Bethesda, MD — August 4, 2008 — Arxan Technologies, a leading provider of application hardening solutions designed to protect software from tampering and piracy, today announced the launch of its new patent-pending cryptographic key protection technology, TransformIT. Today cryptography and PKI form the cornerstones of information security. The effectiveness of these cryptographic routines in turn depends on the secrecy and integrity of keys. TransformIT enhances software security by preventing tampering and hacking attacks that target keys used within software applications – thereby preventing content, data and revenue loss.

Secret keys are used across many industries for various purposes including encryption, authentication and node-locking. In the digital media market, loss of first-level keys allows piracy of software or media titles. As deeper-level, system-critical keys are exploited, entire platforms become susceptible to widespread piracy allowing hackers to instantaneously rip media libraries or unlock subsidized devices. Similarly, public and private keys are used to protect enterprise applications and any related data. In addition to unauthorized access, malware insertion, data leakage and system level exploits can result in entire platforms becoming vulnerable – allowing hackers to instantaneously snoop on enterprise-wide systems such as mobile and e-banking transactions or VoIP communications.

"Encryption is widely used to prevent unauthorized access to data and information systems, and digital IP, against piracy and theft," said Diana Kelley, Partner at SecurityCurve. "However, one critical point of failure in such systems is the instance at which the key is revealed and used. This point is identifiable through signature patterns and cryptographic routines. Once found, they direct an attacker straight to where the keys will typically be constructed in memory. Subsequently, fatal exploits can be created and used."

Arxan's TransformIT product ensures that private keys are never revealed statically or in run-time memory. It also ensures that public keys cannot be tampered with, thereby preventing a wide range of phishing, spoofing and code tampering attacks.

"We're pleased to bring the latest in key hiding and protection technology to the market with TransformIT in response to market demand for stronger information security," said Mike Dager, CEO of Arxan. "In conjunction with our GuardIT family of products, TransformIT enhances our proven ability to protect and harden applications against the growing range of attack vectors. Arxan security solutions now provide protection against key exploits that can result in system-wide compromise and data leakage."

• White-Box Cryptography Key Representation - Algorithmically strong, this patent-pending approach is fundamentally secure and resistant to break-once-run-everywhere (BORE) attacks.
  
  
  • Effective Key Hiding - By preventing keys from ever showing their face, TransformIT thwarts memory dump and memory remnant attacks.
  • Tunable- Modifications to the depth and breadth of a key graph allow users to define their level of security. Moreover, a simple API allows TransformIT to easily integrate with other applications.
• Intricately Hookable – Machine constants, hardware IDs and similar node-locking anchors can be tied into product calculations. The result is that the software cannot be separated from hardware, nor copied.

Arxan's GuardIT family of software protection products can be seamlessly deployed with TransformIT for comprehensive key transformation and protection. This suite is comprised of GuardIT for Windows, GuardIT for Linux, and GuardIT for .NET. Each product features automated, easy to use, yet customizable protection across desktop, embedded and server software applications.