In an offensive against pay-TV piracy, the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) presented the new Plan to Combat the Use of Clandestine Decoders. The objective is to expand the fight against pay-TV piracy by blocking the IPs of the servers that supply content to irregular TV Box devices — known as “gatonet”. The shutdown will be done remotely, without the service providers having to enter the 's home. 59f37
The determination begins immediately and occurs after Anatel receives a large volume of complaints of generalized cable television piracy by “gatonet”. So far, Anatel's inspection plan has already removed from circulation more than 1,4 million irregular devices. However, the agency recognizes that the apprehension of pirated equipment has decreased over the last few months, as the products continue to be widely found in online stores and popular stores.
How will the new stage work? 422l
As seizing the equipment is not being completely effective, Anatel's idea is directly combat servers hosting paid channels without authorization and improperly provide the signal to s. From now on, when identifying a pirate network of boxes, Anatel notifies the internet provider, which cuts the signal to the device. The measure is relatively simple and was an old demand from media companies and content producers.
When the consumer realizes that that little box he paid R$ 400 no longer opens the signal for anything, he will stop buying [the pirated TV Boxes]. Our expectation is that, making use unfeasible, the consumer will realize that it is a 'hole' to buy the equipment
Carlos Baigorri, President of Anatel
According to Hermano Barros Tercius, Superintendent of Inspection at Anatel, the first blocks to the IPs of the servers should already start to occur in the coming days. A technical team from the agency will be responsible for the process, which involves the complaint or survey, validations, analyzes and determinations to providers.
Tercius points out that the process will be done with caution, with the agency carrying out checks so that no legitimate IP is unduly punished, after all, a mistaken block could prevent legitimate websites and platforms from functioning on the internet. He further states that IP blocking orders will be sent directly to backbones from internet. This avoids the agency having to send requests to each of the more than 20 broadband providers currently present in the national territory.
We can block at certain levels and hierarchies of the network. Our idea is to ask for blocking in the highest hierarchies of the network, in the regional and national backbones. Instead of involving 20 operators, we would only talk to dozens of providers
Hermano Barros Tercius, Superintendent of Inspection at Anatel
In addition to the crime imputed in the illegal distribution of signal from closed TVs, Anatel also claims that pirated TV Boxes pose a risk to cybersecurity, since it is possible to find backdoors and malware embedded in some models. In this way, one of these devices could easily intercept data from devices connected to the same network and carry out DDoS attacks, impairing the operation of telecommunications networks.
Despite the recent announcement, Anatel is aware that the fight is just beginning and that even pirated servers will be able to use tricks to circumvent inspection. One is to change the IP in order to mislead the agency. “It's a cat and mouse game, you have to find out which addresses are being used and drop the IP in real time”, says Baigorri.
How do you know if your equipment is at risk? 6g217
Originally, TV Boxes provided internet connection to common televisions, transforming the device into a Smart TV. In homologated and legitimate devices, there is no risk, and you can be unconcerned if you use services like those of Claro TV+, Vivo Play, Guigo TV, among others that are infringing copyright and are officially marketed.
However, several devices not approved by the agency go beyond the function and are able to decode closed pay TV signals and display them to s. Among the most famous brands are AzAmerica, BTV, HTV, Red Play e My TV Box. In this second case, all devices are at risk of no longer working.
According to Anatel, whoever produces and sells clandestine devices commits five infractions: use of non-approved equipment, clandestine transmission of telecommunications, misuse of pay-TV service, damage to the economic order and competition and risk to cybersecurity.
See also:
Understand what IPTV is and how this type of service works.
Sources: Agency Brazil, G1.
reviewed by Glaucous
