Arxan Technologies Inc. a West Lafayette–based technology company, is conducting a workshop on software security April 2 at Ball State University.

The Software Protection Evaluation Course (SPEC) is designed to educate software developers on ways to circumvent common software protection mechanisms in order to better understand how to secure against software tampering. The course is sponsored by the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC) at Ball State.

The workshop, scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Whitinger Business Building, room 214, is appropriate for individuals ranging from the seasoned software engineer to any student or faculty involved in software development.

The SPEC will challenge attendees to analyze real-world security flaws and develop appropriate solutions. Attendees will learn how open source tools and their applications can breech most security mechanisms and creatively solve security issues from start to finish.

As an added educational benefit, tools that are demonstrated and discussed will be given away as software bundles to participants. Attendees also will receive comprehensive technical documentation along with the Tools CD-ROM while having an opportunity to network with peers in the industry. Anyone pre-registering will have an opportunity to win the award-winning book "Exploiting Software."

The workshop is free for members of SERC affiliate organizations and Ball State faculty and students. Enrollment is limited. Registration is available online at www.serc.net.