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TiVo Awarded Patent For Password You Can't Hack

Posted by Zonk on from the un-hack-able dept.

Davis Freeberg writes "TiVo has always been known for thinking outside of the box, but this week they were awarded an unusual patent related to locking down content on their hard drives. According to the patent, they've invented a way to create password security that is so tough, it would take you longer than the life of a hard drive in order to figure it out. They could be using this technology to prevent the sharing of content or it could be related to their advertising or guide data, but if their encryption technology is really that good, it's an interesting solution for solving the problem of securing networks."

18 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. So.... by revlayle · · Score: 5, Funny

    3-4 weeks tops?

    1. Re:So.... by thrillseeker · · Score: 4, Funny

      3-4 weeks tops?

      At least ... it's triple rot-13 after all.

    2. Re:So.... by Achoi77 · · Score: 4, Funny

      *in the underground lair of tivo*

      tivo suit guy 1: Those lousy internet people keep cracking our encryption!

      tivo suit guy 2: How do they keep doing it?

      tivo suit guy 1: Because time is on their side, and they have no life! grr

      tivo suit guy 2: How long can a 'really hard' encryption take?

      tivo suit guy 1: I have no idea, maybe like a month? A week?

      tivo suit guy 2: A WEEK? You can't be serious!

      drive manufacturer suit: Well, if you can't beat crackers at their own game, what needs to get done is to beat them from a different angle.

      tivo suit guy 1: what do you mean?

      drive manufacturer suit: Think about it, every time you come up with a new password, it gets cracked in a week, there is no control over that. So, what needs to get done is to beat them where they have no control. TIME!

      tivo suit guy 2: Time? And how do you expect us to control TIME?

      drive manufacturer suit: Easy. Since we know that a password can be cracked within a week, what needs to get done is to prevent them from getting access to the password before that week. All we have to do is manufacture drives that will fail within a week!

      tivo suit guy 2: That's brilliant!

      tivo suit guy 1: Wait a minute. We can't have customer's drives dying withing one week. That's just no good for business.

      drive manufacturer suit: Don't worry about it. We'll use flash drives. Flash ram wears out overtime. We can explain to the customer that the new flash drives will use less energy, have no moving parts, and are cheaper!

      tivo suit guy 1: Will they really be cheaper?

      drive manufacturer suit: only to you they will be. That way you won't have to pass off the savings to the customer. Plus, you can add in an additional subscription fee to have new flash drives mailed to them every week when they mail back their old flash drives! Think: netflix, but instead of dvds, flash drives. More money for you!

      tivo suit guy 2: kinda like the photo-copier industry with their toners.. hrm, I like it!

      tivo suit guy 1: Wait wait wait! Those drives will still cost us a pretty penny, so what's the secret?

      drive manufacturer suit: *grins* we will be using _OLD_ flash drives. Just like the old flash drives that croaked so quickly. The manufacturing technology to build them was very cheap. We can churn those out like nobody's business.

      tivo suit guy 1: hrm, so essentially they are disposable drives?

      tivo suit guy 2: It's an excellent plan! We can add in the additional 'service' and bleed our customers dry!

      drive manufacturer suit: soo, do we have a deal?

      tivo suit guy 1 & 2: it's a deal! I think I'm gonna patent that idea!

      *shakes hands, and the meeting is ended, tivo suit guys leave*

      drive manufacturer gets on cell phone

      drive manufacturer boss: so, how did it go?

      drive manufacturer suit: They accepted project 'disposable drive.' Those fools have no idea we're playing them for our pawn.

      drive manufacturer boss: Eeeexxxeeeelent~

      drive manufacturer suit: Phase 1 is complete. I've finished talking to Apple and Creative already. I'm scheduled to meet with Sprint and Verizon tomorrow.

      drive manufacturer boss: Once we have all the mp3 players, cell phones, and tivos supplied with our disposable drive, users will be upset that only after a week of use, their electronics became useless! This will soil the name of flash drives in a larger scale never seen before, and drive customer confidence towards flash down! They will be forced to lower their prices, and eventually perish under their manufacturing costs. Harddrives will RISE AGAIN! MUHWAHAHAHAHAHA!

  2. And the password is... by kihjin · · Score: 4, Funny

    MDlGOTExMDI5RDc0RTM1QkQ4NDE1NkM1NjM1Njg4QzA=

    Don't tell anyone.

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  3. Re:Scoff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Yeah right! I'll give it 5 years max."

    Jeeze. You've been luckier with hard drives than I have, then... ROT13 would be sufficient to outlast some of them.

  4. I have a... by Awod · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have a torrent that says otherwise.

  5. This sounds familiar: by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Funny

    Patent For Password You Can't Hack

    Hack available for download from the internet in 5, 4, 3, 2....

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  6. Re:A really long one? by ImaLamer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Enter the show that would you like to watch:

    > Global Thermo-Nuclear War

    May we also suggest: Genocide In These Modern Times, NASCAR


    --
    Get your Unix fortune now!
  7. Hard disk life by figleaf · · Score: 3, Funny

    The hard disk must have a really short life :/

  8. oh i found it on google with 1.9 mln results! by ImaLamer · · Score: 2, Funny

    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

    --
    Get your Unix fortune now!
  9. New Marketing Tool by ProdigySim · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make a security claim so wild that every hacker will buy your product to try to crack it. $$$$

  10. Nothing Is Unhackable by mmurphy000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I was a wee tot, I remember seeing a single-panel _Dennis The Menace_ cartoon. The cartoon itself had Dennis' father at a boardroom-type table with a few other people, his briefcase open, and various parts spilling out. The caption was something like "Gentlemen, our new bathroom scale did not pass the 'Dennis test'. We cannot refer to it as 'unbreakable'".

    Since then, whenever I've heard about something claiming to be unbreakable, I picture a very broken bathroom scale...

    --
    The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development
  11. slashdot is just plain immoral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    "Its just another attempt to prevent people form using their own hardware how they want to."

    Yeah! It just makes me mad that I can't share my single 'copyrighted' copy that I bought out to the entire planet. Guess they'll just have to purchase their own copy. Bummer.

  12. Re:Really? by kimvette · · Score: 5, Funny

    TiVo has always been know for thinking outside of the box,


    No they're not. They've always been known for seeking to keep everything IN the box.
    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  13. can we get the old mom's basement tag now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "I love it when someone says that 'x' can't be done.... that is sure to bring on the people that show it can be done"

    Geeks can't get laid.

  14. Paging... by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Paging DVD Jon. Report to the TiVo on Deck 7.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  15. Re:IANAL... by epee1221 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, I learned all I know about it from reading slashdot....

    --
    "The use-mention distinction" is not "enforced here."
  16. Re:IANAL... by daniorerio · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or... They produce really low quality HD?