Arxan Technologies, Inc, a software and hardware anti-tamper technology company, recently announced it has joined the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC) as its latest industry affiliate, and will serve on SERC's industry affiliate advisory board. Welcoming this development, Dr. Wayne M. Zage, Director of SERC, said, "SERC welcomes the expertise and experience in the complex realm of information security with the addition of Arxan. Its presence in SERC, joining current affiliates such as Baker Hill, Eli Lilly, Intelligent Information Technologies, Motorola, NASA IV&V, the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, Ontario Systems, Raytheon and Telcordia, increases the diversity and research project potential in the SERC."

This further consolidates the relationship between Arxan and SERC. The two are already collaborating on Arxan's Nemesis project - a fully automated, self-learning platform to test strength of software protection against attacks such as tampering, reverse engineering and code lifting. Nemesis is a key component of Arxan's initiatives to ensure full automation of software security design, implementation and testing — putting quality protection in the reach of average software engineers, rather than restricting it to the much smaller domain of trained security experts. Says Arxan CEO Richard Earley, "SERC provides a terrific venue for Arxan to stay in touch with current research, and gives us a forum to both learn from and influence how software security is viewed and measured."

SERC is the only National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) devoted to software engineering. The NSF established the IUCRC program approximately 20 years ago to encourage cooperative research between academia and industry. The goal of the program was to establish self-sufficient research centers of excellence in areas of critical technology, which would be located at universities but whose researchers would cooperate closely with scientists and engineers at partner US industrial concerns and government agencies. Said Eric Davis, Arxan's Sr. Vice President of Solutions, "SERC is a valuable platform for Arxan to pursue it's community service efforts of educating engineers and researchers on latest attack techniques and protection best practices to ensure that deployed products are adequately fortified against exploitation and unauthorized use".

For example, Arxan engineers conducted a Software Protection Evaluation Course (SPEC) for SERC at Ball State University in April this year. The workshop was designed to educate software developers on ways to circumvent common software protection mechanisms in order to better understand how to secure against software tampering. Said Rob Wroblewski, Arxan's representative on the SERC industry affiliate advisory board, "All attendees were delighted with the information contained in the course and very impressed with the capabilities of Arxan's security mechanisms." The workshop hosted 40 individuals including participants from SERC affiliates like Ontario Systems, Raytheon and Motorola.

Arxan also regularly conducts seminars and workshops on best practices, methodology and latest techniques related to software and hardware protection at SERC showcases. These showcases, held twice a year, bring industry and academia together for an intense one and a half-day exchange of information, ideas and knowledge.

For more information about upcoming Arxan workshops and talks at SERC, please see the Arxan events calendar at www.arxan.com.