Slashdot Mirror
Google Buys Anti-Malware Security Startup
J Tomas writes "Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software. GreenBorder's software creates a DMZ (demilitarized zone) between the Windows desktop and programs downloaded from Web pages or opened from e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook. The early speculation is that Google will add the sandbox technology to the Google Toolbar or release a rebranded version as a standalone download."
...proving that corporations aren't evil, but trying to stay on top when you're top dog might corrupt absolutely. This would not have happened in "Lord of the Rings."
I refuse to demonize corporations, because I know that people run them and do the best they can with an often paradoxical set of goals. I remember when one boss I worked for sold his company to a larger technological concern, and suddenly all the rules changed. Image became more important than reality. We did everything we could to inflate figures. And the guy who once spent hours thinking about "the next cool thing we'd all like to use" stayed up late looking over spreadsheets, metrics, indicators and other spaced-out crap that has no relevance to reality.
We might call this time "the devirginization of Google," as they are inducted to the weird malevolent world of corporate politics as the top dog in the Darwinian internet struggle for virtual world domination.
technical writing / development
Great!
Yet another piece of software that interferes with my network layer, slows my PC, and eats half my CPU cycles just to keep malware from infecting my machine.
When will we see a REAL solution to these problems, and stop implementing obscure security work-arounds that eat more resources than the applications themselves? Anyone?
When more than 50% of the CPU cycles in my PC go to security software (Antivirus, Antiphising, Antispyware, Antiadware, Antifraud, heuristics scanning, SPAM filter, personal firewall, strange DMZ browser-thingeys) during the display of a simple HTML page in a browser i would say that our current approach is broken. Totally.
I need an Anti-security-bloatware product. And fast!
My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
Now, if only they would filter out the sites that CAUSE the malware and spyware. Not only that, but so many garbage/search sites come up when you search for simple things like drug names and such. You would think they could block out other automated crawlers that clog up bandwidth as well.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
There IS a way to "sandbox" IE, and iirc, it even works on IE7:
f set=15&rows=30
/user:IEuser cmd". on your desktop. Double-clicking this will open a command prompt that runs as IEuser. Now you can manually start IE with "start iexplore". Or create a batchfile c:windowsie.bat that just contains the line "start iexplore" and you can start IE by just typing "ie". Remove all shortcuts to IE from you normal desktop and only run it from the restricted account. This way you can use IE without worry about any IE exploits"
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=9654&of
RUNNING IE in a "runas limited user class" sandbox effect:
"It is actually possible to run IE securely: just create a throwaway restricted user account for IE use alone. The restricted account user can't install software and can't access files of other users, so even if IE autoexecutes any nastiness, it can't do any damage.
Of course, it's a hassle to log in as a different user just to browse the web. So we'd want to use "runas" to run just IE as a different user.
Unfortunately, MS has made running IE as a different user a little harder than necessary. Rightclicking and using "Run as" doesn't seem to work. What did work for me was the following.
Say the limited account is called "IEuser". Then create a shortcut to "runas
APK
Well, I bet we've all read /. summaries with abbreviations that we've wondered about. The summary just courteously saved those people a lookup, even if just to brush up.