What is Software Protection?
Software protection refers to measures that may be taken by a software developer to stop unauthorized use of their software, enforce their contract and use anti-debugging and anti-reverse engineering techniques to guard their property (IP) against theft. According to the BSA, a minimum of 37% of software in use worldwide is pirated. This figure is significantly higher in Asia, geographic area, and BRIC countries. This represents an enormous loss in revenue to software developers.
Software piracy can take many forms. Unlicensed software can easily be distributed online or via peer-to-peer networks freed from charge. Sometimes, illegal copies are made to appear like genuine products and sold for a fee.
Preventing Software Piracy
Piracy is prevented by employing a mixture of strong encryption and techniques to stop debugging, analyzing, tampering, dumping, and decompiling of the developer’s software. This could be a hardware device like a USB dongle or a software-based key or lock that exists on the pc. If the safety token isn’t present or is compromised, then the software won’t run.
Typically, asymmetric encryption like RSA is employed so the protected software can securely communicate with the safety token. the general public secret’s stored within the protected application and therefore the private secret’s stored within the security token. Most, if not all, discover that this generates an enormous amount of support which to put in writing such systems reliably and with enough flexibility for general use is incredibly difficult.
Software Protection Solutions by Microcosm
The Shell method automatically adds a secure wrapper—a protective shell—to your application, forcing it to verify the existence and standing of the safety token before the applying can run. The Shell method also encrypts code and data in your software to forestall reverse engineering. With this method of protection, you’ll apply for software protection without modifying your ASCII text file.
For instance, you’ll be able to value more highly to terminate your program or run in demo mode if the token isn’t found. Or, you’ll decide which features of your program are enabled by counting on data stored inside the token.