So last year I made this security / serial number registration authentication system for a video game company. Let's say the company is really big - they made the original "pong", then Space Invaders. Yeah. That company.
Anyway, the system installs a video game, with a serial number and then checks the internet to know if this is a valid serial number etc, and if the serial number is owned by one computer and not by 1000 computers. Basically, what good is a serial number if everyone shares it right? The system is more complicated than that, as it tracks different products, sales counts, and lots of other stuff, but the basic component is the serial number security and checking that people have valid serial numbers and that serial number is used only once.
They paid $30,000 for this system.
Today, they wanted me to disable the feature that prevents the sharing of serial numbers, because "their users didn't like it".
So now, the security system, which is designed to track who/when serials are used, and use the internet to know if the serial is actually valid etc, is reduced to:
"Has the person entered 9931-09144-9172 during installation or not?" (assuming someone has shared their serial number, duh)
$30,000 for: if (strcmp(serial,"9931-09144-9172") == true) { ok(); }
I am not complaining, after all they did pay me, but I am absolutely flabergasted how these people keep their jobs.
Anyway, the system installs a video game, with a serial number and then checks the internet to know if this is a valid serial number etc, and if the serial number is owned by one computer and not by 1000 computers. Basically, what good is a serial number if everyone shares it right? The system is more complicated than that, as it tracks different products, sales counts, and lots of other stuff, but the basic component is the serial number security and checking that people have valid serial numbers and that serial number is used only once.
They paid $30,000 for this system.
Today, they wanted me to disable the feature that prevents the sharing of serial numbers, because "their users didn't like it".
So now, the security system, which is designed to track who/when serials are used, and use the internet to know if the serial is actually valid etc, is reduced to:
"Has the person entered 9931-09144-9172 during installation or not?" (assuming someone has shared their serial number, duh)
$30,000 for: if (strcmp(serial,"9931-09144-9172") == true) { ok(); }
I am not complaining, after all they did pay me, but I am absolutely flabergasted how these people keep their jobs.
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