StarForce

The Starforce is a supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Its first appearance was in the comic Avengers #346 released in 1992, as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. The team are a Kree team of super-powered individuals brought together by the Supreme Intelligence. Starforce appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain Marvel (2019).

StarForce Technologies (previously known as Protection Technology ) is a Russian software developer with headquarters in Moscow. Its main activities are information security, protection against unauthorized copying, modification, and analysis (decompilation). ==Security== When StarForce 3.0 was released, it initially provided extremely strong protection – the StarForce 3.0-protected game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was uncracked for 422 days. It also marked a significant step up in the effort required to reverse engineer it. In March 2006 the warez group RELOADED released a vast array of documentation about how StarForce 3 works. Alongside many technical details, it revealed how several resource-intensive procedures were implemented, such as virtual file system and functions protected within a complex virtual machine. ===Driver installation=== StarForce 3.0 has received criticism for installing its own device driver onto computers along with the protected product, which is generally not uninstalled along with the software (Peter Jackson's King Kong being one exception). Colin McRae: DIRT, however, both asks the player for permission to install the drivers and includes a help file with information on how to remove them. ====Lite==== StarForce 3.0 drivers are installed with certain older game demos, freeware, and downloadable games, like TrackMania Nations. Their presence is intended to prevent crackers from using demo executables to help break retail executables (as the two will usually be quite similar). ====Driverless==== Currently (May 2014) the use of StarForce solutions became much easier for end users due to "driverless" security technology and binding to a computer. The company also is developing cloud services to protect content and e-mail that are designed to simplify the process of information protection used in everyday life. ===Clients=== StarForce's customers include Russian Railways, Corel, 1C, Mail.ru, Aeroflot, SUN InBev Russia, AMD, ATC International, MediaHouse, Russobit-M, New Disc, Buka, Snowball, 2Play, GFI, Cenega and Akella. ===Community response=== Some gamers have advocated boycotts of games or publishers known to use StarForce. These gamers claim that StarForce software causes system instability and crashes and that Protection Technology refuses to address the damage their software causes. In 2006, a $5 million lawsuit was filed against Ubisoft for using StarForce in their games on the allegations that StarForce compromises PC security, slows down PCs, causes crashes, and even damages optical drives. However, the case was dropped two years later due to lack of evidence. Ubisoft decided to investigate the extent of the StarForce boycott and ran a poll on their forums, the outcome of which was against the use of StarForce. As a result, (along with general discontent on the web ), in Heroes of Might and Magic V and GTR2, StarForce 3.0 was replaced by SecuROM. ==References== ==External links== Official site StarForce Drivers Removal Tool Location Tweakguide's analysis of the StarForce controversy

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