Arxan Technologies, a leading provider of software protection solutions designed to safeguard data, digital content and revenue, has launched its new patent-pending cryptographic key protection technology, TransformIT™, particularly significant for the broadcast sector to coincide with IBC.

TransformIT has been developed to enhance the security of control systems by preventing tampering and hacking attacks that target security keys, such as those used for the delivery of movies — 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 movie market each movie is delivered to digital cinema servers via a Key Delivery Message of KDM. The security key for each movie is delivered by a unique KDM meaning that a KDM will only work for one movie title on one server.

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-commerce transactions or VoIP communications.

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 piracy and code tampering attacks.

"We're pleased to bring the latest in key hiding and protection technology to the digital media market with TransformIT in response to market demand for stronger security," said Mike Dager, CEO of Arxan. "In conjunction with our GuardIT® family of products, which harden DRM and conditional access systems, TransformIT enhances our proven ability to protect applications against the growing range of attack vectors. Arxan security solutions now provide a strong defence against key exploits that can result in wide ranging compromise and theft."

The Film Distributors Association notes that given today's communications and technological environment, piracy will surely go on rising. TransformIT is well aligned with the recommendations of the FDA to implement advanced technologies that make theft harder; and constant vigilance surrounding all prints and previews.

Key Features of TransformIT include:

• 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.
• Tuneable — 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.