Press Release

Software Security in China: Irdeto and China’s Institute of Automation Collaborate on Information Security and Protection Education

Beijing — August 12, 2010 — Irdeto, the global leader in securing premium content and digital assets, and China’s Institute of Automation recently completed the first ever “ACM International Summer School on Information Security and Protection.” The week-long program at the Chinese Academy of Sciences brought together world class research groups and internationally-recognized experts to explore advanced techniques for protecting information from tampering, reverse engineering and piracy.

Irdeto’s involvement marks the latest global initiative of its Cloakware Advanced Research Center (CARC) and was illustrative of the company’s commitment to helping secure content while increasing awareness of software security among the academic and industrial communities in China and beyond.

“With today’s increasing bandwidth availability, cable and satellite operators are contending with a vastly more diverse and complex set of media devices and distribution options,” said Andrew Wajs, chief technology officer of Irdeto. “Delivering content anytime, anywhere on virtually any device requires new thinking about how to secure data and copyrighted content on a global scale.”

According to an annual study released by the Business Software Alliance and IDC, the global software piracy rate reached 43 percent in 2009, meaning more than four out of every 10 software packages installed during the year were unlicensed or illegal.

“Software security and protection is a discipline that spans software engineering, cryptography, networking, computer architecture and compiler design,” said Yuan Xiang Gu, chief architect and founder of Irdeto Cloakware. “We are confident the students from 11 countries who enrolled in this year’s ACM International Summer School session – all of whom have requested we hold the course again next year – will have an impact on tomorrow’s important software security breakthroughs.”

Organized by Professor Fei-Yue Wang, the course addressed the importance of protecting all forms of data and intellectual property across the landscape of medical informatics, power distribution, transportation systems and financial networks, in addition to practical topics like code obfuscation, software watermarking, tamper-proofing and counter attack strategies.

Irdeto’s CARC research program focuses on developing advancements in software security and protection technology to address the myriad of modern day software security challenges. Beyond core research, CARC also issues external technical publications and organizes international forums and workshops similar to ACM International Summer School.

“Our collaboration with Irdeto and CARC has contributed significantly to our students understanding the challenges of server-client application systems in the business world,” said Dr. Christian Collberg, a software protection pioneer, researcher at the University of Arizona and scientific chair of the ACM International Summer School. “It was our hope that with this course, attendees would have a similar experience and be empowered to see how the technology and knowledge they learn from classes are used in the real world environment.”

In addition to Irdeto, the ACM International Summer School was sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Verona, University of Virginia, University of Arizona , Tsinghua University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. For more information on the ACM International Summer School, please visit http://isisp10.scienze.univr.it/.

About the Cloakware Advanced Research Center (CARC)

The Cloakware Advanced Research Center (CARC) brings together world-class researchers to advance software security technology and foster innovation. Led by a team of respected experts from Irdeto’s Cloakware team and premier global universities, CARC’s research program focuses on developing intellectual property to address the myriad modern day software security challenges. Beyond the core research, CARC also organizes and promotes international forums and workshops and leads to promote broader industry awareness of the importance of white-box cryptography. CARC is directly and wholly funded by the Irdeto Group. For more information, please visit http://www.irdeto.com/en/cloakware-advanced-research-center-carc.html.

About Irdeto

Irdeto is a trusted partner to many of the world’s leading content owners and distributors, device manufacturers and software companies, including Adobe, Skylink, Netflix, BSkyB, Multichoice Africa and Televisión Cable Digital. Irdeto’s versatile technology platform ensures unbound access to valuable digital assets and premium content through its content security, conditional access, business support systems and content and digital rights management product suites. Co-headquartered in Beijing and Amsterdam, Irdeto employs over 800 people in 25 offices around the world and is a subsidiary of multinational media group Naspers (JSE: NPN).

For more information, please visit www.irdeto.com.

Irdeto
Lei Lui
Tel: +86 10 85276460-6791
Email:lei.liu@irdeto.com

Racepoint Group
Dana Gulick
Tel: +1-617-487-4673
Email:irdeto@racepointgroup.com