MS seeks 'game hacker' to beef up Xbox security
"Microsoft is clearly serious about stopping people messing around with Xbox, whether via mod chips, bios replacements or unauthorised insertions of alternative operating systems. The company is currently running a help-wanted ad for some kind of crypto gumshoe for the Xbox design team." From The Register
What an odd concept. Microsoft is actually spending money on making the Xbox gaming console immune to modification. The answer to me is simple develop a Bios that only recognizes validated component, then all you need do is make the software integrate with the bios that way if some one solders in a new bios chip the system won't work. This has been Apple's solution to keep other companies from cloning their systems and it's worked. The only other thing that need be done to prevent piracy is develop a media with characteristics that only the XBox can read, this task is little more daunting, but the nice people at Sony were able to create such a platform. Their mistake was not taking into account hardware modification, which let any geek with a soldering iron order a ready made IC over the internet, follow the instructions, and bypass Sony's Play Station piracy prevention components. As far as the bios development why not use technology that's been developed for Palladium (Microsoft's chip based validation and encryption engine)?