Inside Pay TV Security

Technology

"Cryptography Research’s CryptoFirewall technology is hands down the best pay TV security solution there is. CRI’s hardware-based approach has helped eliminate signal piracy in the largest and most attacked systems in the world."

— Dennis Flaherty, CEO of SypherMedia International, and former VP of Conditional Access at DirecTV

The CryptoFirewall™ technology is a custom silicon core that can be placed on conditional access cards, transport chips, or other ASICs. The CryptoFirewall core features dedicated hardware designed to provide extremely high levels of security and assurance. The CryptoFirewall core's patented tamper- and emulation-resistant techniques are based on years of work with the pay television industry and are specifically tuned to combat device cloning, emulation, key extraction, and other attacks that can lead to broadcast signal theft.

The CryptoFirewall™ security core provides a robust foundation for conditional access systems.

The CryptoFirewall core provides a robust foundation for conditional access systems. When enabled, results from the CryptoFirewall core and the main conditional access system are both required to decrypt video. Thus, security is maintained even if the rest of the software and microprocessors used in the system are completely broken.

For developers of advanced entertainment platforms, the CryptoFirewall core's hardware-based approach simplifies product development. Instead of diverting development resources to security issues, engineers can focus on building products. The CryptoFirewall core's best-of-class security also simplifies compliance with content owners' anti-piracy requirements.