Christopher Tarnovsky (born 20 April 1971, Nyack,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) is an

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

(IC)

reverse engineer Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

and

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

.Chenoweth N
''Rupert Murdoch: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Media Wizard.''
Crown Business 12 November 2002. p. 353. .

Career

In the 1990s, Tarnovsky was a soldier in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

army in the field of intelligence, security and cryptography. From 1997 to 2007, Tarnovsky worked for NDS developing copy protection technology.Everett D
''What the silicon manufacturer has put together let no man put asunder.''
Smartcard.co.uk March 2010. Accessed 29 September 2015. He then started his own company, Flylogic, which he sold to

IOActive IOActive is an independent computer security services firm active in several areas. They are known for reporting high severity security vulnerabilities in a variety of products. IOActive has published research on smart cities A smart city ...

in 2012. Until 2014 Tarnovsky was vice president of semiconductor services at

. Tarnovsky has a diagnosis of

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple ...

, which gives him the ability to "hyper-focus" on projects for hours at a time. In 2001,

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

, a client of NDS, a company majority owned by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

Newscorp The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Formerly inc ...

, demanded Tarnovsky be kept away from their systems. Plaintiffs DirecTV, Dish Network and Nagrastar alleged Tarnovsky was hacking the protections they placed on their

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

smart cards which were used to lock transmission from customers who defaulted.Chenoweth N
''Cash in News budget for police informants.''
The Australian Financial Review. 4 April 2012. Accessed 26 April 2012. In 2002, Canal Plus, a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

premium

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

commenced a civil action against NDS and Tarnovsky. Tarnovsky was alleged to have extracted the source code of a

SECA SECA, SecA or Seca may refer to: * Société Européenne de Contrôle d'Accès, now Nagra France * The SECA Mediaguard encryption system, designed by the above company. * Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art, an auxiliary part of the S ...

card and then on 26 March 1999

upload Uploading refers to ''transmitting'' data from one computer system to another through means of a network. Common methods of uploading include: uploading via web browsers, FTP clients, and terminals ( SCP/ SFTP). Uploading can be used in th ...

ed it to a

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

website.Chenoweth N
''Murdoch's inside job.''

The Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

. 31 March 2012. Accessed 26 April 2012. A jury later largely cleared NDS and Tarnovsky.Zetter K
''From the Eye of a Legal Storm, Murdoch's Satellite-TV Hacker Tells All.''
Wired.com San Diego. 30 May 2008. Accessed 30 September 2015.''Vivendi settles row with NDS.''
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 2 May 2003. Accessed 26 April 2012. In 2007, Tarnovsky was dismissed from NDS for copyright infringement while in their employ. Tarnovsky denies this accusation. In 2008, Tarnovsky hacked a

Trusted Platform Module A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a secure cryptoprocessor that implements the ISO/IEC 11889 standard. Common uses are verifying that the boot process starts from a trusted combination of hardware and software and storing disk encryption keys. ...

, a type of chip used in the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

for example, after nine months of study.Van Tilborg H. (ed.
''Christopher Tarnovsky.''
Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security, Springer, 10 August 2005. Accessed 26 April 2012. In 2010, at a Black Hat

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

conference, Tarnovsky described how he had used acid, an

electron microscope An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing it ...

and small conductive needles to hack the

Infineon Infineon Semiconductor solutions is the largest microcontroller manufacturer in the world, as well as Germany's largest semiconductor manufacturer. It is also the leading automotive semiconductor manufacturer globally. Infineon had roughly 58,0 ...

SLE66 CL PE chip.Stevens T
''Christopher Tarnovsky hacks Infineon's 'unhackable' chip, we prepare for false-advertising litigation.''
Engadget.com 12 February 2010.

References

External links

Tarnovsky’s official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarnovsky, Christopher Hackers Living people 1971 births People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder