Software Development Continues to Evolve

November 21, 2018 2144 Views Gabriel Torok

It’s no longer enough to just make great software. Now, mobile-enabled, always-connected users demand applications capable of meeting them where they are — without sacrificing quality, performance, or protection. This means easy to use, intuitive software that’s always available, always secure, and always works, delivered at a fast cadence.

To meet these increasing expectations, 3rd party tools and solutions continue to be critical for development environments. Companies recognize the need to use a combination of in-house, open-source, and proprietary offerings to deliver competitive software on-demand.

At PreEmptive we’re continuously searching for ways to improve our development process, boost productivity, and drive best-of-breed software design. But we’re not selfish — in the spirit of the season, we’re happy to share some of our favorite tools for software development and design.

Here are some dev tools we like:

Visual Studio:

We like Visual Studio because it’s the premier IDE for .NET application development. It is highly extensible and customizable, and has a mature third party extension ecosystem. Dotfuscator supports almost all variants of .NET, created with almost any .NET language compiler (past and present), so we really like that Visual Studio supports working with all these scenarios, and that older versions of Visual Studio continue to work side-by-side with current releases.

Visual Studio Code:

We like Visual Studio Code because it is a fast, free, lightweight editor that understands many different programming languages and related artifacts; it is updated frequently, and has a thriving plugin ecosystem. Our developers use Windows, Mac, and Linux, so we also like the cross-platform support.

Xamarin:

We like Xamarin because our customers like Xamarin—it allows them to create mobile applications that target multiple platforms with one shared codebase, while still maintaining platform native look-and-feel. Protecting these applications is important to our customers!

IntelliJ:

We like IntelliJ for Java code development. Google choose it as the base of Android Studio, it gets updates often, the interface is easy to use, and the refactoring tools are great.

And even more tools we like:

LEADTOOLS

With powerful features including OCR, Barcode, Forms, PDF, Document Viewing, Image Processing, DICOM, and PACS, LEADTOOLS Imaging SDKs are designed to help programmers integrate A-Z imaging into their cross-platform applications. Let’s say you're creating Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions, zero-footprint medical viewers, or audio/video media streaming servers across multiple platforms and devices. LEADTOOLS has you covered with native libraries for Android, Apple, Linux and .NET along with new consumption-based Web API in LEADTOOLS Cloud Services.

Mobilize.Net

Mobilize.Net’s AI-driven code migration tools Mobilize.Net’s AI-driven code migration tools reduce the cost and time to modernize valuable legacy client-server applications. Convert VB6 code to .NET or even a modern web application. Move PowerBuilder to Angular and ASP.NET Core or Java Spring. Automated migration tools cut time, cost, and risk from legacy modernization projects.

DocuSign

Need simple eSignature integration? Building out a multifaceted and secure workflow? DocuSign APIs and tools can help. Tools include new C# SDK with .NET Core 2.0 support and a Quick Start API code example for C# — complete with a comprehensive installation and demonstration video. Along with C#, DocuSign offers open source SDKs for PHP, Java, Ruby, Python, and Node.js. With more than 400 endpoints and a free developer sandbox, this eSignature API gives companies everything they need to build out secure eSign environments.

Docker

Need containers? Get Docker Enterprise. Used by millions of developers — and offering support for both Windows Servers and Linus distributions, Docker provides the ideal way to seamlessly integrate container solutions. First time using containers? Check out the Modernizing .NET Apps for Developer series. Already an expert? Then get started with Docker by downloading .

CData

With real-time SQL-92 connectivity to more than 100+ SaaS, NoSQL, and Big Data sources, CData Software has earned its reputation as the leading Drivers and Adapters provider for data integration. Using standards such as ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, and ODATA, CData Software helps virtualize data access, reduce data integration complexities and provide real-time access for BI, ETL and other reporting tools. It’s simple: use CData to write SQL and get data — from anywhere!

Progress

From the creator of Telerik .NET and Kendo UI JavaScript user interface components/controls comes Progress, offering everything developers need to build high-performing modern web, mobile, and desktop applications and user interfaces. Along with cutting-edge tools to create, mobile and desktop apps efficiently, Progress also empowers companies to develop and deploy modern chatbot experiences across their applications.

Twilio

The future of business communications has arrived: Twilio enables developers to easily embed phones, VoIP, and messaging tools into web, desktop, and mobile software. The best part? Twilio takes care of care of complex telecommunications hardware in addition to delivering globally-available cloud API that developers can leverage to create cutting-edge communications systems. And since Twilio automatically scales as your app usage shifts up or down, you only pay for what you use.

It's time again for the #CodeParty

It’s happening Tuesday, Dec. 4: DevIntersection and #MSFTConnect() overlap and #PreEmptive and other are sponsoring the #CodeParty. Check out the link for speakers and sessions — it’s a treasure trove of content for developers and IT pros.

MSFTConnect is an online-only event, but DevIntersection is happening at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But when the events finish up at 5:30, head on over to the CodeParty twitch channel for another hilarious and prize-filled stream of geek weirdness and trivia questions.

Sweetening the deal is some high-quality swag you can only get by answering the trivia questions on the Twitch chat stream — we'll be giving away a couple of Surface Go laptops, gift certificates to Amazon, an Xbox and a bunch of other cool stuff.

Don’t miss out!

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Dotfuscator 6.0 Beta: Entering the Next Era of Dotfuscator

Today we're announcing the first new major-version release of Dotfuscator in thirteen years: Dotfuscator Professional 6.0 Beta. It's an exciting new release with major new capabilities, but before we get into that, let's take a look at why it's been so long since we had a major release and why we're choosing to do one now.

For development teams, adding Dotfuscator to a build pipeline can often seem like a challenge; the value it adds is mostly gained by the surrounding business, and the cost of adding it is mostly borne by the development team. We understand that constraint, which is why we focus on making Dotfuscator as easy to integrate and maintain as possible. If you're a long-time user of Dotfuscator, you've probably experienced that - release after release of painless upgrades. That's our "first do no harm" philosophy in action.

The dynamic type in C# provides flexibility that is not available in other statically-typed languages. Since its introduction in C# 4.0 (.NET 4.5), we have worked with customers who wanted to know more about how dynamic types are impacted by the obfuscation process.

Malicious actors — like any thieves — live by a simple rule: If the front door is locked, break the window.

It’s why threats like fileless malware and crypto-jacking have seen substantial gains over last few years. It’s why — despite increasing employee education and IT training — hackers are still hooking phish by developing more sophisticated and authentic-looking email spoofs. Cybercriminal communities, meanwhile, continue to grow on the dark web, allowing attackers to share info, purchase exploit kits and identify potential targets.

What does this mean for CISOs? That typical defense efforts are being outpaced as familiar attack vectors are replaced with non-traditional threats. But it’s not all bad news; here are three questions every CISO needs to ask to help close the doors, bolt the windows and leave hackers out in the cold.

Gabriel, you have been in the security industry for over 2 decades. You have seen many different tools and services. Why create a company around something as specific as obfuscation and in-app protection?

Our customers build a lot of really innovative apps that enable their users and customers to do new and cool things. These apps frequently run on untrusted client computers/devices and they control access to customer’s sensitive data or critical devices.

And after all the effort of designing, building, debugging, and deploying their applications, the last thing they want is for an attacker to steal their work or use it to look for vulnerabilities to break into their system.

Long ago, we built a Java code optimizer, but it became clear to us that our customer cared more about the obfuscation effects of the optimization than the actual performance improvement. That is when we really began to focus on app protection. First with Java, then .NET, Android, iOS, Xamarin, JavaScript, etc.

Gartner calls In-App Protection “crucial” in their July 2019 Market Guide for In-App Protection In-App Protection. The guide’s summary advises security and risk management leaders to “take due care in protecting their application clients” in order to avoid “security failure.”

This raises the question – what constitutes “due care?” Obviously, no development organization looks to recklessly expose their applications or sensitive data to attack or compromise. On the other hand, over-engineered (or poorly engineered) security controls can quickly lead to excessive development costs, performance and quality issues, and, ultimately, unacceptable user experiences. While terms and terminology may vary, there is broad consensus on how to best define “due care” for any given application/user scenario.

Software Development Continues to Evolve

Here are some dev tools we like:

Visual Studio:

Visual Studio Code:

Xamarin:

IntelliJ:

And even more tools we like:

LEADTOOLS

Mobilize.Net

DocuSign

Docker

CData

Progress

Twilio

It's time again for the #CodeParty

Dotfuscator 6.0 Beta: Entering the Next Era of Dotfuscator

Protecting C# Applications That Use Dynamic Types

Non-Traditional Attack Vectors: Three Questions Every CISO Needs to Ask

Q&A With PreEmptive CEO Gabriel Torok

Gabriel, you have been in the security industry for over 2 decades. You have seen many different tools and services. Why create a company around something as specific as obfuscation and in-app protection?

The Secret to Effective In-App Protection

Latest Blog Posts

Dotfuscator 6.0 Beta: Entering the Next Era of Dotfuscator

Introducing JSDefender: PreEmptive Protection now includes JavaScript

Protecting C# Applications That Use Dynamic Types

Non-Traditional Attack Vectors: Three Questions Every CISO Needs to Ask

Q&A With PreEmptive CEO Gabriel Torok

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