Cable theft is the act of obtaining unauthorized access to cable television services.[1] With the advent of digital cable, cases of people obtaining illegal service are less common. Digital cable can be more secure and can be very difficult to crack, although this is wholly dependent on the security of the encryption system chosen by the cable company in question. Old cable equipment used an analog signal that was scrambled by tuning the signal so the picture was unsteady, just as Macrovision does at an attempt to copy a video. The equipment would descramble the signal so that it can be viewed by the subscriber. It also is addressable, meaning that it can be remotely controlled by the company's technical staff. The first case covered by the media was when 317 subscribers were caught in 1991 [2] when the company they subscribed to sent a "bullet" (a video signal that turns off the equipment) to their cable boxes. The boxes were modified, but possibly belonged to the cable company.