Arxan
The Paraphernalia In the Next ‘Big Security’ Threat of IoT

Majority of the planetary population is inclined to the IoT space. The number of mobile apps accessing sensitive data is exploding and the demand to protect these apps is becoming more and more prevalent. This has undoubtedly been one of the biggest technological shifts witnessed since the internet came into play. The conundrum of enabling knowledge workers with access to applications and data securely and quickly across all their mobile devices – anywhere, anytime, remains unresolved.

Arxan Technologies is an industry leader of application protection solutions established in 2001, based in Bethesda, MD. The house is a provider of security for mobile, desktop, e m b e d d e d and server applications including those connected as part of the Internet of Things. Arxan's security products are used to protect the confidentiality of applications (which can be compromised by reverse-engineering) and the integrity of applications (which can be sacrificed through tampering, malware insertion, and other types of attacks)— and in turn, protect against improper or unsafe operations, information exposure, and IP theft. Patrick Kehoe, CMO states, “Healthcare (including medical devices), automotive, and the retail space related to smart homes and smart appliances are great opportunities for Arxan. The firm is global with about half its business in the US, and the rest split between Europe and Asia.”

Arxan plays a critical role by pro¬viding protection for apps on open IoT platforms, for instance the Apple watch, and mobile applications that controls IoT devices, like home appli¬ances. According to Vince Arneja, VP of Product Management, “Arxan has broad applicability across the differ¬ent parts of the IOT market. As IOT evolves, application level security will become paramount similar to what happened with desktop, web and most recently mobile and we provide a solu¬tion to protect that valuable software running in untrusted environments.

In an interesting example, Arxan is p r o t e c t i n g the software that Valencell, a leading biometric solutions company, is selling to a range of companies that produce fitness, lifestyle, electronics, and gaming products. Arxan defends, detects, alerts and reacts to attacks through a threat-based, customizable approach. Proven, durable and resilient, offerings support a full range of application protection needs for any commercial or IoT-related software.

Arxans security products are used to protect the confidentiality of applications and the integrity of applications, which can be sacrificed through tampering, malware insertion

The challenge for Arxan was creating market awareness about the risks of reverse engineering and tampering that are very real if binary code is not protected. Another challenge was to educate the market on the importance of protection for the application layer itself, not just the network or device/server layers. Arxan was capable of overcoming all the hurdles and turned their focus on the unique application protection approach, which was to apply the solution at the tail end of the software development lifecycle to the binary code in a way that does not require modification of the source code or training of all application developers to apply.

Arxan gains customer satisfaction and remains enthusiastic in not only benefiting a customer with protection capabilities but also ‘staying put’ the high spirits to enhance it forever.