Microsoft’s latest Xbox 360 anti-piracy tactic has got hacking circles all worked up after a wave of Xbox LIVE bans were dished out in America and Canada.
Apparently the dirty pirates are still trying to figure out just how Microsoft’s new system works. As you may already know, the Xbox 360 recently underwent a Dashboard update and therein lays the anti-piracy solution (or problem depending on which side of the fence you sit).
The Xbox 360 Dashboard update appears to have activated a previously dormant piracy protection system that had started to appear on discs shipped from April 2009. This on-disc protection system is known as AP 2.5 (aka Anti-Piracy 2.5). Seemingly coupled with the new Dashboard update, AP 2.5 has begun to unleash its fury.
Rumour has it that AP 2.5 has the ability to detect when someone is attempting to boot a ‘backup’ copy of a disc – a process which also typically requires a chipped Xbox 360 and/or a flashed DVD-ROM drive firmware. Currently the thinking is that this system of checks is conducted between the security sectors of a disc and the DVD drive firmware. When the new Dashboard picks up that a ‘backup’ disc is being booted, the console is flagged for ban-hammer smiting on Xbox LIVE.
Rumour also has it that the new dashboard can implement randomized changes to the disc security sector checking process and therefore expect a different response each time. This would presumably prove incredibly tricky for hacking types to successfully circumvent.
It would seem that those running ‘backup’ copies of their Xbox 360 games will have to avoid the latest Xbox LIVE Dashboard update and therefore remain offline – or stick to games released pre-April 2009.
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