I'm not sure what kind of your application is. I guess it's an application could run both in browsers and AIR standalone (I planned a project myself like this)
I would make most of tasks 'call home' for sure. But there could be 'off-line' tasks. When the client get back online it will update (merge/diff) automatically. I will likely to give chance some information to be exported as a format like PDF. If some data useful for user even offline, let them exported so they can read anywhere, in a way you have some sort of control, help them instead let them hacking. You cannot protect anything you display to them, whatever sensitive data is, your clients could 'Print screen'. George Paul Andrews wrote: > > > Hi Guys, > > I'm considering producing an application that could be sold commercially to > small businesses or even some individuals. I won't say what the application > is ;-) > > As a Flex application much of the logic (it could all be) will be on the > client. Strictly speaking the server would only be used for saving data. > The > application could also work nicely as an AIR application. > > Ideally, I don't plan to sell the application, but a service - so it would > be subscription based. > > No we all know the world is full of pirates and I'd like to know the best > way to make things at least a bit more tricky for them. As a subscription > based service, having a logon to a remote server will help since it will at > lease make them 'call home'. Is this the only way to protect Flex > applications? > > Presumably the only way to really protect an AIR App is to make it 'call > home' too? If the calling home feature became disabled, it would leave the > AIR app prone to missappropriation. > > Finally, potentially some of the data involved will be sensitive. It > doesn't > have to be sent to the client, but would be good if it was. That would then > raise the spectre of data confidentiality on a remote server. > > My usual experience is with corporate intranets or websites where > piracy/security isn't a big issue (at least not my specific problem). > > So any advice on security issues surrounding Flex/Air apps would be welcome > before I finalise my architecture. > > Paul >
