Patent ID: 7721340

Claim:
A method of operating a computing machine to inhibit tampering with a piece of software running on the computing machine, the method comprising: upon start-up of a computing machine, invoking by a log-on module a protection function of an obfuscated dynamic link library to create a first thread that determines whether first keys and values have been tampered with and resets the first keys and values when it is determined that the first keys and values have been tampered with, the first keys and values associated with a system and stored in a central hierarchical database, and the obfuscated protection dynamic-link library obfuscated by renaming symbols in an assembly of a protection dynamic-link library; and upon log-on to the computing machine by a user, invoking by the log-on module the protection function of the obfuscated dynamic link library to create a second thread that determines whether second keys and values have been tampered with and resets the second keys and values when it is determined that the second keys and values have been tampered with, the second keys and values associated with the user and stored in the central hierarchical database.