"Mobile gaming has rapidly emerged as the brightest star in the gaming universe," said Lewis Ward, IDC's research director of gaming. "The number of games downloaded to smartphones and tablets worldwide will nearly double to more than 60 billion games between 2014 and 2018." In the rush to gain market share, many game developers have been launching without considering hacker risks or having cross-platform support available.
"Securing a mobile game is a very complex problem as the hacking threats faced by each game depends on the type of game it is, the platforms it's available on, as well as how the game is architected," said Rennie Allen, Arxan's game security expert. "For example, an attack of reverse-engineering, code tampering and repackaging/republishing of mobile gaming apps can produce mobile app clones. Each clone can be different; some reusing code or artwork, and often successfully resembling the original mobile gaming app but with malware included."
Mobile game hacking can result in staggering revenue loss through many forms including:
- Destruction of in-app purchasing systems
- Cheating due to compromise of game play integrity and the community gaming experience
- Piracy -- In fact, multiple game developers have reported 90% or higher piracy rates for their games on the Android platform. The Android platform, however, is not alone; piracy is also common on the iOS platform, yet typically at much lower piracy rates.
As such, Arxan' proven mobile game security solution is immediately available, and is being showcased at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, from March 2-6, 2015. GDC is the world's largest professionals-only game industry event and will feature a session from Rennie Allen addressing: Today's Threats and Strategies for Securing Mobile and Cross-Platform Games, on Thursday (March 5) from 11:30am-12:30pm in Room 302, South Hall. Allen's session will also showcase the progress of Arxan's Capture The Flag (CTF) contest, uniquely developed for game developers. The contest will launch on Wednesday, March 4, with online registration and prize details available now.
To provide our customers with more information on real-world mobile gaming threats, Arxan has released a new whitepaper: Today's Threats and Strategies for Securing Mobile Games. The whitepaper includes an overview of how Arxan's patented application security framework provides mobile and online games with run-time protection, self-defense and tamper resistance from within the game application. Arxan's white box cryptography product is also featured in the paper. The paper describes how white box cryptography is used to hide key data (including dynamic/ephemeral keys) to maintain the integrity of client/server communications and ensure that game assets are not lifted information and game-play moves across platforms.
Arxan's game protection solutions are the most deployed and proven in the gaming industry -- leveraged by 7 of the top 10 gaming companies to protect PC, mobile, web and console games. For more information on Arxan's Application Protection for Online Games, or to meet with Arxan at the conference at booth #536, please email info@arxan.com.
About Arxan Technologies
Arxan provides the world's strongest application protection solutions. Our unique patented guarding technology 1) Defends applications against attacks, 2) Detects at run-time when an attack is being attempted, and 3) Responds to detected attacks to stop them, alert, or repair. Arxan offers solutions for software running on mobile devices, desktops, servers, and embedded platforms -- including those connected as part of the Internet of Things (IoT) -- and is currently protecting applications running on more than 300 million devices across a range of industries, including: financial services, high tech/independent software vendors (ISVs), manufacturing, healthcare, digital media, gaming, and others. The company's headquarters and engineering operations are based in the United States with global offices in EMEA and APAC.
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Media Contacts: Gutenberg Communications Liana Hawes and JoAnn Yamani P: 212-242-2275/408-781-5719 E: arxanpr@gutenbergpr.com Jodi Wadhwa Arxan Technologies P: 301-968-4295 E: jwadhwa@arxan.com