Welcome to the latest edition of CrypKey News, the newsletter exclusively for customers of CrypKey (Canada) Inc.. CrypKey News is issued monthly to keep you up-to-date on the latest CrypKey product and company news and information. To help us better serve you; please mention your customer service number when contacting CrypKey. If you wish to opt out of this newsletter, please send a blank email to OptOut@CrypKey.com. If you have any questions, please contact us at Info@CrypKey.com.
7.0 Subscription Policy Announcement CrypKey customers have received an email notice about our revised subscription policy that will take effect April 2005. See Support News (#4) below for further details. Award Nominations CrypKey is being nominated for a 2005 Award of Excellence, issued annually by Convergence, Western Canada's premiere IT Conference and Technology Exposition, as well as for a CATA (Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance) Award for Private Sector Innovation. CATA is Canada's leading entrepreneurial technology alliance designed to help its members be globally competitive through the promotion of strategic partnerships, technological innovation and entrepreneurial values.
CrypKey DLM Is Here CrypKey DLM (Data Licensing Manager), CrypKey's newest innovation, protects data files (PowerPoint, Help files, etc..) made with almost any application. Now available, the product allows users to give CrypKey licenses to documents such as Help and Word files, thereby controlling access to them. "The beauty of this product is that it will protect data files with no changes to the original program that created them," notes CrypKey CEO Jim McCartney. How It Works CrypKey DLM will utilize CrypKey software to encrypt your data before it is distributed. Then you are free to distribute the data with CrypKey software. If you permit it, CrypKey will unencrypt the data as the application reads it; otherwise, the data is inaccessible. Two mechanisms are used to permit data usage: CrypKey license protection and password protection. In the case of license protection, the data is decrypted only if you have given the user a valid CrypKey license. In this case, the data can be bound to a computer or USBKey, thwarting illegal copying. The data can be given through a trial period restricted to either a number of days or uses. In the case of password protection, the data can be read only if the user knows the password. What You Can Protect Using CrypKey DLM, you can copy protect your data created with someone else's program, such as Help files, PowerPoint, Word, Excel and even Notepad. You can also protect data created with uncommon programs that you don't own or have source code for, such as engineering, medical, seismic, financial, and geological or other software. It is not necessary to change your program to protect your data. With CrypKey DLM, you have no expensive source code rewrites, and no need to make a separate system for protection purposes. Why Use DLM CrypKey DLM is ideal for protecting sensitive data files such as medical, financial, seismic or any other sensitive documents for privacy purposes. CrypKey DLM is also of benefit to protect corporate assets by keeping valuable files from leaving your corporate network, and keeping data you are marketing from being illegally copied Protecting data with CrypKey DLM can also help you increase revenues because it permits trial periods for your data and automates distribution and/or revenue collection via the Internet. The application of this new technology is varied and depends on customer needs.. As such, CrypKey DLM pricing will based on custom quotes depending on customer needs. For more info on this new product, see www.crypkey.com. CrypKey 7.0 Soon To Arrive While the date has not yet been confirmed, CrypKey 7.0 is expected to launch soon. This latest version of CrypKey incorporates all the robust technology developed for CryKey 6.1, including CloneBuster, Stealth and Enhanced Key Encryption. It also provides new features for USBKey, eTransfer and improvements to our Enterprise Networking solutions. Stay tuned.
Annual Subscription Policy As you are aware, CrypKey Annual Subscription policies are changing, effective April 2005. If you have already renewed your Annual Subscription, thank you! Effective April 2005, Customers with active subscriptions will be eligible for any new downloads/upgrades including CrypKey 7.0. Customers with lapsed subscriptions will be required to re-license their Software at current rates. Annual Subscriptions that are renewed before April 2005 will include upgrades to CrypKey 7.0. Please note that customers will be able to continue using previously purchased CrypKey products without additional fees on an ongoing basis, however, as of April 1st, 2005, customers must have a current support subscription to either upgrade to a newer version of CrypKey or to access technical support. We have been working toward improving and upgrading our support services to include the following: We now have Platinum, Gold and Silver Annual Support Subscriptions. Platinum is our premium package, featuring the maximum in online, telephone, remote access and system design assistance. Gold support is what we consider the standard support package appropriate for most of our customers. It now also includes telephone support. Silver is the most basic support offered, with online assistance, product releases and updates. If you will require ongoing support and new product upgrades, please ensure you review the new pricing details at https://www.crypkey.com/secure/order.asp and order your annual subscriptions in advance of April 30 as needed. If you have questions concerning the new pricing, please contact us at sales@crypkey.com or call us at 403-258-6274. Subscription Renewal Reminder A reminder to all our customers to please update annual subscriptions. We recommend updating your CrypKey Annual Subscription as soon as possible to be ready to take advantage of new product releases to come throughout the remainder of 2005.
All Full-Featured Copy Protections Are Not Alike (continued from previous issue...) In our previous issue, we explained the results of a recent survey of 100 software developers that revealed that their top five (5) preferences when selecting a software security solution are: 1. basic security; 2. ease of use; 3. customer confidence; 4. customized features; and 5. simplified pricing. This article will detail developers' preference for products that are difficult for non-paying customers and easy for paying customers. Developer Preference # 2: Ease of Use to Build Customer Confidence The last thing you want your software copy protection to do is increase support calls from your satisfied customers, creating more work for you. The software copy protection you choose should have the right balance between security, flexibility and simplicity. The developers we surveyed identified hundreds of products on the market…but only less than 12% remained after their initial testing for security, features and flexibility. The majority of developers surveyed identified these three (3) areas as the most important to them when choosing a copy protection solution: Easy to Set Up Some protection products require extensive programming over days, weeks, even months, just to get them configured so that you can start distributing your software safely online. The developers surveyed indicated they want products that are simple and logical to work with vs. complex. CrypKey Instant and CrypKey SDK, CrypKey's basic software protection solutions, are very easy to install. CrypKey SDK allows developers to logically select which features to invoke, how they will function, and then easily integrate them within their application. Of all the copy protection products that passed the stringent testing by the software developers in our survey, CrypKey Instant was declared the simplest and most powerful encryption program. CrypKey Instant offers the flexibility to select which features you want to use and how they will function. Non-technical personnel can also very easily use it and can have an application encrypted and ready to go in 30 minutes or less. Check out our free evaluation copy of CrypKey Instant so you can see how easy it is to make it easy for your paying customers. Easy to Make Changes CrypKey Instant was rated very highly among developers because non-technical personnel can implement most changes. Customer support, administration or even sales and marketing staff can handle configuration changes and the product development group did not need to be involved. Easy to Learn Many products have complex structures forcing software developers to "learn" the style of programming used to create the copy protection before they can successfully integrate it with or into their own application. The developers surveyed recognized CrypKey solutions as logical, intuitive and simple to use. CrypKey technical support also rated at the top of the list in terms of having knowledgeable staff and the ability to assist developers with any difficulties encountered.
Read about the fourth main developer preference in selecting a software protection solution in our April edition.
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