Listen to this articleSince 1989 Wibu-Systems has constantly been one of biggest companies supplying the DRM anti-piracy industry. Their goal is to enforce ethical business practices and provide labor safety by perfecting protection, licensing and security for all types of digital content. Below is our interview with Oliver Winzenried, CEO and Co-founder of Wibu-Systems:
Q: How would you describe Wibu-Systems in your own words?
A: Wibu-Systems is an innovative technology leader in the global software licensing and security market. Marcellus Buchheit and I founded it in 1989 with the goal of helping software publishers protect their intellectual property against piracy and reverse engineering. Since then, the focus of the company has expanded to several other markets and systems. Wibu-Systems’ technologies are now used by ISVs and intelligent device manufacturers who distribute their applications through personal and industrial computers, mobile devices, embedded systems, PLC units, and even microcontrollers. With that, our mission has also shifted: We are leveraging the most sophisticated endpoint security techniques to provide monetization opportunities. Software licensing schemes that are versatile by nature, accommodate software, hardware, and cloud-based license containers, and adjust to the customers’ demands are the driving force of Wibu-Systems’ business.
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Q: You’ve recently launched a new global hacking contest to prove the validity and strength of your Blurry Box; tell us something more?
A: Conventional software protections most often rely on the principle of “security through obscurity”, meaning that the security of a system is fundamentally tied to the secrecy of the protection mechanisms that are shielding it from attacks. As a result, all programs protected by the same protection scheme can be hacked using the same attack method. Kerckhoffs’ Principle, on the other hand, postulates that a “Cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge.” This theory offers a revolutionary approach that is embodied in Blurry Box cryptography. The underlying goal of Blurry Box is to make the effort required to illegally copy software higher than the effort needed to completely rewrite the same software. The global hacking contest is aimed at proving the validity and strength of our new encryption method. It is open to all hackers around the world to attempt to crack a game protected with Blurry Box. Once the results are in, we count on integrating Blurry Box into CodeMeter, our flagship technology for secure licensing. It will give our loyal customers stronger encryption tools to safeguard their businesses.
Q: What makes Wibu-Systems unique?
A: Wibu-Systems is one of three major players in the global software licensing market and the only company focused solely on software protection, licensing, and security. With our singular focus on these pillars, we are in a unique position to understand the needs of our customers and continue to advance our technologies to stay ahead of the market’s changing demands. As a result of our commitment, CodeMeter has become the primary technology in the Industrial Internet world for know-how protection against counterfeiting and reverse engineering, licensing as an enabler of new business models, and security to prevent tampering and cyber-attacks.
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Q: Can you give us more insights into your product?
A: CodeMeter is an innovative cross-platform, multi-vendor, and multi-purpose technology that combines software protection, licensing, and security in a single platform. CodeMeter Protection Suite provides a simple and effective way to automatically encrypt software using symmetric and asymmetric algorithms. Specific flavors of CodeMeter come with a much smaller footprint and safeguard embedded systems and microcontrollers from sabotage and espionage. CodeMeter License Central interfaces with all the above protection and security modules and is the real business enabler. It provides a large number of preconfigured licensing options, such as trial periods, pay per use, pay per function, subscriptions. Licenses are stored in secure elements, preferably hardware based; these include USB dongles, memory cards, and ASICs, all embedding an EAL 5 smart card chip. The latest model we have added to our lineup, CmStick/CM, is the world’s smallest stick with high-speed flash memory storage, USB 3.1 interface, full-metal body, and a System-in-Package module in the connector that makes the unit able to withstand the extreme environmental conditions in industry. Additionally, CodeMeter License Central can be easily integrated into the ISV’s existing business processes (ERP, CRM, ecommerce) via ready-made connectors for more efficient order management.
Q: What are your plans for keeping Wibu-Systems on the forefront of technology innovation?
A: R&D has always been an important mainstay of our business, and we are committed to continuing this critical effort. As the market moves to the cloud, the IoT and IIoT are continuing to evolve rapidly and other industry trends are also emerging, it is our goal to lead the way in adapting new protection mechanisms to address the next generation of security threats. We will continue to seek strategic partnerships with other industry leaders, as we already did with Wind River, Infineon, and 3S-Smart Software Solutions, where we can contribute our expertise and collaborate on comprehensive ECT security-by-design solutions. We will also continue to actively participate with industry organizations, like the Industrial Internet Consortium, Silicon Trust, and VDMA, and help shape global industry policies and join dedicated working groups for the rise of conscious smart manufacturing. We will maintain our steady and active role in progressive initiatives, like IUNO, SmartFactoryKL, ALESSIO and more, wherever the input and the visions of frontrunners like us can create value and blueprints for the larger community of small and medium-sized vendors. We are also able to leverage our close relationships with several elite universities, like the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and other internationally renowned research centers, like the Fraunhofer Institute. Our collaborative efforts are bringing about new ideas and inventions; that’s the case of Blurry Box for instance, the as yet undefeated pinnacle of encryption.
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Q: More generally, how do you see the secure license management developing, and where do you place yourself in the industry?
A: Software developers of traditional PC-based applications are moving their apps to the cloud and implementing new subscription-based licensing schemes, following the lead of Microsoft, Adobe, and others. This shift necessitates a flexible licensing system, like CodeMeter, to accommodate new business models and enable developers to monetize their software in the cloud. Cloud licensing also presents security challenges that need to be addressed. In the embedded world, the IoT and IIoT have created an entirely new landscape of cyber threats. Embedded software developers urgently need to get up to speed, understand the vulnerabilities, and address the security threats inherent in connected devices. With our years of experience and dedication to security, Wibu-Systems is well positioned to play an important role and provide an invaluable resource for developers to meet these security challenges.
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