Microsoft Aims for Hack-Proof 360

jondaw writes "The BBC is reporting that "Microsoft plans to make its next generation games console, the Xbox 360, as difficult as possible to hack...There are going to be levels of security in this box that the hacker community has never seen before...I'm sure sooner or later someone will work out how to circumvent security. But the way we have done the design doesn't mean that it will work on somebody else's machine.""

Comments

hack-proof != difficult to hack

[lysander]

Article: Microsoft plans to make its next generation games console, the Xbox 360, as difficult as possible to hack
Headline: Microsoft Aims for Hack-Proof 360

I would like to think that slashdot would be a place where people (e.g. editors) would know the difference between these two statements.

I think people underestimate the challenge

[EnglishTim]

There seems to be this attitude that a crack will inevitably come out fairly quickly.

I don't think that's the case.

I think many slashdotters are overly confident just because the original Xbox got hacked and we've manage to hack CSS, but you've got to remember a couple of things: Firstly, the original Xbox was the first hardware of that type that Microsoft had created. They put in some protection but it wasn't good enough. I'm sure they have learnt from their mistakes and it will be considerably more difficult to crack this time around. Secondly, with CSS it took quite a long time to get a crack and that was due (IIRC) to a CSS licensor screwing up and leaving the key unprotected in the firmware.

Now, it's possible that Microsoft have screwed up again, but it's by no means a sure thing.

Hacking never got anyone anywhere, right?

[truthsearch]

Yeah, cause hacking never resulted in the creation of any large software companies... Microsoft thinks there's no way to profit from hobbyists. How was it their company got started again?