Chief Automotive

Chief Automotive, a multi-national company in the auto collision repair industry, called on Adeptive to help it secure existing automobile alignment software applications before selling the applications into Asian-Pacific markets. Chief was concerned that its product would quickly be "cracked" and reused without permission.

To thwart potential misuse, Adeptive developed modules to secure the existing C++ applications. The solution involved learning the existing code-base and then architecting multiple security solutions that could be "bolted onto" the existing application without having to rewrite a significant portion of the existing code.

Security mechanisms implemented included a hardware-based dongle; without the dongle attached to the specific machine on which the software was originally installed, the software will not function. Adeptive also employed several software-based security mechanisms that check code integrity as the software runs.

Once the security mechanisms were implemented, a cracker would need to get through several layers of additional security in order to "defuse" the application. Adeptive was responsible for the design, development, and testing of the solutions.

Chief Automotive has seen dramatic increases in the security of their applications by working with Adeptive. They are less likely to be reused without permission and less likely to be copied. With this knowledge, Chief has been able to enter international markets they were previously unable to enter for fear of fraud.