Abstract: Methods for controlling software usage are described. Methods comprise receiving a request for at least one software application license, wherein the request comprises a user count, generating, by the computing apparatus, one or more sets of license data in response to the request, wherein a set of license data comprises at least one of the user count and a corresponding sequence number, signing each of the one or more sets of license data digitally with a private key, embedding a set of signed license data into the software application, receiving user identification data from a user through an input interface associated with the computing apparatus, and validating the user identification data. Additional embodiments incorporate mechanisms for license renewal, user registration and user authentication by means of associating a range of user identification data with the license data.

Abstract: A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and data masking device comprising receiving an input string comprising one or more input characters from a client computing device. A first numeric value is mapped for each of the one or more input characters of the received input string based on one or more stored datasets. Each of the mapped first numeric values are masked using the one or more stored datasets for each of the one or more input characters of the received input string to a second numeric value. A masked character for each of the second numeric values is remapped based on the one or more stored datasets. The determined masked characters are provided to the requesting client computing device.

Abstract: Methods for controlling software usage are described. Methods comprise receiving a request for at least one software application license, wherein the request comprises a user count, generating, by the computing apparatus, one or more sets of license data in response to the request, wherein a set of license data comprises at least one of the user count and a corresponding sequence number, signing each of the one or more sets of license data digitally with a private key, embedding a set of signed license data into the software application, receiving user identification data from a user through an input interface associated with the computing apparatus, and validating the user identification data. Additional embodiments incorporate mechanisms for license renewal, user registration and user authentication by means of associating a range of user identification data with the license data.