StarForce Technologies Protekshen Technology

Protekshen Technology LLC is the Russian software developer in information security field. Products of the company are known around the world under the StarForce trademark. Activities of the company: information security, protection against unauthorized copying, protection against unauthorized copying, analysis and modification (decompiling).

Representations in Germany, France, China. Has more than 350 clients in 35 countries of the world.

Activities

In activity of the company 4 directions are selected:

• software protection;
• protection of content (electronic documents, e-mail, video and audio);
• protection of massively multi-user online games (MMOG);
• development of solutions for information security support of the companies.

Protection options Options of protection depend on answers to questions: what needs to be protected and from what threats. StarForce is effective if the answer to the first question are: the software (which is generally developed under Windows), documents, audio-, video files and e-mail. Among threats: analysis and modification, copying and illegal distribution, Chita and bots. For protection against copying binding methods also matter: to the computer, the server, a disk.

The provided services

• Installation of protection by specialists of StarForce both with making changes in the software code, and without making changes in the code
• Training and consultation of technical specialists of the client concerning independent use of products of protection of StarForce company, including on:
  • the Most effective integration of products of the company into the client's software
  • to Work with a personal web office
    • for implementation of effective management of distribution and control of distribution of software of the client.
    • for the most convenient and the client of the organization of work with partners answering to requests

• "Turnkey circulation" - additional service for the clients protecting the products with a binding to a disk and extending small circulations to DVD. Ready circulation is brought to the client directly to office.
• Consultation on the different directions of protection at all stages of creation of the software product.
• Consulting and research services in the field of assessment of resistance of products to cracking, the analysis, unauthorized use, etc.
• Creation of individual solutions under specific needs of the client
• Customization of standard products of StarForce under a specific type and methods of distribution and use of software of the client
• Integration and "deployment" of StarForce services at client side upon purchase or lease of autonomous systems of protection and/or activation.
• Consulting and training of technical specialists upon purchase by the client of technologies of StarForce company.

Licenses and certificates

The Protekshen Technology company has all necessary licenses of FSB for provision of services in the field of enciphering of information.

Also the company owns three patents for technologies of protection (Russia, the USA and Canada).

In the summer of 2018 the Protekshen Technology company working under the StarForce trademark obtained the license of FSTEC granting the right to develop and make means of protecting of confidential information for the Russian companies.

Reputation of StarForce

Bolshinsvo of users considers that any DRM system is angrily therefore in the user circles protection of StarForce always had the corresponding reputation. In addition to the exclusive durability of protection (so, a late release of illegal versions; Splinter Cell is considered a record: Chaos Theory which held on 422 days), there were also problems connected with need to keep a disk in the computer drive during all usage time of the protected program. Really, in 2006 in connection with frequent rumors the action according to which to StarForce which proved harm for the computer relied $1000 was announced breakdown of drives by the company. Later the amount was increased up to $3000, and then and up to $5000, but the harm done by solutions of StarForce was not proved.

At the moment (May, 2014) thanks to technologies of "bezdrayverny" protection and a binding to the computer use of solutions of StarForce became much more convenient for end users. Also the company develops the cloud services for protection of content and e-mail designed to simplify process of data protection which is used in everyday life.

StarForce cracking

The basis of protection is represented by the so-called virtual machine. It is the special subprogramme which is able to change the provision in memory, to cipher and decrypt code locations, to interchange the position of data and the addresses. To disassemble the virtual machine, even at the experienced return programmer a lot of time will leave. Therefore, for Starforce cracking usually use the following algorithm.

1. The dump of the program when it is started in memory using a license disk becomes.

2. The dump of the virtual machine (from memory on a disk the code locations which are responsible for interpretation of the original program remain) becomes. The sense of this method is that after loading of sections of memory from a disk all addresses remain such as would be if the license disk was used.

3. Import of functions is recovered (for StarForce of versions 4.xx).

4. Protection "anti-dump" which does not allow to start the received file on the computer other than the hacker's computer is removed (the binding on CPUID is used).

And for removal of the youngest version of StarForce Basic it is enough to implement only points 1 and 3. The virtual machine is used in more advanced version of StarForce Pro/Builder.

Interesting Facts

1. As well as any other copy protection system, StarForce does not protect information from copying, but guarantees that the copy (including legal — for example, reserve) will be disabled. About it there were many scandals on the official sites of the company of Buk and developers of protection what they answered: "Well you can make the copy of a disk, and about further work in the law words". Since January 1, 2008 the law about which developers spoke became invalid and became effective Part IV of the Civil Code in which not only it is allowed to create one backup copy of a disk (the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Part IV, Article 1280, item 1.2), but also, in case of nonserviceability, independently to make changes to it for normal functioning (the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Part IV, Article 1280, item 1.1), thus development of means of cracking of information security systems was actually legalized. In May, 2007, meeting requirements of users, StarForce provided Backup copy technology which is designed to solve a problem with disabled license disks.

2. In 2006 on the Internet the case with the game Galactic Civilizations 2 was widely publicized. The employee of Protection Technology, in response to the statements of users that a game in general without protection against copying can well be on sale, laid out at a forum the link to a torrent website where it was in real time possible to look how many people swing a "piracy" image of a game [11] at present. Later the company apologized for action of the employee.

In 2006 the Ubisoft publishing house released a game AAA of the class Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory also supplied it with protection of StarForce. It is curious that a game remained not cracked within 422 days that is an unofficial world record among all program protection.

3. There is a StarForce driver for a protection bypass, but according to the statement of the author the driver does not help with cracking of a starfors, and just removes BSOD'Y created by it.

4. StarForce has the structure of data encryption — SFFS (StarForceFileSystem).

5. In January, 2011 Protection Technology announced partnership with DTL Technology in the field of protection of the DVD Video format.

History

2015

Worldwide more than 7 million licenses of the products protected by the StarForce system are sold. In addition to games protection is provided for educational programs and materials, trading scripts, corporate applications and documents. All portfolio of Protekshen Technology company contains 12 software products and 2 cloud services: protection of documents online of SFContent.com and e-mail SFLetter.com with a possibility of protection of letters and investments.

2012

The affiliated firm of the Russian company StarForce - Protekshen Technology of Resech received a grant from IT of a cluster of Skolkovo Foundation in the amount of 25.6 million rubles. The grant is received on the project on development of the system of protection against cracking and illegal distribution of software and content for mobile devices – smartphones and tablets. Within the project the Protekshen Technology of Resech company will be engaged in the system development which received the name "StarForce Mobile".

The general annual project investment cost will make 34.1 million rubles, 25 of which 8.5 million rubles the founder company - "StarForce" are non-paid provided by Skolkovo Foundation, and. "Protekshen Technology of Resech" became the resident Skolkovo in June, 2011.

2008

In 2008 for all clients of the company the new, improved version of the software tool for protection integration - Protection Studio 2 is offered. Support of the.NET platform is implemented. The new product of the company for protection of electronic documents – SF Content was issued. For the first time in world practice of data protection the company began to offer a guarantee of reliability of the protected solutions.

• 2010-2014. Start of cloud computing. Protection of content and applications is performed on remote servers on the Internet.

2007

In 2007 the agreement on acquisition of the rights to the ASPack Software project Is signed. The company reaches the status Technology Partner of Microsoft corporation, admits uchastny to Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and also there is Solution Partner of a new product from Microsoft - services in protection and licensing of the software (Microsoft Software Licensing and Protection Services product). Besides, StarForce receives the status Microsoft Certified Partner. In the same year, for the first time in world practice of means of protecting of optical mediums from copying, the technology allowing the end user to make the backup copy of a license disk is offered and, in case of damage of the original, fully to work with the protected application using it. The product for protection of video files - FrontLine Video is released. 60,000,000 license copies of programs are protected by StarForce worldwide.

2006

In 2006 the company enters the market of business software and begins development for mobile platforms. In the same year on the multimedia market the product of FL Universal considering all requirements of protection and control of distribution of the products sold both on carriers and through Internet is issued. The StarForce company successfully works in four directions - in the field of protection of multimedia software products, business of software, protection of software for mobile platforms and protection of electronic documents.

• 2006-2009. Content extends online therefore protection is based on a binding to technical and program parameters of the computer.

2005

2005 - The company offers the system of protection for software extended through the Internet - StarForce ProActive. In the European and North American online stores sales of the programs protected using this technology begin. Support of 64-bit applications is entered. Technologies of protection for DVD-R/RW of disks are offered.

2004

In 2004 the company obtains Licenses of FSB of Russia – "on provision of services in the field of data protection", "on distribution of cryptographic (cryptographic) tools", "on maintenance of cryptographic (cryptographic) tools". The branch of the company in China opens. Technologies of protection for DVDs carriers are offered.

2002

In 2002 the branch in Germany opens. The company takes out the Russian, American and Canadian patents for the developments and enters international market. Following 2003 branches in the USA and France appear. Technologies of protection of the programs extended to CD-R/RW carriers are offered the market. 10,000,000 license disks are supplied with protection of StarForce worldwide.

1998-2005

Development of the system of protection of StarForce began in 1998. In two years – Protekshen Technology LLC was registered on September 11, 2000 and there was a first game protected by the StarForce system. It was called Cockroaches and was released on disks by Russobit-M publishing house many thousands circulation.

The company is considered a birthday on November 30, 1998 – the international day of data protection. Initially in the company 2 programmers enthusiasts worked. At that time the Russian legal industry of software extremely suffered from computer piracy, and therefore publishers showed the increased interest in the solutions proposed by the company. Besides, entry into the Chinese market, with its huge circulations was found. Thanks to it by 2000 the company had 1,000,000 protected license disks in the portfolio.

• 1998-2005. Disk distribution of games and content therefore reliable protection of the optical medium against copying and emulation is required is popular.