Arxan Technologies has expanded its application security protections for the Apple tvOS platform. A number of the apps which come pre-installed on the newly announced Apple TV are already protected by Arxan, with security measures designed to assure app performance, protect sensitive data, and prevent tampering, reverse-engineering, and cryptographic key exposure.
One of the main risks with apps is that once they have been released, hackers are free to download them and explore them for weaknesses at their leisure. Reverse engineering involves the hacker working out the way an app is put together by effectively rebuilding it themselves, which lets them spot gaps in its security.
Smart TVs will account for 36 per cent of the total number of connected televisions by 2020 according to Digital TV Research, and with the anticipated rapid adoption of Apple TV comes demand for the development of secure applications for the burgeoning ecosystem. The Apple tvOS apps protected by Arxan are using multi-layered guards, inserted within the binary code of the applications following the development process. The guards protect the application from being reverse-engineered and compromised at run-time. In addition, cryptographic keys contained within the applications are transformed to reduce the risk of them being identified within the code or in memory at run-time.
“App developers have learned many lessons from iOS apps over the years, particularly the need to bake more robust protection into the apps before they are released ‘into the wild’, and they are now applying those lessons to Apple tvOS,” states Vince Arneja, VP of product management at Arxan. “The apps on the new Apple TV are responsible for delivering an exceptional customer experience, and to do that they must be secure and trusted. Given today’s heightened security risks associated with distributed applications, the advanced application security measures now being used are as essential as securing your baby in a car seat before driving your car.”
