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The challenge:
Mobile applicationshave become a leading software segment with revenues expected to
top $11 billion by 2014 from US downloads only (Yankee Group).

According to Gartner, worldwide downloads of mobile application from online stores are
expected to surpass $21 billion by 2013, and app. store revenues from purchases and
advertising are projected to top $29 billion
by that time. 

The growth of the mobile applications
market, however, is hampered by
software piracy. According to
MobileSoftwareWorld.com, in 2010
smart phone software developers
lost around 70% in potential
revenues. This means that almost
three out of four, mobile applications
are downloaded without payment.

Mobile piracy poses a real problem for mobile software developers Moreover, it also
puts a ceiling on the functionality (and therefore price) of mobile applications.

The Android opportunity:

The Android environment, which is the fastest growing
mobile segment, suffers most from piracy. The main
reasons are: the open-source platform, which makes
it harder to protect software, the ability of users to install
applications without having to crack the phone (as they
need to do with the Apple (iPhone), and lack of scrutiny,
like the one provided by Apple's "closed garden" approach.

Why Rascal?  
 
The first Solution,
that stops piracy of mobile applications.

Rascal develops an anti-piracy software solution called
Smart-Phone Guard (SPguard), geared specifically for
the mobile environment. SPguard works by preventing
full functionality of unauthorized copies of the protected
software and is suitable for mobile software, including applications for smart phones
like iPhone and Android, tablets, navigation tools and other mobile computers.        

The core technology:  

1. SPguard scans a compiled code of an application, then selects small parts of the application code and removes them. This operation is done on the program binary code, not the source code.
2. The removed parts are encrypted and ported to a secured and tamper-resistant environment. This secured environment can be either on the mobile device itself or on a secure remote server, thus, the removed parts cannot be reverse engineered or replicated.  
3. During runtime the application calls the protected code parts (as it would call a subroutine). If the application is authenticated as a legal copy, the removed code is executed in the secured environment when called. At no point the removed code is downloaded back to the client:

The ability of SPguard to automatically target and remove essential, small yet complex parts of the application code,  is the core of the Rascal solution, and is based on novel patent pending algorithms . The bottom, line is that SPguard ensures that only authorized users can utilize their legitimate application.

The main advantages of SPguard solution:

1. Enhanced security: SPguard protection is tamper-resistant, cannot be reverse engineered and cannot be cracked (intractable).
2. Performance: SPguard protection does not hamper application performance.
3. Non disruptive: SPguard does not interfere with programming work since the protection process is done post development, on the application code and not on the source code.
4. Quick time to market: SPguard process is automatic, easy to deploy thus enabling quick and easy protection of software.