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A dongle is a miniature hardware device for protecting applications against unauthorized use or replication. An application can be run only when a dongle is plugged into the computer (or a dedicated server in the case of network dongles).

Guardant dongles use state-of-the-art protection technologies, such as tunneling encryption of traffic, asymmetric cryptography, and loadable code onboard the dongle. Guardant products are known for their best value (functionality) for money, with an extensive model lineup.

Guardant dongles support 32- and 64-bit Windows, Linux, and OS X platforms as well as Android and Windows RT. The specific list of supported operating systems depends on the hardware platform, model, and interface of the dongle.

The developer of each protected product personally programs the dongle for the application, and the developer alone knows what information should be stored in the dongle. It is not technically feasible to scan the dongle or make a copy of it.

Network dongles support licensing of applications on a local area network, within the limits of a specific network pool. This dongle is plugged into only one computer on the LAN, extending license coverage to several other computers.

All the latest dongle models interact with the operating system and the protected application in one of two ways: as HID-compatible devices or via the Guardant driver. Only the developer of the application protected with the dongle can switch the dongle to HID mode.

Such dongles are different in that the dongle micro controller shares the same casing with general-purpose Flash memory, which is convenient when you need to distribute dongles together with distribution kits of protected applications. The dongle does not interact with the Flash drive.

Only in terms of their form factor and size. For example, the Guardant Sign and Guardant Sign micro dongles are fully identical in terms of the underlying technology, but the former is much more compact than the latter. At the software level, micro dongles are indistinguishable from regular-sized models.

Access codes are four 32-bit numerical sequences that serve as IDs of both the developer that uses Guardant dongles and the dongles themselves. A unique set of access keys is assigned to the developer ordering Guardant dongles for the first time and subsequently embedded into each dongle at the pre-sale preparation stage.