PreEmptive Thoughts from Build 2017

May 22, 2017 4588 Views Gabriel Torok

Like so many of us returning from Build 2017, we at PreEmptive are feeling both energized and highly motivated. Energized because of the truly impressive innovation coming out of both Microsoft and our larger ecosystem – and motivated because we can all see the expanding concern around application risk management and data security in this rapidly evolving world – and of course, that is where PreEmptive Solutions comes in.

Microsoft announced (and released) a broad range of software at Build: Improving Azure, Visual Studio, cross platform application development, and DevOps automation and efficiencies. I’m proud to say that PreEmptive Solutions were able to continue our 15+ year tradition of keeping pace with Microsoft’s remarkable cadence with a few announcements of our own.

At Build 2017, we announced

An update of our debug defense capabilities inside Dotfuscator to defend against native debuggers in addition to managed,
Enhancements of our Xamarin integration to significantly simplify and automate our protection there, and
Support for .NET Standard and Dotfuscator CE support for VSTS.

In other words, we also “announced (and released) a broad range software at Build improving Azure, Visual Studio, cross platform application development, and DevOps automation and efficiencies.”

I think my lasting impression of Build 2017 (and I’ve attended every Build so far) will be that the general awareness – even sophistication – around application risk management concepts and practices has never been higher. In fact, in the keynote (see image below) Microsoft noted that a specific key concern developers have is in making sure “their stuff” does not get hacked.

I see this jump in awareness as a direct consequence of the increasing importance of applications in all that we do. The higher the value of an application (and applications in general), the more it is worth protecting. And application developers attending Build certainly demonstrated the high value and impact of the work they’re doing. This is going to be an exciting year.

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It’s official. COVID-19, more commonly known as the Coronavirus, has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) with hundreds of thousands of cases worldwide. In the United States, restrictions are ramping up as case numbers soar — New York governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered all nonessential workers to stay home, and my own state’s governor Mike DeWine has issued a statewide shelter-in-place order.

Along with disruptions to daily life, the expanding impact of COVID-19 has forced businesses to rapidly pivot and adopt remote-work models — even if they have no experience with mobile connections and on-demand collaboration. The result is a surge in remote everything, from team chats to primary school education to project management and even healthcare delivery. See my previous blog on our customer commitment during the age of Coronavirus.

And while efforts to bridge the digital divide are having a positive impact for both workplace productivity and the mental health of those in isolation, there’s a potential pitfall: Cybersecurity. As noted by CNBC, there’s already been a significant uptick in scam and phishing emails — but what happens if malicious actors breach critical apps and services?

At PreEmptive, we’re closely following the evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency, and our thoughts are with those affected and their families during this difficult time.

We are taking precautionary steps to continue normal operations without affecting our customers. At the same time, ensuring the health and safety of our customers, partners, and employees is our highest priority.

We have provided application protection software to the world's top organizations for more than 20 years. Although, this case is somewhat unique, it is not the first time we have been confronted with economic disruptions and uncertainties. Prior critical lessons have helped shape us into the company we are today: a robust organization with layers of contingency plans in place, a strong balance sheet, and an experienced team that values long-term relationships with our customers and partners above all else.

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