Public Relations

Asgent Announces Start of Sales for Arxan Solution to Protect Mobile Applications from Cracking by Obfuscation, Hardening and Encryption Key Hiding

April 3, 2018
Asgent, Inc.
（JASDAQ: 4288）

Asgent, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4288, President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in network security and operations management solutions, announces the signing of a distributor contract with Arxan Technologies, Inc. (CEO: Joe Sander, located in US) to sell Arxan´s mobile application cracking prevention solution and mobile application delivery platform service.

[Background]
Along with the spread of IoT devices and digital transformation of electronic devices, the growth of smartphones, the rise of mobile payments and the introduction of connected cars, there is an increasing move to provide more and more functionality through mobile applications. On the other hand, the risk of leakage of confidential information through illegal use via reverse engineering and program tampering also increases. Therefore, mobile application developers require the ability to prevent cracking and to be able to provide deliver secure applications to users.

[Mobile application obfuscation/hardening and encryption key hiding]
Arxan was founded in 2001 with funding from the National Security Agency (NSA) to protect defense technologies in the Department of Defense. They provide security solutions to protect applications themselves from cracking. When the application is built, the binary code is obfuscated and protect code is inserted. Obfuscation not only makes the binary code hard to decipher, but because the protect codes monitor one another, when tampering of some kind has been performed, alerts can be issued and the application process can be stopped, in turn protecting against leakage of intellectual property and application tampering. In addition, hiding the encryption key within the application can be prevent the key from being leaked.

[Mobile application delivery platform service]
A platform to deliver private mobile applications to specific users is provided. For employees who cannot deploy MDM (Mobile Device Management) due to BYOD, it is possible to deploy and protect organizations´ applications with MAM (Mobile Application Management). In overseas markets, this is used for testing of applications before their official release, and for delivering work-related applications to employees and staff. Deployment has also begun domestically in the game industry.

[Track Record]
In the Japan market, market share has been obtained through protecting large cell carrier mobile applications, large financial institution mobile banking systems and online gaming. Recently, the solution is also being considered to protect smart key applications for the automotive industry. In the future, Asgent will strengthen sales and technical support for both existing and new customers. The solution is open priced, with a sales target of 500 Million Yen in the initial year.

[Arxan Product/Services]

- GuardIT, EnsureIT

Code hardening solution. Obfuscates binary code and protects applications by inserting protect code.

- TransformIT

Encryption key hiding. Prevents illegal operations by hiding the encryption key.

- APPERIAN

Mobile application delivery platform service. Allows for delivery of applications to specific users.

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