Software Piracy Risks

Anti-Piracy Technology

Global software piracy is a well-known problem, however its severity is sometimes overlooked – global revenue losses were estimated at $48B in 2008, with an average piracy rate of 35%. Emerging markets are very attractive new markets for most high-tech companies; however they are also hotbeds for software piracy due the absence of regulatory protection of intellectual property. At the same time, although western markets may have a more evolved regulatory environment, they also exhibit a high rate of consumption of pirated products.

Threats that software publishers are commonly confronted with include both theft and counterfeiting of proprietary intellectual property. Counterfeiters target and lift algorithm-intensive areas in software to build nearly identical products for pennies on the dollar. Counterfeiting affects devices where proprietary software powers commodity hardware, such as CE devices, machine tool controls and telecommunications equipment. It also affects IP-rich software such as scientific, engineering and graphics software. Availability of under-priced knock-offs can undermine entire product lines in affected markets.

Reverse Engineering for Theft or Discounted Sales of Proprietary Intellectual Property

• Hackers extract code in order to get confidential information and proprietary algorithms
• Stealing key routines and intellectual property to counterfeit software

Unauthorized Usage of Proprietary Software

• Building or using unauthorized copies of proprietary software
• Enabling disabled features for proprietary functionality
• Determining how to gain unauthorized access

Options for Managing Your Risk

Software publishers have a range of options in managing their risks of revenue loss and theft of intellectual property. These range from passive strategies designed to understand the extent of your specific piracy situation, to aggressive software protection strategies that fully mitigate piracy. Arxan provides a suite of product-based solutions and expert services to meet your risk management needs.

Comprehensively Protect Intellectual Property

Application hardening protects your entire software package against tampering, counterfeiting and any form of intellectual property theft. Arxan’s Guard technology combines anti-reverse engineering and anti-code lifting techniques to prevent identification, extraction and unauthorized reuse of sensitive software. For software-powered devices, we also provide secure binding of hardware to software. For extensible platforms, cross-module authentication and secure cryptographic protocol implementation prevent counterfeiters from building unauthorized plug-ins, or leveraging legitimate plug-ins in a counterfeit platform.

By fully binding all security-sensitive functions and algorithmic-intensive functions together, application hardening ensures that your software is adequately robust against software pirates. Arxan’s GuardIT solution protects all types of desktop, server and embedded software applications as it embodies all seven factors that distinguish a durable yet low performance impact solution. GuardIT is the strongest, lightest, most effective software protection solution available today. Learn More →

Harden License Management and Dongle Measures

Security routines such as license management and node-locking functions are the first target of software attacks. These solutions are generally provided by third party vendors. As a result, the points at which the security functions connect to the main application are few and well-defined. Hackers quickly build expertise in defeating popular license management and dongle solutions, placing your software and intellectual property at risk.

Arxan’s GuardIT for FLEXnet® Publisher provides point-click fortification of software protected with FlexNET Publisher. GuardIT is also compatible with all leading license management and dongle solutions.

Forensics and Tracking

Product managers and financial officers need to understand how and where software is being pirated. For example, many license violations occur through inadvertent software overuse within legitimate customers. Additionally, as market conditions grow grim and competition intensifies, companies are increasingly under pressure to cut costs and are more liable to pirate software. Knowing where your software is being abused allows you to convert pirates into customers, and losses into revenue.

Arxan’s GuardIT allows your software to become self-vigilant, reporting attempted attacks, tampering or any other form of compromise. The resultant data provides metrics on the effectiveness of your anti-piracy strategy, helps quantify exact losses from piracy and helps identify leaks and vulnerabilities in your software. Request a demo of Arxan’s traitor tracing feature!

Understand Piracy Risk

The statistics are in – for every 2 dollars worth of software sold in 2008, 1 dollars worth was pirated. However, what does this mean for your specific business, and your specific software title? Pirated software is sold in a number of channels including online websites, peer to peer networks and physically on the streets. Types of cracks vary from compromised keys to software-based tampering attacks and spoofed dongles.

Arxan’s Yellow Team Service provides you with customized research to understand how, where and to what extent your software is being pirated. This enables you to quantify your losses and identify your vulnerabilities, which are the first steps in building an anti-piracy strategy. To get started, request your FREE Cracked Software Investigation (CSI) report today.