Frank A. Stevenson (born 1970) is a Norwegian

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

, and part-time

cryptanalyst Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...

. He is primarily known for his exposition of weaknesses in the

DVD Forum The DVD Forum (initially DVD Consortium) was an industry consortium for DVD specifications from 1995 to 2025. History The founding companies were Hitachi, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Philips, Sony, Thomson, Warner Bros, Toshiba, JVC, ...

Content Scramble System The Content Scramble System (CSS) is a digital rights management (DRM) and encryption system employed on many commercially produced DVD-Video discs. CSS utilizes a proprietary 40-bit stream cipher algorithm. The system was introduced around ...

(CSS). Although the cryptoanalysis was done independently, he is known for his relations to

DeCSS DeCSS is one of the first free computer programs capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, free and open source operating systems (such as BSD and Linux) could not play encrypted video ...

, and appeared before the courts as a witness in the Jon Johansen court trial. He also gave a deposition for the DVD CCA v. McLaughlin, Bunner, et al. case. Stevenson worked for

Funcom Funcom Oslo AS (formerly Funcom N.V. and Funcom Productions AS) is a Norwegian video game developer and publisher that specializes in online games. It is best known for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles ''Conan Ex ...

as a game developer for many years, after which he moved to Kvaleberg to work on

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

software. In July 2010, Stevenson published information about vulnerabilities in the A5/1 encryption algorithm used by most

2G GSM 2G refers to the second-generation of cellular network technology, which were rolled out globally starting in the early 1990s. The main differentiator to previous mobile telephone systems, retrospectively dubbed 1G, is that the radio signals of ...

networks, and also showed the ''Kraken'' software, that demonstrates that the crypto indeed can be broken with modest hardware.

Games credited

Stevenson has been credited with the following video games: * Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion (2004), Funcom Oslo A/S * Anarchy Online (2001), Funcom Oslo A/S * Anarchy Online: The Notum Wars (2001), KOCH Media Deutschland GmbH *

The Longest Journey ''The Longest Journey'' () is a 1999 Adventure game, point-and-click adventure video game, written by Ragnar Tørnquist, developed by Norwegian studio Funcom, and released on Microsoft Windows in November 1999; an iOS version was later develope ...

(1999), IQ Media Nordic * Dragonheart: Fire & Steel (1996),

Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally founded by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes, and Jim Scoroposki from a storefront in Oyster Bay (town), New York, Oyster Bay in 1987, the com ...

* Winter Gold (1996), Nintendo Co., Ltd.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Frank A. 1970 births Living people Modern cryptographers Norwegian people of English descent

Games credited

See also

References