A dongle is a small piece of hardware that connects to a computer. Typical PC hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop and the following parts Motherboard A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. ^[1] The usual function of a dongle is to authenticate a piece of software. Without the dongle, the software will run only in a restricted mode, or not at all. Dongles are used by some proprietary vendors as a form of copy prevention or digital rights management, because it is much harder to copy a dongle than to copy the software it authenticates. The word proprietary indicates that a party or proprietor exercises private Ownership, control or use over an item of Property. A vendor or a supplier is a Supply chain management term meaning anyone who provides goods or services to a company Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention, or copy restriction, is a technology for preventing the unauthorised reproduction Digital rights management ( DRM) is a generic term that refers to Access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers publishers and Copyright holders Despite being hardware, however, dongles are not a complete solution to the trusted client problem. In Computing, a trusted client is a device or program controlled by the user of a service but with restrictions designed to prevent its use in ways not authorised by the provider

Contents 1 History 2 Copy protection 2.1 Usage 2.2 Issues 3 Game consoles 4 Other hardware 5 Manufacturers 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

History

Dongle has been used as a placeholder name since the 1970s. Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. Its origin is unknown. The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, says it is "probably [an] arbitrary coinage. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( AHD) is an American Dictionary of the English language published by " A 1992 advertisement for Rainbow Technologies (now SafeNet—a dongle vendor in the U. S) claimed the word was derived from the name "Don Gall"—though untrue, this has given rise to an urban myth. An urban legend or urban myth is a form of modern Folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them

Dongle as the name of a device was used well before 1980 in the telecom industry to refer to BNC cable joiners of either gender. The BNC ( Bayonet Neill Concelman) connector is a very common type of RF connector used for terminating Coaxial cable.

WORDCRAFT was the first program to use a software protection dongle, in 1980. Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. Its dongle was a simple passive device that supplied data to the pins of a Commodore PET's external cassette port in a pre-determined manner. The PET ( P ersonal E lectronic T ransactor) was a home -/ Personal computer produced by Commodore starting in 1977 This was possible because the PET cassette port supplied both power and data connections through a proprietary edge connector. The Commodore 1530 ( C2N) Datassette (a Portmanteau of Data + cassette) was Commodore 's dedicated computer Tape recorder It did, however, make the cassette port unusable for its intended purpose.

The two-cubic-inch (33 cm³) resin-potted first generation device was called a "dongle" by the inventor as there was no other suitable term to hand on the day. The distributor, Dataview Ltd. , then based in Colchester, UK, then went on to produce a derivative dongle, which became their core business. Colchester ( /ˈkəʊltʃɛstə/ is a town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester, in Essex, England.

Dongles rapidly evolved into active devices that contained a serial transceiver (UART) and even a microprocessor to handle transactions with the host. A universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (usually abbreviated UART and ˈjuːɑrt is a type of "asynchronous receiver/transmitter" a piece of Computer A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated Later versions adopted the USB interface in preference to the serial or parallel interface. In Computing, a serial port is a Serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one Bit at a time (contrast Currently, the USB interface is gradually becoming dominant.

Interestingly, modern smart cards present the same feature set as modern dongles. A smart card, chip card, or Integrated circuit card ( ICC) is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated Given this, the dongle market may be overtaken by smart cards, as smart cards are more secure and powerful by design than traditional MCU based dongles. Some dongle vendors are producing one-chip dongles, which combine the smart card and the smart card reader in the same chip. This structure makes a smart card dongle easy and stable.

Copy protection

Vendors of software-protection dongles (and dongle-controlled software) often use terms such as hardware key, hardware token, or security device instead of dongle, but the term "dongle" is much more common in day-to-day use. Matrix Software License Protection System is a Brand that provides solutions for software license protection and internet login with the headquarters in Germany and

Usage

Efforts to introduce dongle copy-prevention in the mainstream software market have met stiff resistance from users. Such copy-prevention is more typically used with very expensive packages and vertical market software, such as CAD/CAM software, MICROS Systems hospitality and special retail software, Digital Audio Workstation applications, and some translation memory packages. A vertical market is a group of similar businesses and Customers which engage in trade based on specific and specialized needs Computer-aided manufacturing ( CAM) is the use of computer-based software tools that assist engineers and machinists in manufacturing or prototyping product components MICROS Systems Inc, in operation since 1977, is headquartered in Columbia Maryland, USA. A digital audio workstation (DAW is an electronic system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio A translation memory, or TM, is a type of database that stores segments that have been previously translated The vast majority of printing and prepress software, such as CtP workflows, requires dongles. Printing is a process for reproducing text and image typically with ink on Paper using a printing press Prepress is the term used in the Printing and Publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the procurement of a written manuscript and Computer to plate (CTP is an Imaging technology used in modern printing processes.

In cases such as prepress and printing software, the dongle is encoded with a specific, per-user license key, which enables particular features in the target application. This is a form of tightly controlled licensing, which allows the vendor to engage in vendor lock-in and charge more than it would otherwise for the product. In Economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products An example is the way Creo licenses Prinergy to customers: When a computer-to-plate output device is sold to a customer, Prinergy's own license cost is provided separately to the customer, and the base price contains little more than the required licenses to output work to the device. Creo, now part of Eastman Kodak, is a Burnaby British Columbia Canada -based company involved in Imaging and software technology for Computer Prinergy is a prepress workflow system created by Creo in 1999 and currently maintained and sold through Kodak. In order to access the advertised features in the application, the customer must pay a significant price for a special dongle.

Well-known software-protection dongle manufacturers include Matrix (Matrix Dongle) Matrix Software License Protection System, SafeNet (Rainbow before an acquisition), Feitian Technologies, Aladdin, Microcosm Ltd (Dinkey Dongles), WIBU-SYSTEMS, SG-Lock, UniKey (or SecuTech), Senselock (or Sense), SPYRUS, Inc. Matrix Software License Protection System is a Brand that provides solutions for software license protection and internet login with the headquarters in Germany and Feitian Technologies Co Ltd ( Chinese: 飞天诚信科技有限公司 is a major Information security device provider in the world a security solution provider Aladdin Knowledge Systems is a company that provides solutions for software digital rights management and Internet security since 1985 Microcosm Ltd is a UK company established in 1979. Its early claims to fame included Silicon Disk System in 1981 and Microcache (the world's first (Rosetta USB, Hydra PC), and MARX (CRYPTO-BOX). In the digital audio world, some versions of Pro Tools and many plugins use the Pace iLok Smart Key USB dongles. Pro Tools is a Digital Audio Workstation platform for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows operating systems developed and manufactured by Digidesign Ilok is the easternmost town and municipality in Croatia. Located in the Syrmia region it lies on a hill overlooking the Danube river which

USB dongles are also a big part of Steinberg's audio production and editing systems, such as Cubase, Wavelab, Hypersonic, HALion, and others. The dongle used by Steinberg's products is also known as a Steinberg Key. The Steinberg Key can be purchased separately from its counterpart applications and generally comes bundled with the "Syncrosoft License Control Center" application, which is cross-platform compatible with both Mac OS X and Windows.

Issues

There are potential weaknesses in the implementation of the protocol between the dongle and the copy-controlled software. A security protocol ( cryptographic protocol or encryption protocol) is an abstract or concrete protocol that performs a security -related function It requires considerable cunning to make this hard to crack. Software cracking is the modification of Software to remove protection methods Copy prevention, trial/demo version serial number hardware key CD check For example, a naive implementation might simply define a function to check for the dongle, returning "true" or "false" accordingly—thus reducing the prevention scheme to a single bit value at one point in the program. In Computer science, a subroutine ( function, method, procedure, or subprogram) is a portion of code within a larger A bit is a binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1 Binary digits are a basic unit of Information storage and communication

Modern dongles include built-in strong encryption and use fabrication techniques designed to thwart reverse engineering. Reverse engineering (RE is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device object or system through analysis of its structure function and operation Typical dongles also now contain non-volatile memory — key parts of the software may actually be stored and executed on the dongle. Non-volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, NVM or non-volatile storage, is Computer memory that can retain the stored information Thus dongles have become secure cryptoprocessors that execute inaccessible program instructions that may be input to the cryptoprocessor only in encrypted form. A secure cryptoprocessor is a dedicated Computer or Microprocessor for carrying out Cryptographic operations embedded in a packaging with multiple The original secure cryptoprocessor was designed for copy protection of personal computer software (see US Patent 4,168,396, Sept 18, 1979) to provide more security than dongles could then provide. A secure cryptoprocessor is a dedicated Computer or Microprocessor for carrying out Cryptographic operations embedded in a packaging with multiple See also bus encryption. Bus encryption is the use of encrypted program instructions on a data bus in a computer that includes a Secure cryptoprocessor for executing the encrypted

However, security researchers warn that dongles still do not solve the trusted client problem: if you give a user the cryptographic ciphertext, the algorithm and the key, your cipher is likely to be breakable, even with the algorithm and key encoded in hardware. In Computing, a trusted client is a device or program controlled by the user of a service but with restrictions designed to prevent its use in ways not authorised by the provider Cryptography (or cryptology; from Greek grc κρυπτός kryptos, "hidden secret" and grc γράφω gráphō, "I write" In Mathematics, Computing, Linguistics and related subjects an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions often used for Calculation In Cryptography, a key is a piece of information (a Parameter) that determines the functional output of a cryptographic algorithm ^[2]

Another problem is that if a counterfeit version of a program does not require a dongle, the counterfeit version may be easier to use and may seem preferable to the original. A counterfeit is an imitation that is made usually with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins

Hardware cloning is also a lethal threat to traditional dongles. To thwart this, some dongle vendors adopted smart card product, which is widely used in extremely rigid security requirement environments such as military and banking, in their dongle products.

Dongle drivers brings problems for end-users. Most developers and software vendors want to get rid of the dongle driver headache. There are some driverless dongles on the market, which make the protection easy for both software vendors and end-users.

A more innovative modern dongle is designed with a code porting mechanism, meaning you can transfer part of your important program code or license enforcement into a secure hardware environment (such as in a smart card OS, mentioned above). Code porting means to port Computer program written in one Programming language to another language An ISV can port thousands of lines of important computer program code into the dongle. Independent software vendor (ISV is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling Software, designed for Mass marketing or for Niche markets Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer.

Game consoles

Some unlicensed titles for game consoles used dongles to connect to officially licensed cartridges, in order to circumvent the authentication chip embedded in the console. In various types of electronic equipment a cartridge can refer one method of adding different functionality or content (e

Other hardware

The term "dongle" has been generalized, so it may also refer to a connector that translates one type of port to another — for example, an 8P8C modular jack that plugs into the edge connector on a PC card Ethernet adapter (shown at right). The 8 Position 8 Contact (8P8C modular plugs and sockets are communications connectors An edge connector is the portion of a Printed circuit board consisting of traces leading to the edge of the board that are intended to plug into a matching socket In Computing, PC Card (originally '''PCMCIA''', or PCMCIA Card is the Form factor of a peripheral interface designed for Laptop computers Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs A Network card, Network Adapter, LAN Adapter or NIC (network interface card is a piece of Computer hardware designed to allow computers These are also sometimes called "pigtails", though this may mean a very short patch cable. A patch cable or patch cord (sometimes patchcable or patchcord) is an Electrical or Optical cable used to connect ("patch-in" Similarly, a device with one connector on one end and multiple connections on the other is a breakout cable. Breakout -style (also known as a fanout-style Fiberoptic cable is basically several simplex fibers packaged individually inside one jacket

It may even mean simply a small device such as a USB flash drive or a wireless networking adapter. Wireless network refers to any type of Computer network that is Wireless, and is commonly associated with a Telecommunications network whose interconnections Douglas Adams, in a 1990s column for the US edition of MacWorld magazine, used the term "little dongly things" to describe converters for adapting US power cables to international plugs. Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 &ndash 11 May 2001 was an English author comic Radio dramatist Not to be confused with McWorld, a term for globalisation Macworld is a web site and monthly Computer magazine dedicated ^[3] However, these broader usages are not universally accepted.

The term "mobile broadband dongle" is also sometimes used to refer to the USB plug-and-play device that enables PCs and laptops to use mobile broadband. Mobile broadband is the name used to describe various types of Wireless high-speed internet access through a portable Modem, Telephone or ^[4] It consists of a USB modem, which downloads necessary operating software to the computer, and a small transmitter/receiver which connects the computer to the mobile phone company’s data transfer network.

Manufacturers

• Aladdin
• Eutron Electronic Technologies
• Feitian Technologies Co. , Ltd.
• Matrix Software Protection System
• Microcomputer Applications, Inc. (MAI) -- KEYLOK
• Microcosm Ltd.
• Pace -- iLok
• SafeNet
• SecuTech Solution Inc.
• SPYRUS, Inc.
• Syncrosoft/Steinberg
• WIBU-Systems

References

See also

• The trusted client model

External links

• Jargon File: dongle

In Computing, a trusted client is a device or program controlled by the user of a service but with restrictions designed to prevent its use in ways not authorised by the provider

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