Renewable security
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Renewable security was a concept that evolved after the repeated hacks of analogue TV encryption systems in the late 1980s. Simply stated, rather than completely replacing a hacked TV encryption system, only part of it would have to be replaced to make it secure again.
The decoders at that time often contained all of the conditional access control data in a microcontroller. This data consisted generally of the decoder's identity, the subscriber's identity number and subscription data. When the decoder was hacked, the whole system was effectively compromised as other subscriber identity data could be substituted and the hackers had control. This security model also more commonly known as the embedded secure processor model as the secure processor, the microcontroller, was embedded in the decoder itself.