PreEmptive Thoughts from Build 2017

May 22, 2017 4121 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.

Latest Blog Posts

Announcing the DashO v10.2 Release with Resource Encryption for Android

The DashO 10.2 release introduces a major new feature: Resource Encryption for Android. It's currently in beta, but is fully supported for production use. It allows you to encrypt the resources embedded in your APK, better protecting your Android application against static attacks.

This functionality integrates directly with your existing Gradle build, encrypting the resources during the standard build process. DashO then injects code into your protected application that will decrypt those resources at runtime.

Resource Encryption is off by default, but can be easily enabled in the DashO UI. The UI makes it easy to enable, or disable, the encryption of specific resources via drag and drop. It currently supports encrypting both assets and raw resources.

Once you install DashO 10.2, using this feature is easy.

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.

PreEmptive Thoughts from Build 2017

Announcing the DashO v10.2 Release with Resource Encryption for Android

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?

Latest Blog Posts

Announcing the DashO v10.2 Release with Resource Encryption for Android

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

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