NeonPirate
06-29-2006, 10:22 AM
THE HACKS, the HACKERS and the FACTS - A Chronology of Events
1. Nagra 1 Hack - compromised by NDS in a hush-hush laboratory in Israel. Keys released to underground hacking site. Private plastic hacks become a reality.
2. AVR2 - The first really reliable board hack for Nagra 1. It was financed by Ron McDonald. The brains behind it was his son-in-law. They were based in Paradise Island, originally from Burlington, ON. They got started back in the C-band days.There is an interesting article about this group if look for it on Google.
3. AVR3 - With the introduction of MECM processing, the AVR2 was replaced with the AVR3 "wedge" hack. Stuntguy wrote the code and it was for the most part freeware. This was the first "widespread" cardless hack. It was even banned in Canada because of RF
interference.
4. Atmega 128 - Enter MTL (Montreal) group. With the AVR3 no longer able to support cardless operation (due to MECM control word processing), a business man (Christian) out of Quebec financed the developement of the Atmega 128. OMega EFA was the original designer; x-15 was the coder. This card became the standard for testing among pirates and was widely distributed by dealers.
5. DSSRevolution - Christian decides to make another million; x-15 supplies the code; Christian screws x-15 and starts cloning. x-15 walks away and the project dies.
6. Magic Card - Two coders were actually behind this one. The "original" Magician was McDonald's son-in-law. There was initially no interest for this product. Enter Christian and MTL group. Having just screwed x-15, Christian's cash cow was out of milk. Christian agreed to fund this project. It was only a matter of time before Christian cloned this card too. Then the clone wars started. The "second" Magician who succeeding in cloning the card was Dave2 working quietly behind the scenes for Christian's MTL group. The "original" Magician abandoned Christian and teamed up with an offshore dealer in the Bahamas and introduced Magic 2. Christian even succeeded in screwing the cloner (i.e. Dave2) and the Magic card eventually died with the demise of Nagra 1. Although it wasn't the most popular card by far, the clone wars, DOS attacks, fake lawsuits, software hacks, biker stories and all the rest of it was a riot. Christian managed to make his third million during all the chaos.
7. DSSNeo - This card died before it was born. It was introduced towards the tail end of Nagra 1. It was not well financed. The coder was Trinity from CC.
8. Nagra 2 Hack - The MTL group financed the first successful attack on the 101 series cards in Canada. They even made a video boasting about their accomplishments and quietly circulated it among dealers in the summer of 2005. Christian was guaranteed a virtually monopoly on card programming and was charging $500 to program cards for Quebec and southern Ontario dealers. I think he got up to $5 million before a member of his group leaked the dumping techniques being used.
9. Public Nagra 2 Hack - Widespread dumps of the 101 card started to appear around September 2005 thanks to the leak.
10. Syndrome - An small dealer Dish Monkey in Ontario financed this project but sales were disappointing. A coder from CC was behind it. The project died after the manufacturer got busted, but it never really got off to a good start although the cards worked very well.
11. AVR-X - This was a unique idea. It got around cloning and firmware modding by latching onto the IRD JTAG port. Only someone who knows the JTAG port like the back of his hand could have pulled it off. Yep, Dave2 (of JKEYS fame), the "second" Magician was behind it. Christian didn't make a cent off it! The early cards were plagued by manufacturing and coding problems and finally tDave2 packed up his bags and disappeared.
12. Since Christian had burned every coder who had worked for him, he was on his own now. He turned to FTA instead. With controlling interests in Ariza, Viewsat and Coolsat, he was importing about 10,000 FTA units into Montreal every month. I think he is up to $7 million now. He almost got pinched by the RCMP in March 2006 for his role with the 101 card, but he got away.
13. Armulator/Armega - Christian and MTL group are behind this one too. By the spring of 2006 it was well known among coders that major datastream changes were on the way from Europe and extensive hashing would be the only way to stop the proliferation of FTA boxes. The coder is unknown, but he is a member of the MTL group and was instrumental in the 101 dealer hack. The code was sloppy and not optimized for fast RSA processing but the coder did anticipate the coming hashes and the card started getting better. The project is in trouble now as the original coder has bailed out. Several dealers dropped the card before it even had a chance. The Arm processor was a good idea. Christian always ruins a good project in his endless quest to make another buck or million.
14. Romulator - A coder close to Zacky's group in Spain is behind this card. He worked on the Atmega 128 for the European market. The "Romulata" card has been in wide circulation in Spain for several months now. It was delayed in North America because the coder wasn't familiar with the Jtag protocols. It is a hybrid of the Armulator and AVR-X. It was rumoured that the Armulator coder jumped ship and started working on the Romulator because it too uses the Arm chip. That would explain the manufacturing and supply problems of the Armulator. The card works well in Spain.
15. Mega Card / Super Atmega - Essentially an Atmega based card that uses two ICs instead of one. The idea being that two chips simultaneously perform RSA to cut the processing time in half. I am not certain about the coder, but I strongly suspect x-15. I believe it is two different cards financed by two different groups. The JTAG is involved in one design much like the AVR-X.
1. Nagra 1 Hack - compromised by NDS in a hush-hush laboratory in Israel. Keys released to underground hacking site. Private plastic hacks become a reality.
2. AVR2 - The first really reliable board hack for Nagra 1. It was financed by Ron McDonald. The brains behind it was his son-in-law. They were based in Paradise Island, originally from Burlington, ON. They got started back in the C-band days.There is an interesting article about this group if look for it on Google.
3. AVR3 - With the introduction of MECM processing, the AVR2 was replaced with the AVR3 "wedge" hack. Stuntguy wrote the code and it was for the most part freeware. This was the first "widespread" cardless hack. It was even banned in Canada because of RF
interference.
4. Atmega 128 - Enter MTL (Montreal) group. With the AVR3 no longer able to support cardless operation (due to MECM control word processing), a business man (Christian) out of Quebec financed the developement of the Atmega 128. OMega EFA was the original designer; x-15 was the coder. This card became the standard for testing among pirates and was widely distributed by dealers.
5. DSSRevolution - Christian decides to make another million; x-15 supplies the code; Christian screws x-15 and starts cloning. x-15 walks away and the project dies.
6. Magic Card - Two coders were actually behind this one. The "original" Magician was McDonald's son-in-law. There was initially no interest for this product. Enter Christian and MTL group. Having just screwed x-15, Christian's cash cow was out of milk. Christian agreed to fund this project. It was only a matter of time before Christian cloned this card too. Then the clone wars started. The "second" Magician who succeeding in cloning the card was Dave2 working quietly behind the scenes for Christian's MTL group. The "original" Magician abandoned Christian and teamed up with an offshore dealer in the Bahamas and introduced Magic 2. Christian even succeeded in screwing the cloner (i.e. Dave2) and the Magic card eventually died with the demise of Nagra 1. Although it wasn't the most popular card by far, the clone wars, DOS attacks, fake lawsuits, software hacks, biker stories and all the rest of it was a riot. Christian managed to make his third million during all the chaos.
7. DSSNeo - This card died before it was born. It was introduced towards the tail end of Nagra 1. It was not well financed. The coder was Trinity from CC.
8. Nagra 2 Hack - The MTL group financed the first successful attack on the 101 series cards in Canada. They even made a video boasting about their accomplishments and quietly circulated it among dealers in the summer of 2005. Christian was guaranteed a virtually monopoly on card programming and was charging $500 to program cards for Quebec and southern Ontario dealers. I think he got up to $5 million before a member of his group leaked the dumping techniques being used.
9. Public Nagra 2 Hack - Widespread dumps of the 101 card started to appear around September 2005 thanks to the leak.
10. Syndrome - An small dealer Dish Monkey in Ontario financed this project but sales were disappointing. A coder from CC was behind it. The project died after the manufacturer got busted, but it never really got off to a good start although the cards worked very well.
11. AVR-X - This was a unique idea. It got around cloning and firmware modding by latching onto the IRD JTAG port. Only someone who knows the JTAG port like the back of his hand could have pulled it off. Yep, Dave2 (of JKEYS fame), the "second" Magician was behind it. Christian didn't make a cent off it! The early cards were plagued by manufacturing and coding problems and finally tDave2 packed up his bags and disappeared.
12. Since Christian had burned every coder who had worked for him, he was on his own now. He turned to FTA instead. With controlling interests in Ariza, Viewsat and Coolsat, he was importing about 10,000 FTA units into Montreal every month. I think he is up to $7 million now. He almost got pinched by the RCMP in March 2006 for his role with the 101 card, but he got away.
13. Armulator/Armega - Christian and MTL group are behind this one too. By the spring of 2006 it was well known among coders that major datastream changes were on the way from Europe and extensive hashing would be the only way to stop the proliferation of FTA boxes. The coder is unknown, but he is a member of the MTL group and was instrumental in the 101 dealer hack. The code was sloppy and not optimized for fast RSA processing but the coder did anticipate the coming hashes and the card started getting better. The project is in trouble now as the original coder has bailed out. Several dealers dropped the card before it even had a chance. The Arm processor was a good idea. Christian always ruins a good project in his endless quest to make another buck or million.
14. Romulator - A coder close to Zacky's group in Spain is behind this card. He worked on the Atmega 128 for the European market. The "Romulata" card has been in wide circulation in Spain for several months now. It was delayed in North America because the coder wasn't familiar with the Jtag protocols. It is a hybrid of the Armulator and AVR-X. It was rumoured that the Armulator coder jumped ship and started working on the Romulator because it too uses the Arm chip. That would explain the manufacturing and supply problems of the Armulator. The card works well in Spain.
15. Mega Card / Super Atmega - Essentially an Atmega based card that uses two ICs instead of one. The idea being that two chips simultaneously perform RSA to cut the processing time in half. I am not certain about the coder, but I strongly suspect x-15. I believe it is two different cards financed by two different groups. The JTAG is involved in one design much like the AVR-X.