Last Friday the German pay-TV operator Premiere launched a counter attack against its signal hackers. The broadcaster transmitted a Key update, which changed the auto update functionality in such a way that new keys are now only written on original Premiere smart cards, not on bogus cards.
During the past few months most illegal viewers had such systems in place, with any new key automatically updated on the pirate card or software in the receiver. With the latest ECM, Premiere claims such automatic updates of illegal cards are no longer possible.