Software Giant Buys Giant Software
Posted on January 29, 2005
Filed Under IT Industry, Security, Software |
Giant Software Company was founded in November 2000 with the aim to create a better anti-spam solution. Giant eventually gained interest in spyware removal and produced an anti-spyware software package with some of the same technology it used to prevent spam from reaching users’ email inboxes.
On December 17, 2004 Microsoft announced that it had acquired Giant Software Company and soon after released the first beta of Microsoft AntiSpyware based largely on the Giant Software Company’s anti-spyware code. Software vendors make “beta” versions of software available free of charge to elicit user feedback and with any luck work out most of the bugs before releasing the full retail version.
In an interview with Paul Thurrot of SuperSite for Windows, (www.winsupersite.com) Giant co-founder Andrew Newman said that the company had aimed for a centrally managed network version of the software. While Giant Software Company never really became a giant in the industry, one of the giants, if not the giant, was taking notice.
Eric Howes, a computer security researcher and professor at the University of Illinois, studied spyware and adware and found that 80% of home PCs are infected with it. Worse, his study concluded that practically all of the spyware removal tools on the market actually caught less than half of the spyware planted on the systems.
Surprisingly, the industry stalwarts Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft Adaware fared poorly in this test but the then Giant Antispyware offering fixed more problems than the others but even then, only 63% of them.
Microsoft has released a Beta version of its re-branded Giant antispyware and the initial tests are impressive. The program can perform manual scans and as well as scheduled scans and will wait in the background for any suspicious activity to occur.
If the software determines that a spyware infection may be about to occur, it will warn the user and allow him or her to choose whether to continue or stop the suspicious process.
Microsoft has also announced that it has acquired Sybari Software, a leading antivirus vendor and appears poised to enter the computer security arena in a big way. If the Beta release of Microsoft Antispyware is any indication, there should be some top notch security products come from Redmond.
Eric Howes study results can be found at http://windowssecrets.com/050127/
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