Nagra-certified Secure Video/Audio Chipsets Surpass 80 Million Mark

CHESEAUX, Switzerland — Nagra, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company, today announced that more than 80 million Nagra-certified secure chipsets embedding the Nagra On-Chip Security (NOCS) technology have been produced since 2003, with nearly 22 million Nagra-certified chipsets produced in 2010 alone. NOCS technology, an essential element of Nagra security solutions, continues to evolve since the visionary program was first launched nearly a decade ago to protect media content and operator services on the set-top box and in the home network.

“We are excited that thanks to Nagra visionary security program our operators continue to benefit from the installed base of secure devices,” said Alec Main, Nagra’s VP of Software Security. “NOCS technology in the set-top box ensures certified security for Nagra conditional access and DRM solutions, but also for all the software in the device whether middleware, applications and other DRM solutions. Platform level security is becoming more important for controlling and securing digital outputs, plus to meet the requirement for premium VOD windows coming from the major studios.”

NOCS brings the hardware “root of trust” that ensures platform security and as a result protects service providers’ investments in consumer devices. More than just a security technology, NOCS is a complete infrastructure, which includes a certification process and keys management system to ensure a secure and consistent implementation and personalisation of Nagra security features across different chipsets. Combined with Nagra products, NOCS brings the full breadth of security “into the device, on the device and out of the device”, which is needed for upcoming early window video-on-demand (VOD) services. Additionally, NOCS has multiple security features that prevent memory and CPU illegitimate access, ensure software integrity, protect the Control Words against keys sharing type of attacks and enable highly secure CA/DRM technologies.

Nagra first specified NOCS to chipset manufacturers in 2002, and certified the first chipset model in 2003. The latest version, NOCS 1.2, was released in 2010 and the next generation is already under development as Nagra continues to evolve the technology beyond set-top boxes to connected TVs. Over the last eight years, nearly 70 different chipset models from all major set-top box chipsets providers have been certified and embedded in set-top boxes to serve more than 120 pay-TV operators worldwide.