HASP Halts Hack for Virtual Surveillance

Virtual Surveillance switches from in-house software protection to Aladdin HASP to prevent potentially damaging software and hardware hack

CHICAGO, December 13, 2006 - Aladdin Knowledge Systems (NASDAQ: ALDN), the leader in Software DRM, strong authentication and content security solutions, today announced that Virtual Surveillance, a leading provider of intelligent video surveillance for hotels, casinos, public transportation and law enforcement, selected Aladdin HASP to prevent an in-progress hack of its proprietary software and hardware.

Armed with specific knowledge of a hack in the works, Virtual Surveillance, one of only six companies worldwide licensed to sell surveillance equipment to the Las Vegas and Washington state casino markets, turned to the proven Aladdin HASP software protection key to gain strong anti-piracy and copy protection. Were someone to reverse-engineer and duplicate their security systems and enter the market as a competitor, Virtual Surveillance could easily suffer a loss into the millions of dollars. Originally, Virtual Surveillance produced their copy protection in-house using a cryptographic hash based upon the MAC address of the primary network card in the system. This protection made it difficult to move the software license to a different machine, or to copy it. However, if someone were to use one of the readily-available tools to spoof the MAC addresses of network cards, they would have the ability to endlessly re-use a single software license key.

Virtual Surveillance's worst fears became a reality when it was informed that a support contractor at one of their major casino accounts was attempting to reverse engineer both their hardware and software. Within just three hours, Virtual Surveillance was able to protect its intellectual property with Aladdin HASP keys. By implementing protection via HASP keys, Virtual Surveillance was able to create a single-point-of-failure, rendering the applications useless. Virtual Surveillance software is spread across many different applications, each of which is dependant on an ASP.Net 2.0 Web service for sharing media such as video and snapshot images. The Web service itself performs real-time checks for the HASP key during each call, and if the HASP key is not present, it throws an error to the client application, rather than fulfilling the desired request. Even if the casino employee actually succeeded in removing the license mechanism from the software, it simply would not function without the HASP key.

"With the market advantage we have and the cost of developers, it's required to protect our solution," said Eric Burcham, CTO at Virtual Surveillance. "We were tired of spending our own time and resources on our own protection scheme. We did some research and decided to go with Aladdin HASP. It was the right decision, as we spent just a few hours on the integration and it saved our solution from hackers. HASP is a trusted third party solution that's easy to implement and bullet proof."

"Yet another example of Aladdin's industry leadership, HASP's quick implementation at Virtual Surveillance proves our high level of innovation and continual dedication to customers satisfaction," said Avi Barir, vice president for Software DRM at Aladdin Knowledge Systems. "Helping to thwart an imminent security threat, HASP instantly shows its value, protecting what companies work so hard to perfect and protect."

About Aladdin HASP

The Aladdin HASP family of software DRM products is the number one choice of software publishers worldwide. It provides software developers and publishers with strong software protection, licensing and distribution solutions that enables them to prevent software piracy and increase revenues, protect valuable intellectual property, and expand licensing models to reach more customers. For more information, please visit www.Aladdin.com/HASP.

About Aladdin

Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALDN), founded in 1985, is a global provider of security solutions. Its security products are organized into two segments: Software Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Enterprise Security. Aladdin's Software DRM products allow software developers and publishers to protect their intellectual property, increase revenues through licensing, and reduce losses from software piracy. Aladdin's Enterprise Security solutions enable organizations to secure their information technology assets by controlling who has access to their networks (identity and password management) and what content their users can utilize (proactive content security). Aladdin has offices in 10 countries, a worldwide network of channel partners and holds numerous industry awards for innovation and reliability. For more information, please visit the Aladdin Web site at www.Aladdin.com.

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