Webroot was founded on 5 July 1997 when Steven Thomas and his girlfriend Boulderite Kristen Tally[2] launched Webroot's first commercial product, a trace removal agent called Webroot Window Washer. Investors include venture capital firms such as Technology Crossover Ventures, Accel Partners and Mayfield.
In 2002, Webroot launched a spyware blocking and removal product called Webroot Spy Sweeper.[3] The company introduced antivirus protection with the launch of Spy Sweeper with AntiVirus in 2006.[4] In October 2007, Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware and Desktop Firewall was released with added firewall protection feature.[5]
Webroot entered the enterprise market in 2004 with the launch of Webroot Spy Sweeper Enterprise, which combined Spy Sweeper with technology that enables IT administrators to deploy antispyware protection across an entire network.[6]
In October 2008, Webroot launched its first consumer security suite, Webroot Internet Security Essentials, in the United States.[7] The international release of the security suite followed in early 2009.[8]
In August 2009, Webroot appointed a new president and CEO, former CEO of Wily Technology.[9]
In May 2010 Webroot announced plans to open its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[10] In July 2010 Webroot Internet Security Complete 2011 was released, including antivirus and antispyware protection, firewall capabilities, online back-up, password management licensed from LastPass, protection against identity theft and credit card monitoring for US customers.[11]
In September 2010 Webroot opened a regional office in Leidschendam, The Netherlands which is primarily aimed at distributing Webroot's enterprise security-as-a-service (SaaS) products to businesses.[12]
Webroot Mobile Security for Android was launched on April 5, 2011 for smartphones and tablets, with a free basic version and a paid premium version. The app is designed to protect against viruses from apps, threats delivered via web browsing and against the threats created when mobile devices are lost.[13] The SecureAnywhere products launched on October 4, 2011, and the mobile security offerings were expanded to include the iOS mobile operating system.[14]
In October 2011 Webroot launched a new generation of their products, using Prevx cloud technology.[15] This included three basic products for Windows (SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, Essentials and Complete 2012) and security for Android and iOS mobile devices. In February 2012 products for businesses were added.[16]
In July 2014 Webroot announced its BrightCloud Security Services, a new portfolio of services for enterprise-class businesses, including integration for Next-Generation Firewalls and SIEMs.[17]
In September 2017, Webroot appointed a new president and CEO, former CEO of Lancope Mike Potts.[18]
On February 7, 2019 Carbonite, Inc. announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Webroot. On March 26, 2019, Carbonite closed its acquisition of Webroot, with a purchase price of $618.5 million in cash.[19]
Acquisitions and partnerships
In November 2007, Webroot acquired UK-based Email Systems (EMS)[20] and announced itself as a provider in the security software-as-a-service (SaaS) market.
In December 2009, Webroot announced a partnership with virtual private network software provider AnchorFree. A version without advertisements of AnchorFree's VPN software with protection via Webroot's antivirus and antispyware software was produced.[21]
In March 2010, Webroot announced the acquisition of Swedish corporate Internet security company, Email Systems Scandinavia (ESS).[22]
In July 2010, Webroot acquired San Diego, California-based web content classification and security services provider, BrightCloud, adding its web reputation and content classification technology to existing products.[23]
In November 2010, Webroot acquired UK cloud-based anti-malware company, Prevx.[24]
In July 2011 a partnership was struck with global distribution firm Tech Data, making Webroot products available to Tech Data's network of 125,000 channel partners in 100 countries around the world.[25]
In July 2013, Webroot and RSA Security formed a partnership to enhance both firms' real-time phishing detection.[26]
In September 2016 Webroot acquired the assets of CyberFlow Analytics,[27] a company applying data science to network anomaly detection.[28]
In February 2019 Webroot announced that it would be acquired by Carbonite. In March 2019, Carbonite confirmed the purchase.[29]
In December 2019 Carbonite was acquired by OpenText.[30]
Reviews
AV-Comparatives gave nine vendors, including Webroot, its highest award in its July 2012 Anti-Phishing Test, in which Webroot took ninth place among 18 products tested for efficacy in blocking phishing websites.[31] In AV-Comparatives's Performance Test for October 2012, Webroot had the best PCMark score, having the lightest impact out of 20 products tested on a Windows 7 64-bit machine.[32]
Webroot had the worst results out of 20 products tested by AV-Comparatives in the September 2012 File Detection Test of Malicious Software, both in terms of malware detection rates and false alarms.[33] Webroot detected less than 80 percent of viral samples, much worse than the 94.4 percent rate of the second-lowest detecting product. Webroot inappropriately flagged 210 clean files, raising as many false positives as the other 19 products tested combined. According to AV-comparatives, the "results and misses have been confirmed with several tests and also by the vendor."[33]
PC Magazine has awarded Webroot SecureAnywhere 19 times with Editor's Choice and Security Product of the Year, its highest award given to security and software programs.[34] In PC Magazine's test for 2013, Webroot was found by PC Magazine staff to have the best score in malware blocking tests, malware removal tests, speed of scans, and installation speed. In the 2014 test, PCMag found "Webroot's detection rate of 89 percent and overall malware cleanup score of 6.6 points are both tops among products tested using this same malware collection."[35]
In 2014, PassMark Software, a software and hardware performance benchmarking company,[37] benchmarked Webroot SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection[38] and Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus[39] using 13 performance metrics. In both tests, Webroot products were found to outperform competitors in a variety of metrics, including scan times, CPU usage, and others, earning the highest overall score in both tests.
During November 2016's evaluation of mobile security products for Android AV-TEST has given Webroot's SecureAnywhere Mobile product a "Protection Score" of 3.5 out of 6, placing it near the bottom of all 26 products evaluated in this test in terms of protection against malware. Both the "Detection of the latest Android malware in real-time" and "Detection of the latest Android malware discovered in the last 4 weeks" scores were below the "Industry Average" score.[40]
WebRoot's web browser extension will flag any web site that WebRoot has not reviewed as suspicious. The browser extension will inject an exclamation mark icon along with a warning into search engine results for all unreviewed sites, making it look like the warning is a product of the search engine being used. On February 22, 2017, in response to a customer complaint on WebRoot's community forum about this behavior, a WebRoot company representative replied, "...a site will automatically show as potentially suspicious if it hasn't garnered a large enough audience for our Team to review it."[41] This has resulted in multiple false positive complaints in the WebRoot Community Fourm.[42][43][44]
In October 2017, AV-Comparatives performed a "Head-to-Head Comparison" between products from VIPRE and Webroot, the Webroot SecureAnywhere product was only able to achieve 86.4% "Protection Rate", compared to VIPRE Cloud's 100% rate. The test was performed using a test set of 316 live malicious URLs found in the field.[45]
During the January 2018 test of 84 various Android antimalware apps by AV-Comparatives, Webroot Security Premier has detected 99.7% of all antimalware samples, placing it below 30 other tested apps which showed better detection rates.[46]
Antivirus software, also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware.
ESET, s.r.o., is a software company specializing in cybersecurity. ESET's security products are made in Europe and provides security software in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Its software is localized into more than 30 languages.
Avast Software s.r.o. is a Czech multinational cybersecurity software company headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, that researches and develops computer security software, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Avast had more than 435 million monthly active users and the second largest market share among anti-malware application vendors worldwide as of April 2020. As of 2018, the company had approximately 1,700 employees across its 25 offices worldwide. In July 2021, NortonLifeLock, an American cybersecurity company, announced that it was in talks to merge with Avast Software. In August 2021, Avast's board of directors agreed to an offer of US$8 billion.
Microsoft Defender Antivirus is an antivirus software component of Microsoft Windows. It was first released as a downloadable free anti-spyware program for Windows XP and was shipped with Windows Vista and Windows 7. It has evolved into a full antivirus program, replacing Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 8 or later versions.
Windows Live OneCare was a computer security and performance enhancement service developed by Microsoft for Windows. A core technology of OneCare was the multi-platform RAV, which Microsoft purchased from GeCAD Software Srl in 2003, but subsequently discontinued. The software was available as an annual paid subscription, which could be used on up to three computers.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus is a proprietary antivirus program developed by Kaspersky Lab. It is designed to protect users from malware and is primarily designed for computers running Microsoft Windows and macOS, although a version for Linux is available for business consumers.
VirusTotal is a website created by the Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas. Launched in June 2004, it was acquired by Google in September 2012. The company's ownership switched in January 2018 to Chronicle, a subsidiary of Google.
Comodo Internet Security (CIS) is developed and distributed by Comodo Group, a freemium Internet security suite that includes an antivirus program, personal firewall, sandbox, host-based intrusion prevention system (HIPS) and website filtering.
Malwarebytes Inc. is an American Internet security company that specializes in protecting home computers, smartphones, and companies from malware and other threats. It has offices in Santa Clara, California; Clearwater, Florida; Tallinn, Estonia; Bastia Umbra, Italy; and Cork, Ireland.
Prevx is a discontinued anti-malware utility. There are separate real-time and on-demand versions. It can remove low-risk adware for free, but the user has to purchase and enter a license key if it is more serious. Scanning can take anywhere from less than two minutes to five minutes.
Kaspersky Lab is a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and operated by a holding company in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky, Natalya Kaspersky and Alexey De-Monderik. Kaspersky Lab develops and sells antivirus, internet security, password management, endpoint security, and other cybersecurity products and services.
Immunet was a free, cloud-based, community-driven antivirus application, using the ClamAV and its own engine. The software is complementary with existing antivirus software. In January 2011 Immunet was acquired by Sourcefire.
Trend Micro Internet Security is an antivirus and online security program developed by Trend Micro for the consumer market. According to NSS Lab comparative analysis of software products for this market in 2014, Trend Micro Internet Security was fastest in responding to new internet threats, but as of June 2024 based on the chat support there is no known mechanism as with Microsoft Defender Antivirus to submit false positives like "Incorrectly detected as malware/malicious" or "Incorrectly detected as PUA " which may point to cutting corners and be the cause of application mislabeling e.g. as ransomware, while the mechanism for detecting real threats is not specified.
Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG is a German multinational computer security software company mainly known for its Avira Free Security antivirus software. Although founded in 2006, the Avira antivirus application has been under active development since 1986 through its predecessor company H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH. Since 2021, Avira has been owned by American software company NortonLifeLock, which also operates Norton, Avast and AVG. It was previously owned by investment firm Investcorp.
AV-Comparatives is an Austrian independent organization that tests and assesses antivirus software, regularly releasing charts and reports that are freely available to the public and the media. Antivirus vendors have to meet various requirements regarding trustworthiness and reliability in order to take part in the tests.
Comodo Mobile Security (CMS) is a mobile application provided free by the Comodo Group that protects Android devices against viruses, worms and scripts. It also features SMS and call blocking, a software and process manager, data and apps backup and data traffic monitor. The anti-theft feature allows users to recover lost or stolen devices.
PCKeeper is advertised as an optimization services package featuring a set of software utilities for Windows OS owned by Essentware S.A.. It includes 2 separate products for Windows: PCKeeper Live and PCKeeper Antivirus.
Norton is a brand name that was founded in 1982 by Peter Norton Computing and acquired by Symantec in 1990. It is now used by the American company Gen Digital for some of its software.
Surfshark Antivirus is a cybersecurity software developed by a company known for Surfshark VPN and internet security services. Surfshark Antivirus provides protection against malware, viruses, and other cyber threats.
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