Applications
Irdeto’s Cloakware to safeguard tech brands
MUMBAI: Irdeto, a leader in digital platform security, has announced the launch of its next-generation Cloakware™ Software Protection solution. Designed for the world’s largest and most innovative brands, the solution provides resilient and durable protection against cyberattacks.
Cloakware combines cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies, libraries and tools that enable organizations to customize the protection of their valuable digital assets. The solution, which is used by some of the world’s biggest technology brands, now offers Irdeto’s unique combination of program code and data protection, a customizable architecture and new language-independent support (currently JavaScript, Web Assembly, Objective C and Swift). Combined with binary protections, function and control flow transformations, runtime application self-protection (RASP), application shielding as well as whitebox cryptography, the solution protects code and data from hackers attempting to nullify security and alter program functionality. These techniques provide security-savvy organizations with the very best in renewable software security designed to adapt quickly as industries evolve.
“Businesses today are living in a software-defined world,” said Jaco Du Plooy, Vice President of Cloakware, Irdeto. “While the implementation of software and IoT technologies provide organizations with the flexibility to innovate, they also introduce a number of vulnerabilities that are exploited by hackers on a daily basis. It is critical for businesses to have a robust and dynamically renewable cybersecurity strategy that protects software and endpoint devices from tampering or reverse engineering. Cloakware Software Protection provides the very best deep layer software security in the industry and is used by some of the largest organizations on the planet to protect their core assets and data day after day.”
Businesses today rely on software to conduct day-to-day operations. However, software is inherently vulnerable, providing hackers with an easy entry point to execute various attacks, including ransomware, malware injections, Man-in-the-Middle attacks, Man-at-the-End attacks and others. From media & entertainment organizations, to the automotive industry and any business with IoT devices, each rely on optimal security to protect their brand, revenue and intellectual property from these attacks. Cloakware Software Protection secures digital assets by concealing proprietary algorithms and secrets, including cryptographic keys. Once protected, these applications can be safely deployed on untrusted hosts and in hostile environments such as mobile and IoT endpoint devices.
Cloakware’s security techniques provide application protection through sophisticated data, function and control flow transformations, anti-debug, whitebox cryptography and active integrity verification. Cloakware Software Protection integrates these security techniques into the customer’s software build process, thereby embedding application protection directly at the source code level.
Irdeto was recently named a Representative Vendor in Gartner’s June 2017 Market Guide for Application Shielding, “Protecting applications that run within untrusted environments is ever more crucial as mobile and IoT become ubiquitous, and as web applications modernize, bringing more intelligence to the client,” according to Gartner Research Directors, Dionisio Zumerle and Manjunath Bhat. “Security and risk management leaders must apply shielding selectively to close security gaps. Application shielding refers to a set of technologies that modify an application’s source, byte or binary code, to make the application more resistant to intrusion, tampering and reverse engineering.”
Combining patented technologies and services, the Irdeto Cloakware suite of products enables brands and developers to protect their application code against reverse engineering, tampering and automated attacks. Irdeto’s Cloakware solutions provide a highly effective, multi-layered and tunable approach to software protection that is future-proof and relies on 20 years of proven success. Cloakware technology forms the basis for several innovative Irdeto solutions like Cloaked CA and ActiveCloak that are currently being used by multiple Irdeto customers, including Stofa, HorizonSAT, GOBX, ORS, RCS & RDS, MEDIA BROADCAST and many others.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
