APPLICATION SIGNATURE TECHNOLOGIES & TECHNIQUES
Ever since cyber crimes gained momentum, cybersecurity found a new and significant role to play in society. Not far back in time, the decision makers and policy writers gave scant importance to this area of information technology. But the viciousness of attacks and soaring costs of handling breaches forced everyone to go back to the drawing boards and redefine priorities.
Nowadays, cybersecurity is central to business and organizational activities. Thanks to the dependence on computer systems and internet for data storage, information exchange and communications.
Just as large and small department stores allocate a certain percentage for shoplifting losses, in spite of all the precautionary steps they take, like surveillance cameras, monitoring staff and security protocols, similar is the case with businesses and organizations who are bound to make an allowance for breaches and cyber incidents.
Cyber crime is so easy to perpetrate and so lucrative in profits that criminals find it hard to resist. Experts agree that no matter what organizations may do to avert cyber attacks, it is impossible to completely eliminate them. That’s why decisions makers have now come to terms with the notion that it is imperative to maintain a regular staff for cybersecurity. That is a near surety to run a business or organization smoothly.
The turf of cybersecurity teams generally consists of devising preventive strategy, undertaking surveillance for suspicious activity and preparing for response in an event of attack.
Cybersecurity staff adopts a number of steps to safeguard their systems and to prevent any suspicious malware from infecting their data. Several protocols are in place and security personnel persistently ask the employees to follow these in order to have a secure workplace.
Cybersecurity protocols are plans and actions designed to offer safety from cyber incidents of all kinds like malicious attacks, breaches, ransomware and other such incidents. To make sure of a safe and snag-free operations, a variety of protocols and software are installed that work together to achieve the objective.
Application signature is one of these protocols. It is a unique pattern-based method of recognition which is used to identify application traffic. The process of identifying makes use of expressions or marks. Application signatures are familiar elements in the security domain. Cybersecurity specialists often make use of them while tracing viruses, worms, malicious content or cyber attacks. Application signatures allow programmers to identify the author of app. They can also update the applications without having the need to create complex interfaces and permissions. In essence, application signatures are an assurance that one application can access any other application through well-defined IPC.
There is an array of applications like Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Network Visibility Appliances and Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems which is used to identify the applications that are being accessed. This performance is delivered by these next generation software merely by examining network traffic. What’s more, these applications can also tell if the browser is using a desktop version or a mobile version of the same app. They can also tell apart one program from another even if they are encrypted.
Application signatures are behind all these actions. Most of the time. There are other methods too like fingerprinting, or AI/Machine Learning but they are used alongside static signatures. . Signatures are not standardized elements. They are generic in nature and are based on well-known codes such as XML, YAML, SNORT and other file formats. They can be static or dynamic. The former implies that they cannot be changed as often as possible. In contrast, dynamic signatures have the ability to learn and they can be created ‘on the go.’ Inherently, they are patterns or expressions which can be marked against data packets. When the data packets are matched with the signatures, they are labeled as ‘matched.’ The criteria for matching vary from vendor to vendor and from product to product. But one thing is common to all: most of the time, they rely on values from packet headers and payloads.
Application signatures have the unique ability to identify project files and protect apps on other remote computers. The signatures can have string values ranging from six to ten characters. If identical signatures are used for different apps, they will share same license information on remote devices.
Application signatures are being used widely to deliver a better and more secure environment for businesses and organizations. Their importance can neither be denied nor downplayed. Here are a few points that highlight their importance Application signatures can be used to activate updates without the need to reenter activation code. In this both the original application and update files should have the same signature.
By using the same signatures for a group of applications on a single systems or remotely connected systems, license information can also be shared. The method enables the operators to activate a group of applications with a single code.
Machine code (MID) depends on application signatures. That’s why operators can generate activation codes for protected applications. If a different project is loaded, a message will be reported informing ‘MID code decryption error.
Caution should be exercised while changing the encryption key which is actually the Program Value ID. The change should only be done with a corresponding change in application signature, otherwise ‘File damaged’ error message will be generated.
When two or more applications are protected by same application signature, program ID, then same Site/MID code will be generated.
Businesses and organizations intending to give away free updates for a particular application, then same application signature and project settings should be used as for original application. This tactic will allow the update to unlock automatically.
In cases where updates require payment, application signature should be changed which will generate a different Site/MID code. A different Program ID may also be tried for these updates.
For applications with same application signatures, programmers should use same Program ID (encryption key). If a different key is used for apps sitting on the same computer, one of the apps will be decrypted in an erroneous way displaying ‘File Damaged’ message because both applications will share same license data and this is the reason one of them will be erroneously decrypted.
Digital assets including data and information need to be protected and safeguarded in the best possible way, given the frequency of cyber incidents and breaches. The management and decision makers are the ones who can take up the challenges and define their priorities. Devising best strategies and making an effort of continuous improvement ensure safe and secure workplace. And, therefore, profitability