Cracking the Smartcards

hanuman writes: "So you know you're a true hacker when: 'Breaking the encryption alone would cost up to $5m. The process demanded the use of ultra-expensive electron-scanning microscopes, with the team probing wafer-thin chips no bigger than a thumbnail. Each chip contained up to 50 layers, with each layer in turn carrying up to 1,000 transistors, every one of which had to be pulled apart and analysed.'." This is a follow-up to the Vivendi vs. News Corp. story with more details about what is alleged to have occurred. Update: 03/14 12:28 GMT by M : And yet another story, which alleges that the head of security at NDS funded the website that distributed the hack for their rival's smart cards.

Comments

Re:You know what they say...

[Technician]

Back to reality, a SEM is a tool just like a a hammer. Outlawing a hammer may ruduce the number of houses broken into, but it will also reduce the number of houses built.
We use many SEM's and FIB's all the time in R&D in a chip manufacturing plant. Without them, we would still be running PC's close to 4.77 Mhz instead of 2 Ghz. The tools are used to check the critical dimensions of stuff way to small to even see with optical microscopes. You can't see broken traces and their cause without SEM's in the current generation of IC's.