Arxan To Assist Federation Against Software Theft

By Alan Harten

Arxan Technologies, a provider of application hardening solutions designed to protect software from tampering and theft, has joined the Federation Against Software Theft as it extends its reach into the European market.

The Federation was the world’s first anti-piracy organisation working to protect the intellectual property of software publishers.

It was formed in 1984 and its initial remit was to lobby Parliament for changes in the law which resulted in ‘a computer program’ being included in the definition of a ‘literary work’ in the Copyright Law.

The UK based federation has joined in an alliance with other like minded organisations across the globe, including the Korean Software Property-right Council, the Association of Copyright for Computer Software in Japan, the Software & Information Industry Association and Business Software Alliance both in the US.

Arxan recently announced that it was targeting the European market at a time when levels of global software piracy and tampering have reached unprecedented levels, compliance regulation is demanding close scrutiny of software applications and malware attacks are exponentially increasing.

In joining the Federation, Arxan is actively demonstrating its firm commitment to the market and its willingness to engage with the UK software community.

Further, it also intends to make available to other Federation members its Yellow Team Service.

Yellow Team engagements begin with a complimentary Cracked Software Investigation (CSI) report.

Arxan’s dedicated CSI team uncovers products which may have been cracked, as well as where counterfeit versions are being sold and how freely they are shared on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

Both organisations are committed to battling the following types of piracy issues.

Professional Counterfeits
Professional Business Software
Packaged product complete with security devices and counterfeit licences
CD ROM Software
All platforms

CD-ROM Piracy
Pirate CD-ROM compendiums produced on commercially available CD-ROM devices intended for backup function.

If the software contained on these compilations disks were purchased legitimately, the average value of the software is estimated to be in excess of £30,000.

Quasi-Counterfeits
Scanned colour cover with laser printed labels.
Manufactured to pass off as genuine product.
Often sold online or in circumstances where the product cannot be viewed prior to sale.

Hard Disk Loaders
Dealers who load infringing versions of copyright programs to encourage customers into buying computer hardware.

One Day/Car Boot Sales
Individuals selling large quantities of copied software.

Usually disks have only hand-written/typed labels. Often if artwork is used the images will be blurred and/ or pasted onto the CD-ROMs. Often sell pirate compilation CD-ROMs

Peer to Peer / IRC
The Federation has secured court orders against 10 ISPs, ordering them to supply user information for 150 targets illegally sharing software.

Mike Dager, President and CEO of Arxan said that “At our recent launch in London it became highly apparent that there is a real demand for a new generation of application hardening technologies to make software tamper-resistant so organisations can manage risk, maximise profitability and regain control of their software,”

John Lovelock, Chief Executive of the Federation Against Software Theft stated: “Our meetings with Arxan convinced us that it has a unique perspective on the issue of piracy and anti-tampering. Cracking software code and the illegal sales of pirated copies of software is harming the UK economy and as we have seen in recent test cases the ISV’s are taking this issue seriously. I am delighted that Arxan has joined the Federation and am convinced that it can offer something entirely new to our existing members.”

Enterprises need to mitigate risk around software tampering for unauthorised access, which can jeopardise regulatory compliance, sales and lead to malware insertion.

Arxan’s Yellow Team Services are offered at multiple levels, starting with a CSI, and are complementary to its award-winning software protection product, GuardIT (r).

GuardIT is a proven commercial protection product for both managed and native code designed to meet the business demand for software application protection.

The GuardIT family includes GuardIT for Windows, GuardIT for Linux and GuardIT for .NET, and all GuardIT offerings feature automated, easy to use, yet customisable protection across desktop, embedded and server software applications.

Together, Yellow Team Services and GuardIT form a comprehensive protection strategy for software publishers to better understand their software piracy challenges and regain control of their software.

About Arxan Technologies
Arxan Technologies Inc. is a provider of application hardening solutions designed to protect software intellectual property (IP) from piracy, tampering, reverse engineering and any manner of theft.

GuardIT(r) solution takes software security beyond static obfuscation and encryption to dynamically defend, detect and react against application attacks.

Arxan supports a full range of application protection needs, from commercial software anti-piracy to military grade assurance.

The U.S. department of defence and its contractors rely on Arxan Defense Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of Arxan Technologies, to deliver best of breed anti-tamper solutions to protect critical program information in military technology.

Founded in 2001, Arxan Technologies has offices in Bethesda, Md., San Francisco, Calif., Dallas, Boston, Chicago, New York and West Lafayette, IN.