BitDefender is an antivirus software suite developed by Romanian-based software company SOFTWIN. It was launched in November 2001, and is currently in its thirteenth version. The 2010 version was launched in August 2009, and it includes several protection and performance enhancements.
The BitDefender products feature antivirus and antispyware, personal firewall, privacy control, user control and backup for corporate and home users. PC Tuneup is available in the Total Security Suite.
BitDefender replaced SOFTWIN’s earlier AVX (AntiVirus eXpert) product range. Between 1996 and 2001 AVX became a product available worldwide that offered intelligent updating without user intervention and integrated an internal browser which scanned and monitored all downloaded files. AVX hold the first behavior- based application blocking technology and it was the first antivirus product to include personal firewall features. With the sixth generation of AVX, the product became the first antivirus to include an application firewall as well as behavior- based blocking. The BitDefender group spun off from SOFTWIN in 2007.
Kaspersky Lab (pronounced /kæˈspɜrski/; Russian: Лаборатория Касперского, Laboratoriya Kasperskovo) is a computer security company, co-founded by Natalya Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997, offering anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, and anti-intrusion products. Kaspersky Lab is a privately held company headquartered in Moscow, Russia with regional offices in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Japan, People’s Republic of China, South Korea and the USA.
In 2005, Red Herring magazine listed Kaspersky among “Red Herring 100 Europe”, a selection of the 100 private companies in Europe and Israel that it considered to play a leading role in innovation and technology.
The Kaspersky Anti-Virus engine also powers products or solutions by other security vendors, such as Check Point, Bluecoat, Juniper Networks, Sybari (now acquired by Microsoft), Netintelligence, GFI Software, F-Secure, Clearswift, FrontBridge, G-Data, Netasq, and others. Altogether, more than 120 companies are licensing technology from Kaspersky.
Natalya Ivanova Kasperskaya, aka Natalya Kaspersky (Russian: Наталья Иванова Касперская) is the Chairwoman of Russian antivirus software maker Kaspersky Lab. As of October 2006, she and her ex-husband Eugene Kaspersky, a cryptologist and Kaspersky Lab CEO, own about 80 percent of the company together.
Natalya Kaspersky graduated from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building (MIEM) in 1989 with a degree in applied mathematics. After graduation she worked as a research assistant at the Central Scientific Design Office. In 1994 Natalya started working at KAMI Information Technologies Center where she was involved in managing an antivirus project, AVP, which in 2000 was renamed Kaspersky Anti-Virus. She participates regularly in business development seminars and conferences worldwide. Until 2007 she was CEO of Kaspersky Labs
Kaspersky has one daughter, Monika, and one son, Igor.
Eugene Kaspersky (Russian: Евгений Валентинович Касперский, Evgeniy Valentinovich Kasperskiy; born October 4, 1965 in Novorossiysk, USSR) is a specialist in the information security field. He has written articles on computer virology and speaks regularly at security seminars and conferences. Kaspersky co-founded the Kaspersky Lab, a privately held international company that produces antivirus and other computer security products, in 1997.
Kaspersky graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science, an institute co-sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Defence and the KGB in 1987. Kaspersky then worked at a multi-discipline scientific research institute until 1991. While there, the Cascade virus was detected on his computer, which increased Kaspersky’s interest in information security and led to his studying the field of computer virology from 1989.
Kaspersky joined the KAMI Information Technologies Center in 1991, where he and his associates developed the AVP anti-virus product. In 1997, he co-founded Kaspersky Lab, which was later run for a decade by his ex-wife Natalya Kaspersky. In November 2000, AVP was renamed ‘Kaspersky Anti-Virus’ after a dispute with a US partner. In 2007, Eugene was named the CEO of Kaspersky Labs
Trend Micro (TYO: 4704) is a global developer of software and services to protect against computer viruses, malware, spam, and Web-based threats. It is headquartered in Tokyo. Trend Micro was founded in 1988 in Los Angeles by Steve Chang, Jenny Chang and Eva Chen. Steve Chang served as Trend Micro’s CEO until 2004 when he was succeeded by co-founder Eva Chen, who had served as CTO since 1996.
In addition to its corporate product range, Trend Micro is known for producing the PC-cillin family of desktop internet security software, and is the creator of the free online browser-based malware scanner, HouseCall. TrendLabs, Trend Micro’s global security threat research, development and support organization, operates in 6 centers worldwide. Trend Micro has over 4000 employees in over 30 countries. The company is on the US Federal Buying Schedule 70 through resellers Softchoice, ASAP, and Synnex.
Between 2004 and 2008 Trend Micro gained publicity as MSN Hotmail’s choice for scanning email messages and attachments in their free and Hotmail Plus accounts. With the release of the new Hotmail version (part of Windows Live Wave 3), Trend Micro has been replaced with Microsoft’s own anti-virus software, Windows Live OneCare.
In April 2005, Trend Micro suffered a high-profile false alarm, which caused widespread computer crashes and turmoil across Asia.
In February 2006, Trend Micro released Interscan Web Security Appliance (IWSA), which acts as the first line of defense against threats like spyware, grayware, viruses, and phishing.
In November 2007, Trend Micro released browser security for the Playstation 3 internet browser and has been in use to the present day.
On January 29, 2008, Trend Micro sued Barracuda Networks over their use of Clam AntiVirus, which Trend Micro claims to be in violation of their software patent on anti-virus detection on an SMTP or FTP gateway.
On February 8, 2008, ScriptumLibre called for a worldwide boycott of Trend Micro because of “abusing the patent system and aggressively attacking ClamAV users and developers”.
In June 2008, Trend Micro introduced Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, a next-generation cloud-client content security infrastructure designed to protect customers from web threats, such as data stealing malware.
F-Secure Corporation (formerly Data Fellows) is an anti-virus and computer security software company based in Helsinki, Finland. The company has branch offices in the US and Malaysia, where antivirus analysis and software development work is ongoing. F-Secure Corp. is publicly traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange under the symbol FSC1V.
F-Secure claims that it was the first antivirus vendor to establish a presence on the World Wide Web. The F-Secure Labs weblog tracks global internet and mobile security threats.
F-Secure was first established under the name Data Fellows by Petri Allas and Risto Siilasmaa in 1988. Data Fellows trained computer users and built customized databases. Three years later, the company launched its first major software project and developed the first heuristic scanner for antivirus products. F-Secure’ first antivirus product for Windows PCs was launched in 1994. Data Fellows became F-Secure in 1999.
In July 2009, F-Secure purchased Steek, a French company specialized in online storage and backup services for consumers.
Risto Siilasmaa (born 1966 in Finland) is the Chairman, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of F-Secure Corporation (formerly Data Fellows), an anti-virus and computer security software company based in Helsinki, Finland. He is also the biggest shareholder of F-Secure, owning around 40% of the company. More recently Siilasmaa has become known as a business angel, investing in several technology startups and serving in their boards of directors.
Siilasmaa is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Elisa Oyj, Ekahau Inc., and Fruugo Inc. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of Finpro ry and member of the Board of Directors of Blyk Ltd, Efecte Corporation, Nexit Ventures Oy and Valimo Wireless OY. Most recently, on May 8, 2008, Siilasmaa became member of the Board of Directors of Nokia Corporation.
AVG Technologies (formerly named Grisoft) is a privately-held Czech company formed in 1991 by Jan Gritzbach and Tomas Hofer, with corporate offices in Europe and the United States. The company specializes in computer security software. AVG is an umbrella term for a range of anti-virus and internet security software for the Microsoft Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD computing platforms,
In 2001, Jan Gritzbach decided to sell Grisoft to Benson Oak Capital Acquisitions. Four years later, Benson Oak sold a 65% share in the company to Intel Capital and Enterprise Investors for $52 million.
On April 19, 2006, Grisoft acquired the German company ewido Networks, an anti-spyware software manufacturer, and incorporated ewido’s features into new versions of AVG software.
On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced that AVG Security products would be available directly from the Windows Security Center in Windows Vista. Since June 7, 2006, the AVG software has also been used as an optional component of GFI MailSecurity, produced by GFI Software.
On December 5, 2007, Grisoft announced the acquisition of Exploit Prevention Labs, developer of the LinkScanner safe surfing technology.
In February 2008, Grisoft was officially renamed AVG Technologies. This change was made to increase the effectiveness of their marketing activities.
In January 2009, AVG announced their plans to acquire Sana Security are finalized. Plans to integrate Sana’s technologies in their free consumer product, AVG Anti-Virus, are still under consideration, according to JR Smith, AVG’s chief executive. Sana Security’s developed technologies are currently licensed to Symantec.
Avira GmbH is a German antivirus software company. When founded, the company was called “H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH”. Its antivirus applications are based on the AntiVir scan engine also known as “Luke Filewalker” (referring to Luke Skywalker), first launched in 1988. For aesthetic reasons, the name was changed to Avira. Avira’s engine has been licensed to Ashampoo antivirus, Ad-Aware, and Webroot WebWasher. Avira is one of the most widely used antivirus programs in the world, with 100 million users worldwide as of September 2009. The company supports the Auerbach Stiftung, a foundation created by the company’s founder and CEO, Tjark Auerbach. It supports charitable, social, cultural, and science projects.
Tjark Auerbach, was born in Munich in 1957 and grew up in a family of teachers, doctors and educators. He is the eldest of three children and learned a great deal about life from his family environment. He learned, for example, that life does not deal everyone the same hand of cards and it can often be very expensive to “buy” the help that is needed. Tjark Auerbach trained as an assistant electrical engineer, worked in the PC trade and completed his training as an electronics engineers at the Tettnang College of Electronics. In 1986 the head of the family set up his first business in Tettnang with a colleague: H + B EDV, an IT company. The letters H and B stand for Hannelore and Betty, the wives of the two founders. The company’s core business was importing special software for operating systems (“utility software”) to Germany from the US. But the casually-dressed entrepreneur was soon to discover something that would go on to become his future passion: computer security.
In 1988 H+BEDV Datentechnik launched AntiVir, one of the first anti-virus programmes. Two years later, Tjark Auerbach, along with Martin Ritter and Norbert Huth, converted the company into a GmbH. H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH started in 1990 with six employees and just kept on growing. Today the company, now renamed Avira GmbH, has around 250 employees worldwide, all intent on increasing security in the virtual world through effective software solutions. The partners and directors earmark a proportion of the turnover from the sale of these solutions to increase security in the real world.
The Chairman of the foundation is Hannelore Auerbach. The founder’s wife, who was born in the Black Forest in 1958, shares her husband’s vision. Hannelore Auerbach is an educator and, before her own maternity leave, she worked in a home for the disabled.
ALWIL Software is a Czech-based company from Prague, established in April 1991 by its co-founders Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis. The company is best known for producing the Avast! antivirus product range. Established in April 1991, the company has expanded globally to include such countries such as France, Poland, Italy, as well as Brazil, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Korea, China and Australia. On 1 January 2007, ALWIL Software changed its name to ALWIL Software a.s.
Avast! antivirus is an antivirus program developed by ALWIL Software a.s., a company based in Prague, Czech Republic. It was first released in 1988. Avast! is based on a central scanning engine that is certified by ICSA Labs and West Coast Lab’s Checkmark process and incorporates anti-spyware technology, also certified by West Coast Lab’s Checkmark process, as well as anti-rootkit and self-protection capabilities. It is a multiple recipient of the Virus Bulletin VB100 Award, for detection of 100% of “in-the-wild” viruses, and is a past winner of the Secure Computing Readers’ Trust Award.
Avast! Home Edition is the freeware version of Avast! antivirus software available to Microsoft Windows and Linux users, while Avast! Professional Edition is offered to businesses and users that want additional features. Avast! Professional Edition contains an enhanced user interface, through which scanning tasks can be scheduled to run automatically, while priority updates are delivered automatically using PUSH update technology. The Professional Edition also has a command line scanner and a script blocker.
ESET is an IT security company headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia that was founded in 1992 by the merger of two private companies. The company is privately held and has branch offices in San Diego, California; Wexford, Ireland; London, United Kingdom; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Prague, Czech Republic.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus, commonly known as NOD32, is an antivirus software package made by the Slovak company ESET. ESET NOD32 Antivirus is sold in two editions, Home Edition and Business Edition. The Business Edition packages add ESET Remote Administrator allowing for server deployment and management, mirroring of threat signature database updates and the ability to install on Microsoft Windows Server operating systems.
NOD32 was created in the early 1990s when computer viruses were becoming increasingly prevalent. Initially the program gained popularity with IT workers in Eastern European countries, as ESET was based in Slovakia. Though the program’s abbreviation was originally pronounced as individual letters, recent worldwide use of the program has led to the more common single-word pronunciation, sounding like the English word nod.
The acronym NOD stands for Nemocnice na Okraji Disku (”Hospital at the end of the disk”), a pun related to the Czechoslovakian medical drama series Nemocnice na okraji města (Hospital at the End of the City).
McAfee, Inc. (pronounced /ˈmækəfiː/; NYSE: MFE) is an antivirus software and computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It markets McAfee VirusScan and related security products and services, including the IntruShield, Entercept, and Foundstone brands.
McAfee VirusScan is a popular antivirus program created and maintained by McAfee, formerly known as Network Associates. VirusScan is designed for home and home-office use; McAfee also develops VirusScan Enterprise for use in corporate environments. The product is not available as a standalone package, but is included in the McAfee VirusScan Plus package or as part of McAfee Internet Security Suite. McAfee also produces a similar product for Mac OS X under the name of VirusScan for Mac. Additionally, BSkyB and McAfee have produced a “Sky Broadband” branded version of VirusScan, offered free to Sky Digital customers upon broadband modem installation.
The company was founded in 1987 as McAfee Associates, named for its founder John McAfee. McAfee was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1992. Network Associates was formed in 1997 as a merger of McAfee Associates and Network General. In 2004, a major restructuring occurred. In the spring, the company sold its Magic Solutions business to Remedy, a subsidiary of BMC Software. In the summer of 2004, the company sold the Sniffer Technologies business to a venture capital backed firm named ‘Network General’ – the same name as the original owner of Sniffer Technologies. Also, the company changed its name back to McAfee to reflect its focus on security-related technologies.
Among other companies bought and sold by McAfee (formerly known as Network Associates) is Trusted Information Systems, which developed the Firewall Toolkit, which was the free software foundation for the commercial Gauntlet Firewall, which was later sold by McAfee to Secure Computing Corporation. Network Associates, as a result of brief ownership of TIS Labs/NAI Labs/Network Associates Laboratories/McAfee Research, was highly influential in the world of Open Source software, as that organization produced portions of the Linux, FreeBSD, and Darwin operating systems, and developed portions of the BIND name server software and SNMP version 3.
John McAfee (born September 18, 1945) is a computer programmer and founder of McAfee. He was one of the first people to design anti-virus software and to develop a virus scanner. He was born in England and raised in Salem, Virginia. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Roanoke College in 1967, and he received an honorary doctorate from Roanoke College in 2008.
John was employed as a programmer by NASA’s Institute for Space Studies in New York City from 1968 to 1970. From there he went to Univac as a software designer and later to Xerox as an Operating System architect. In 1978 he joined Computer Sciences Corporation as a software consultant. Later, while employed by Lockheed in the 1980s, McAfee received a copy of the Pakistani Brain computer virus and began developing software to combat viruses. He was the first to distribute anti-virus software using the shareware business model. In 1989, he quit Lockheed and began working full time at his anti-virus company McAfee Associates, which he initially operated from his home in Santa Clara, California.
This company later became Network Associates, a name it retained for seven years until it was renamed McAfee, which remains today as one of the largest anti-virus companies in the world. John McAfee teaches yoga and has written several books about yoga.
Other business ventures that he founded included Tribal Voice, which developed one of the first instant messaging programs, PowWow.
In August 2009, The New York Times reported that McAfee’s personal fortune had declined to $4 million from a peak of $100 million, the effect of the global financial crisis and recession on his investments.
Panda Security SL, formerly Panda Software, is a computer security company founded in 1990 by Panda’s former CEO, Mikel Urizarbarrena, in the city of Bilbao. Initially centered on the production of antivirus software, the company has expanded its line of applications to include firewall applications, spam and spyware detection applications, cybercrime prevention technology, and other system management and security tools for businesses and home users.
Panda’s products include security tools for home users and enterprises, including protection against cybercrime and kinds of malware that can damage IT systems, such as spam, hackers, spyware, dialers and undesirable web content, as well as detection of WiFi intrusions. Its trademark technology, branded TruPrevent, is a set of proactive capabilities aimed at blocking unknown viruses and intruders. In 2007 Panda introduced a new collective intelligence security model, which utilizes grid computing for malware collection and detection.
Panda has recently launched new [solutions] on the market, providing security from the cloud thanks to its proprietary Collective Intelligence technology; an automatic scanning, classification and disinfection system to combat new IT threats.
Panda Security spots market opportunity with cloud and on November 2009, unveiled its first Cloud-Based Security Services for Home Users and SMBs.
Mikel Urizarbarrena (born in Zaldibar, Basque Country, Spain) is the CEO and founder of Antivirus Software maker Panda Software.
He founded the company in 1990, along with his wife (current vice chairman of the company) and two other friends, in the town of Durango, Biscay.
His company began as a developer of educational software for driver teaching schools. Mikel shifted his company to the antivirus market. After developing the new software, his company won a contract with IBM in Spain for distributing his software with their OEM computers.
Symantec is the largest maker of security software, and the seventh largest software company in the world. Symantec Corporation was founded in 1982 by Gary Hendrix with a National Science Foundation grant. Symantec was originally focused on artificial intelligence-related projects, including a database program. Hendrix hired several Stanford University natural language processing researchers as the company’s first employees.
In 1984 Symantec was acquired by another, even smaller computer software startup company, C&E Software, founded by Denis Coleman and Gordon Eubanks and headed by Eubanks. The merged company retained the name Symantec, and Eubanks became its chief executive officer. Its first product, Q&A, was released in 1985. Q&A provided database management and bundled a word processor. In August of 1990, Symantec purchased Peter Norton Computing, a developer of various applications for DOS. Symantec’s consumer antivirus and data management utilities are still marketed under Peter Norton’s name.
At one time Symantec was also known for its development tools, particularly the THINK Pascal, THINK C, Symantec C++, and Visual Cafe packages that were popular on the Macintosh and IBM PC compatible platforms; they exited this business in the late-1990s as competitors such as Metrowerks, Microsoft, and Borland gained significant market share.
John W. Thompson (born April 24, 1949) is a former vice-president at IBM and the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Symantec Corporation. He is presently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Symantec Corporation. During his tenure as CEO of Symantec, he was the only African American leading a major technology company.
Gary Hendrix is a natural language analyst who founded Symantec Corporation, an international corporation which sells computer software, particularly in the fields of information management and antivirus software.
Gordon Eubanks (born November 7, 1946) is a microcomputer industry pioneer who worked with Gary Kildall in the early days of Digital Research. Eubanks attended Oklahoma State University. Dr. Kildall was his graduate thesis advisor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Eubank’s 1976 master’s thesis was a BASIC language compiler called BASIC-E designed for Kildall’s new CP/M operating system.
ubanks went to work at DRI, but he soon came to doubt the company’s long-term prospects. In 1984 Eubanks joined Symantec and from 1984–1986 he helped develop Q & A, an integrated database and wordprocessor with natural language query. He went on to become president and CEO of Symantec, guiding it into the software utility and anti-virus businesses until he left in 1999 to become president and CEO of Oblix, a silicon valley startup which creates software for web security. Oblix was acquired by Oracle in March, 2005. Eubanks is a director of Concur and joined the board of directors of Oakley Networks in February, 2006.
Sophos is a developer and vendor of security software and hardware, including anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, network access control, encryption software and data loss prevention for desktops, servers, email systems and other network gateways.
SophosLabs is the company’s global network of threat analysis centers.
Founded in 1985 by Dr. Peter Lammer and Dr. Jan Hruska, Sophos is a privately-owned company and is co-headquartered in Abingdon, UK and Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. The company has subsidiaries and branch offices in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain. The company employs approximately 1,800 staff worldwide.
Unlike other security companies, Sophos does not produce anti-virus and anti-spam solutions for home users, but instead has always focused on the business market.
During the early years in the late 1980’s and into the 1990’s Sophos grew steadily, although mainly in the UK selling a range of security technologies including encryption tools still used widely in the banking community. Late in the 1990’s faced with slowing growth and reducing profit Sophos concentrated its efforts onto sales of anti-virus technology and embarked on an ambitious program of international expansion during which the subsidiary operations were formed and the transition to selling with partners was made. Rapid growth and healthy cash generation enabled Sophos to create a globally recognised brand as well as impressive HQ facilities in the UK. A solid cash base and continued sustained growth also enabled the acquisition of new technology to broaden the product roadmap so that by 2005 Sophos was widely known as a significant competitor in the IT security market.
From September 2003 to February 2006, Sophos served as the parent company of ActiveState, a developer of programming tools for dynamic programming languages. In February 2006, ActiveState became an independent company when it was sold to Vancouver-based venture capitalist firm Pender Financial.
In 2006, Steve Munford was named CEO of Sophos, and Hruska and Lammer announced they would remain as co-founders and members of the board of directors. Munford was the president of ActiveState prior to its acquisition by Sophos in 2003, and from 2003 to 2005 was president of Sophos’s North American operations. In 2005, he became chief operating officer, responsible for the day-to-day running of the company and its senior management team. Munford holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Western Ontario, and an MBA from Queen’s University.
Comodo is a privately held group of companies offering computer software and SSL certificate products, based in the United Kingdom, wider base in the United States, Jersey City, New Jersey and Salt Lake City, Utah. The company has offices in the U.S., U.K, China, Ukraine, Romania and India.
Melih Abdulhayoglu (born 10 March, 1968) is a technologist and an entrepreneur. As an inventor, he holds several patents. He has written articles on Internet security. In 1998, he founded Comodo, a privately held international company that produces computer security products including SSL certificates.
In 2005 Melih saw the need to bring the industry together and arranged the first meeting of CAB forum (what is now called CA/Browser Forum), an industry consortium designed to establish end-to-end authentication and security business processes. In 2009 he organized the Common Computing Security Standards Forum, which maintains a list of legitimate antivirus engines. Melih Abdulhayoglu was born in Turkey and moved to the United Kingdom when he was 18. Melih earned a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering from Bradford University in 1991.
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