What is a Dongle and Where Did it Come From?
The software protection market provides a myriad of solutions, varying in levels of security, to combat piracy and license non-compliance. Fortunately software-based licenses, although not the most secure anti-piracy technology available, can effectively reduce revenue leakage due to casual copiers. Software-based licenses also provide the most flexible licensing options and can be combined with a hardware key to increase piracy protection. However, the environment in which the software operates cannot be considered entirely secure because the license is stored on the machine and not an external device, such as a dongle. Therefore software-based solutions do not create an impenetrable defense against piracy attacks. A dongle is an external hardware device that greatly increases the difficulty required to crack a software application. Using a software toolkit, you can protect your application by integrating calls to check for the presence of the dongle.
