Visual Studio 2015 Dotfuscator CE Adoption: The first 500 users

August 10, 2015 9611 Views Sebastian Holst

For the first time since its launch in 2003, Dotfuscator Community Edition (CE), the no cost obfuscator included with Visual Studio, can send anonymous usage data for analysis (only after opt-in of course). …and after one week and 500 users, the resulting application analytics is already proving its worth.

Before I share some of the insights, let me also point out that the instrumentation now inside Dotfuscator CE is the very same as what Dotfuscator CE has been able to inject into .NET apps for Visual Studio users since VS2010. In other words, you can use Dotfuscator CE to achieve these same kinds of results inside your own applications.

Opt-in: of course we collect no information without a user’s informed consent. Happily, 93% of all of our users opted-in (thank you Dotfuscator CE users!). Note, Dotfuscator can inject opt-in policy enforcement too.

Visual Studio SKUs: One important data point we were keen to know was the distribution of our users across the new Visual Studio 2015 SKU’s (Enterprise, Professional and Community Edition). One important historical note: Dotfuscator CE was never included in Visual Studio Express – only the paid SKU’s. For the first time, Dotfuscator CE is now available inside the new (free) Visual Studio CE SKU – and over half of our initial users are coming from this new community. Does this suggest that our total Dotfuscator CE community will double as Visual Studio users migrate to VS 2015? We sure hope so! …and how does this tie back to user registrations? You can bet that we will be tracking this closely.

.NET Runtimes: We can infer quite a bit about the kinds of development our users are focused on by the .NET runtimes their apps target (not the .NET runtime installed with VS2015 which his 4.5 of course). While everyone is excited by the promise of modern development and universal apps, many development organizations’ current projects are still grounded in earlier .NET generations. Clearly, our application protection and analytics will need to support these runtimes for some time to come.

Equipment Manufacturers: In much the same vein, when looking at the underlying devices of these early VS2015 users, we see that they are mostly running on-prem (note, we are looking exclusively at VS2015 Dotfuscator CE users). While everyone is excited about Windows 10 and embracing Azure; early use is still mostly on-prem and, it is for this exact scenario, that our application protection and analytics support on-prem dev environments (and app deployments).

Follow links for:

A comparison of Dotfuscator CE and our other Dotfuscator versions

Stay tuned for more Visual Studio 2015 insights via Dotfuscator CE.

RSAC 2019 Roundup: NIST Gets Structural as the NSA Goes Open Source

The booths are gone, the lights are off and the conference halls are empty. It’s a wrap for RSAC 2019, but IT pros aren’t going home empty-handed: Here’s a roundup of this year’s key topics, critical outcomes and biggest surprises.

No “I” in Team

This year’s RSA Conference opted for a simple, one-word theme: Better.

While it’s certainly aspirational, what does it mean in practice? For RSA, it’s a recognition that security doesn’t happen in a vacuum, that infosec pros must work together to find better solutions, make better connections and make the world a better place. Given the often-fragmented nature of corporate IT security — RSA’s focus on empowering the “collective we” in cybersecurity makes sense: Evolving, adaptable threats won’t be defeated by companies operating in isolation.

There’s an app for that.

Apple’s (now trademarked) slogan is perhaps more telling than the company intended: Organizations rise and fall on the strength of applications — well-integrated, full-featured apps can help drive market success, while offerings more limited in scope and functionality may prove disastrous.

The sheer volume of both external and internal applications has also created a new challenge for companies: Risk management. Cybercriminals are both creating custom code and leveraging tools available on the Dark Web to compromise applications, steal corporate data and wreak network havoc.

GDPR fines were inevitable. Despite years of lead-up and months of warning before the legislation came into effect last May, many companies simply weren’t prepared for the complex (and evolving) nature of EU privacy expectations.

Now search giant Google is in the compliance law’s cross hairs: As noted by Bloomberg, Google has been assessed a $57 million fine because it “fails to adequately explain how it collects data to offer personalized advertising.” For some experts, the fine is a warning of things to come — companies must improve their data handling or face the consequences. For others, the penalties are a step too far with a purpose too vague.

The hard truth? No matter where opinions fall, GDPR fines are now out in full force — and your application could be next.

Hackers are winning. As noted by Information Age, data breach reports are up 75 percent over the last two years — while part of this increase is tied to emerging legislation and disclosure requirements, a quick look at tech headlines makes it clear that attackers are coming out ahead in the fight to keep corporate networks, applications and data secure.

But it’s not all bad news. Armed with knowledge of the current breach landscape — along with actionable insight to protect critical assets — organizations can start to even the score and put hackers on the defensive. Here’s what you need to know.

DashO 9.2 is available for immediate download and includes two powerful new controls:

1) Emulator Check, a new injectable control that

Detects when a hardened app is being executed on an emulator (even if that emulator is not rooted), and
Responds with the one or more pre-defined defenses and/or app-specific defenses – all in real-time.

Visual Studio 2015 Dotfuscator CE Adoption: The first 500 users

RSAC 2019 Roundup: NIST Gets Structural as the NSA Goes Open Source

No “I” in Team

Hardened Apps = Harder Target = Reduced Corporate Risk

GDPR Goes After Google — And Your App Could be Next

Data Breaches in 2019: Why the Hackers are Winning (And What You Can do About It)

Android Developers Gain Major App Security Boost with DashO v9.2

Latest Blog Posts

RSAC 2019 Roundup: NIST Gets Structural as the NSA Goes Open Source

Hardened Apps = Harder Target = Reduced Corporate Risk

GDPR Goes After Google — And Your App Could be Next

Data Breaches in 2019: Why the Hackers are Winning (And What You Can do About It)

Android Developers Gain Major App Security Boost with DashO v9.2

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Visual Studio 2015 Dotfuscator CE Adoption: The first 500 users

No “I” in Team

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