Method and apparatus to dynamically encode data at runtime

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor for executing a program;
• wherein at least one dynamic encoding algorithm is randomly selected at runtime during execution of the program when the processor performs at least one of encoding, decoding and/or re-encoding a data flow of the program, the selection at runtime made randomly from a pool of encoding algorithms injected into the program at build-time, where the encoding algorithms in the pool each comprise at least one function for encoding, decoding and/or re-encoding the data-flows by altering a data value without altering a data type associated with said data value;
• wherein the selected at least one dynamic encoding algorithm is associated with at least one tagged data element in the program for encoding, decoding or re-encoding data stored in the tagged data element;
• and wherein:
• unencoded data is encoded by the selected at least one dynamic encoding algorithm when the unencoded data is copied to the tagged data element;
• encoded data is re-encoded by the selected at least one dynamic encoding algorithm when the encoded data is copied from a differently tagged data element to the tagged data element;
• or
• encoded data is decoded by the selected at least one dynamic encoding algorithm when the encoded data is copied from the tagged data element to an untagged data element.

A method implemented by a processor and comprising:

• tagging at least one data element when editing source code of a program while performing at least one of encoding, decoding and/or re-encoding a data flow of the program;
• wherein the tagged data element is associated with a dynamic encoding algorithm randomly selected at runtime during execution of the program from a pool of encoding algorithms injected into the program at build-time, where the encoding algorithms each comprise at least one function for encoding, decoding or re-encoding data stored in the tagged data element by altering a data value without altering a data type associated with said data value;
• and wherein:
• unencoded data is encoded by the dynamic encoding algorithm when the unencoded data is copied to the tagged data element;
• encoded data is re-encoded by the dynamic encoding algorithm when the encoded data is copied from a differently tagged data element to the tagged data element;
• or
• encoded data is decoded by the dynamic encoding algorithm when the encoded data is copied from the tagged data element to an untagged data element.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor for editing source code of a program and tagging at least one data element when performing at least one of encoding, decoding and/or re-encoding a data flow of the program, wherein the tagged data element is associated with a dynamic encoding algorithm randomly selected at runtime during execution of the program from a pool of encoding algorithms injected into the program at build-time, for encoding, where the encoding algorithms in the pool each comprise at least one function for decoding or re-encoding data stored in the tagged data element by altering a data value without altering a data type associated with said data value;
• and
• wherein:
• unencoded data is encoded by the encoding algorithm when the unencoded data is copied to the tagged data element;
• encoded data is re-encoded by the encoding algorithm when the encoded data is copied from a differently tagged data element to the tagged data element;
• or
• encoded data is decoded by the encoding algorithm when the encoded data is copied from the tagged data element to an untagged data element.