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Security Strength Measurement for Dongle-Protected Software
November/December 2007 (vol. 5 no. 6)
pp. 32-40
Ugo Piazzalunga, Eutronsec Infosecurity
Paolo Salvaneschi, University of Bergamo
Francesco Balducci, Turin Polytechnic
Pablo Jacomuzzi, Turin Polytechnic
Cristiano Moroncelli, Turin Polytechnic
Many people consider dongles to be among the strongest forms of copy protection, but how much security do they actually offer? The model presented here aims to monetize the security strength of dongle-protected software by forecasting the amount of time a hypothetical attacker would take to break it.

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Index Terms:
hacking, phreaking, hardware, software, security
Citation:
Ugo Piazzalunga, Paolo Salvaneschi, Francesco Balducci, Pablo Jacomuzzi, Cristiano Moroncelli, "Security Strength Measurement for Dongle-Protected Software," IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 32-40, Nov.-Dec. 2007, doi:10.1109/MSP.2007.176
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