revenue stream can be generated for the provider of the satellite system. This is where secure cores come into play.

All that is technically required on a subscriber’s reception station is a digital decryption unit that is supplied with the necessary key for decryption. A significant business problem can arise, however, with the distribution of this key. If the key is presented to the subscriber in the clear, then there is nothing to prevent one subscriber from passing the key on to other subscribers, but without them having to pay any type of fee for the television service. However, by locking the key away within a smart card, it was possible to define a protocol of use for the key that would allow it to be accessed only after the subscription fee was paid and then only by a specific reception station. Thus, the smart card success in this case was due to the provision of a secure means of decryption key distribution.

Trust, as we’ve seen, is the necessary ingredient to validate content and even make its processing by the human brain or the computer possible. So, one wonders, “What creates trust?” That is what we are now going to investigate.

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