Cloakware Introduces High-Security Software Solutions for North American Cable Operators

Thursday, November 20th, 2008
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Elevates Content Protection Beyond Hardware-based Conditional Access to Enable Secure, Low-Cost Set-Top Boxes and DTAs

VIENNA, VA — Cloakware Inc., the provider of proven software solutions for securing business and digital assets, announced today that its technology would now be made available to cable operators and conditional access (CA) vendors to address requirements for highly effective, software-based security to enable development of low-cost set-top boxes for the North American market. Cloakware simultaneously announced that Irdeto (JSE: NPN), one of the world’s leading experts in content and business model protection solutions and services, will be the first CA provider to offer the technology as part of its solution to customers who require more robust content protection. Cloakware solutions are deployed in more than one billion software instances worldwide, on PC applications and in devices including mobile phones, portable media players and set-top boxes.

Cloakware technology also provides extra protection in security systems associated with device drivers, games, digital rights management (DRM) and other content protection applications. Designed to provide a more flexible solution than is possible with conditional access smart cards or embedded CA microchips, it uses white-box cryptography to protect encryption key algorithms under the most severe attack scenarios. A layering of several separate technologies protects against a full range of attack methods. Such a high level of protection creates new options for the deployment of next-generation set-top boxes and services.

A potential cable industry use of the technology is with low cost set-tops called DTAs (digital terminal adapters) that are currently being considered by operators as they transition to digital and seek a method of protecting both basic and eventually higher tier content without incurring high set-top box costs. In addition, Cloakware technology can be used by the cable industry for home gateway applications where content is delivered to consumer devices around the home. Cloakware hardens the DTCP-IP (Digital Transmission Content Protection over IP) standard used to secure premium content as it is shared over a home network.

“For the DTA application, we have taken a balanced approach that delivers an appropriate level of security while maintaining the lowest possible cost,” said Trevor Izsak, director for business and market development for Cloakware. “Yet we have designed the solution to be able to be upgraded in the field over time. Significant cost advantages can be achieved through this approach–providing extremely high levels of security for a CA protection system without requiring the use of security-specific processing hardware in the set-top. We also participate in the home networking area with hardening of the DTCP-IP standard which has been approved by CableLabs. Our solutions are helping CA vendors and operators alike to achieve a more sustainable security model while lowering costs and reducing time to market.”

“We believe Cloakware has the security solutions that the cable industry needs to deploy their next generation initiatives and we look forward to partnering with operators to help them do that,” said Andrew Wajs, CTO of the Irdeto Group. “We are particularly pleased that Irdeto will be the first conditional access provider to bring the Cloakware solution to market in North America.

“The industry is constantly looking for ways to protect itself against hackers who keep finding new, ingenious ways of gaining access to encryption keys,” said Zoltan Costin, North American Business Development Manager for Irdeto. “We believe this solution will find great interest among both operators and content providers, particularly with their next-gen initiatives.”