Fuseable Links - no guarantees??

[wxfield@shore.net (Warren)]

I have never paid much attention to the protection of firmware or the
technical issues revolving around such schemes...was wondering:

I recently saw an add for a UK based group that says they can take a PIC
OTP micro and read the prom (for a fee, of course) - How the heck is this
done?? I have my suspicion that they (somehow) magically peel off the
ceramic coating (without destroying the chewy center), get a circuit mask
and 'micro probe' the I/O of the IC...they then download the secret recipe
to the afore mentioned 'chewy center'.

Is this close to accurate?? How is it 'done' ???


                                                                -Just Curious