Posted by Virus Bulletin on Oct 1, 2006
September's goings on in the AV industry.
The top news stories of September were undoubtedly those concerning the VML vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Not only was an unofficial patch for the vulnerability released by the Zeroday Emergency Response Team (ZERT), but Microsoft also saw fit to break its 'Patch Tuesday' cycle in order to release a patch for the vulnerability, such was the level of concern. ZERT - a group of security experts and reverse engineers from across the computer security industry - was formed last December with the aim of releasing emergency patches when zero-day exploits pose a serious risk to the public and/or the Internet. Its patch was released three days after the discovery of the vulnerability, and Microsoft followed swiftly with the official patch just a week after the flaw was published.
Another 'extremely critical' vulnerability in Microsoft software was reported by Secunia at the end of the month - this time in Microsoft's PowerPoint. The software giant drew criticism from others in the AV industry for (allegedly) having known about the flaw, but failing to disclose its details - identities for one of the two trojans known to be exploiting the hole were included in an earlier release of identities for the company's OneCare product.
News was more heartening for a number of other AV vendors. ESET was named as one of the fastest growing private companies in San Diego, ranking number five in the 'San Diego Fast 100'. The company, which originated in Slovakia, has been expanding its North American presence successfully over the last several years from its North American office based in San Diego.
Trend Micro has also had reason to celebrate, after being declared the 'most valuable Taiwan global brand' for the third year running. Trend managed to beat ASUS ASUSTeK Computer, Acer Acer and Master Kong Tingyi Holdings to the top spot, having been valued at US$1.127 billion.
BitDefender, meanwhile, celebrated having been nominated for RetailVision's 'Best Software Product Award' (for BitDefender 10.0); having formed a technology alliance with Internet Security Systems; and having recorded the company's most successful month in terms of customer growth, product announcements and corporate partnerships.
F-Secure opened a brand new research lab and technical support centre in Kuala Lumpur; Arbor Networks was named one of New England's fastest growing technology companies in Deloitte's 'Technology Fast 50 Program'; and analyst firm Forrester named McAfee as the leading brand in the field in its report on 'Client Security Suites'.
Congratulations one and all.
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Posted on 01 October 2006 by Virus Bulletin
