Dongles arrived on the technology scene along with the earliest software for personal computers. The devices were originally called hardware keys but later came to be known as “dongles.”

In 1980, the first modern version of the dongle emerged out of the U.K. It was developed by Dataview Ltd., a company that introduced Wordcraft, an early word processors for home computers. The company’s dongle enabled access to the word processing application.

Dongles have evolved significantly from their early humble beginnings. Initially they were simple hardware keys with serial- or parallel-port interfaces. The dongle quickly advanced into a more robust device and included a serial transceiver and microprocessor that interacted with the host. Later, the USB interface became the most common style of dongle.

The most commonly-found dongles today are hardware keys with a USB interface that plug into a USB port. Dongles can be used to extend the functionality of a computer, by, for example, adding a Bluetooth transmitter for connection to a keyboard, mouse, or mobile phone. The purpose of most modern dongles is to prevent illegal copying of application software. The dedicated security device contains dynamic encryption to ensure optimum protection from hacking. Today’s state-of-the-art dongles are robust enough to ensure that no universal crack for a protected software program is possible.

Dongles are effective hardware-based protection for any company’s intellectual property and data. Only the licensed user may access its contents and use it to unlock applicable applications. Unauthorized users may have restricted access or no access to the contents of the device.

Wibu-Systems makes one of the most secure dongles available in the industry today for software security. Their CodeMeter compact CmStick dongle holds hundreds or even thousands of licenses from different vendors and is quickly and easily programmable.