhere, Frazier has now made a plea deal to help authorities crack them.
U.S. Customs Service intercepted part of the P-4 fix, but it is still in the hands of rogue companies which plan to make millions of dollars from it. In the U.K., Sky was able to curb its piracy problems through a combination of technology, lawsuits and aggressive law enforcement. Several years ago, Sky was considered the most hacked satellite system on the planet, but it has not had piracy problems in the past five years.