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."
Evil or not evil? Hmm...
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.
Dear GreenBorder,
Thank you for doing work we should have done years ago.
Unfortunately this level of work requires considerable resources
which would drive down our bottom line and
shareholder confidence.
William Gates III
Microsoft Corporation
Harry Kim: "Borg Attack!"
Janeway: "Raise shields"
Paris: "Its no good, they have adapted, they are firing sunloungers"
liqbase
...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
When did Linux steal this innovative technology and rename it chroot.
davecb5620@gmail.com
So...is it like the plain old Java sandbox?
Hmmm...I guess not. GreenBorder's "sandbox" appears to have some pretty big holes.
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.
A firewall, however, would block it. DMZs are areas inside the first firewall to keep the majority of the intruders out, but outside the second, more locked down, firewall that protects the internal network. Technically the area inside the first firewall isn't "safe," it's just "safer." DMZs can still be subject to malicious traffic because boxes inside DMZs, like webservers, by design have to keep certain known ports open.
I think the ideal term for what Google picked up is sandbox, where stuff can run and it doesn't impact the rest of the system so you can see what it is beforehand, but DMZ looks like it could apply.
Interesting idea if it does what I think, at least. Would have figured a sandbox for a plugin was rather intensive processor wise.
1) Install every anti-virus, firewall, virtual sandbox DMZ, and toolbar that you can.
2) Sustain 99% CPU usage.
3) Protected!
"Now, if only they would filter out the sites that CAUSE the malware and spyware"
.. :)
.. 64,300,000 hits ...
That would be the responcibility of the ISPs and the host providers.
"so many garbage/search sites come up when you search simple things like drug names and such"
Try the Product Search
Google search on viagra (the high blood pressure drug formerly knows as sildenafil citrate and remarketed as an aphrodisiac)
was Re:Google...
davecb5620@gmail.com
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
I can't wait for the "All-Seeing Eye" Google toolbar for Firefox!
I am on the road crew. This is my stop sign.
Well I was asked to evaluate this product 2 years ago. At the time it was not very useful as there were some problems. But last year when they did their update it was a good improvement on speed and memory foot print. For what it does the product works well. And with Googles money and resources behind it, it can only get better.
"When more than 50% of the CPU cycles in my PC go to security .. during the display of a simple HTML page in a browser i would say that our current approach is broken. Totally.
... :-S
Install DRDOS on Novell Netware circa 1993 and run Netscape off of diskless clients.
Re:Great
davecb5620@gmail.com
Interesting idea if it does what I think, at least. Would have figured a sandbox for a plugin was rather intensive processor wise.
You can already run your browser (and email, if not Outlook) in a very effective sandbox with virtually no CPU overhead - Run them as a separate user with only guest privilages.
That does have a down-side, of course (most notably, it takes a herculean effort to print from such a session, at least under XP), but works very well at preventing malicious sites and plugins from doing anything more than crashing your browser.
Buy a giant ad company, then this? What are they going to do? Poke some holes into it to let their stuff through? I guess I need to make my own crawlers if I want an effective search engine now. The big ones are becoming ever more useless. Can anybody tell me what a toolbar does that a bookmark can't? Besides look all purdy an' stuff? Put enough of them in there, and the web page only has enough space to show one line of text. It's like ESPN with all those stats on the screen completely blocking the action.
What?
"What I was actually referring to is simple searches on interactions or vital information without advertisements"
..
Yea, a lot of hits are to fake pages with nothing but adverts and links to other search results. But that to do with website promotion where they put a lot a fake stuff in the meta tags.
Re:Yea, Google is evil
davecb5620@gmail.com
In soviet russia, google buys you!
Interesting idea if it does what I think, at least. Would have figured a sandbox for a plugin was rather intensive processor wise
One thing however, is that on Vista you already have Internet Explorer running in a sandbox (most of the core system services appear virtualized, according to Task Manager), isolated from the kernel. I'd imagine a virtualized virtual machine is a pretty nasty beast on performance.
Definitely a neat idea; especially on an XP box where you don't have the innate ability to run a virtualized IE.
Read about this ealier, and as nice as it is, i'll probably stick with Sandboxie. Does the same thing as this, but also protects other programs.
If you donate to the project, you can unlock a few more features that allow you to start any program under sandbox ALL the time, even without it being started before the protected program. (well, the main program, not the service)
Its pretty good, but the file browser that comes with it could do some with some work... tends to lock up sometimes in large directories.
Although, with this, if Google does find malware and crap like that, they could easily tag a site and alert a user/kill connection whenever it comes up, killing a connection only on cases where there isn't really a site to go to.
Still don't want that horrible green border, sorry, that is just plain ugly. (Sandboxie just does [#] Window Title [#] on any sandboxed windows FYI)
...if it will detect the Dell-branded Google toolbar as adware, and remove it?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 SU CK IT MP AA
DAMNATION!
:-/
I forgot the Anti-crapware software! Why did you have to remind me of that!
Aaaawwww....
My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
Hmm, that can be done with Qemu or VmWare and is known as a Kiosk. The trouble is that the machine can still do a lot of damage in between reboots.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
You need a proxy server with a proper filter such as Dan's Guardian or Squidguard with Willowbark or Viralator. Never hook a naked Windoze PC to the internet - Windoze needs to hide behind a penguin.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
"dude, and I thought Linux was hard"
"With all that command line stuff we see Microsoft following in Linux's footsteps *again*"
"If only it was this easy to install Java on windows..... oh wait."
"With your mastery of the command line you are now ready to switch to Linux."
"What's a batch file? Is that like a script?"
Since when do slashdoters need to be informed that DMZ is short for "demilitarized zone".
"When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you." --leonstryker
There are really two problems at the root here. One is the human drive to push all of that crap on anyone and everyone on the internet for some kind of personal gain. And the other is a combination of user stupidity to unknowingly accept it combined with software that doesn't always make it easy for your average user to understand what it is they're accepting.
The way I've solved this problem.
1. Use Firefox as your default browser with adblock and Noscript, ditch IE.
2. Use a router with a firewall and ditch the Windows firewall.
3. Ditch Norton AV or whatever else and use NOD32
4. Switch to webmail system for sending/receiving your email.
5. Don't install any software you get "free" with anything unless you actually intend to use it.
Of course these only work if you're starting with a clean install.... I never see more then a small fraction of my resources being dedicated to background tasks and every few months or so I'll run Ad Aware or Spybot just to see if anything pops up only to find nothing more then a handful of cookies in the browser cache.
Linux is great and so are Macs, I actually have a Linux box, but neither Linux nor Macs can run/don't have viable alternatives to a lot of the applications I use on a day to day basis. If web-browsing, word processing, and media playback were all I needed a computer for then they'd be great. Unfortunately I need it for a lot more then just that.
Collector's Edition
Now I know where we are heading to. The ultimate goal is to load your computer with as many anti-virus, anti-spyware,... etc so that the actual virus/spyware won't have any CPU cycles left to infect your computer.
but for pity's sake, please: it's aren't. Because the not is abbreviated. TY.
1.) Create website for vaporware 2.) Promote it and put lots of google ads on it 3.) Collect google money to fun actual development 4.) Give away product for free to make it popular 5.) Sell company to google for millions 6.) Retire at age 20 :)
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=9654&of
Note that on Vista this is not necessary, as Vista automatically sandboxes any running IE instance with Protected Mode enabled in Internet Options (or for that matter, any app which uses the protected mode API - Microsoft keep asking the Opera team to implement this).
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Sorry to go off topic here, but do you or anyone have a link to good resources on DMZ design?
:-)
I've looked aroud, but havn't found anything that comes from a reputable source, but remains simple enough for the network guys at my work to understand
A bit of background - I work for an organisation with several web applications that are accessed by external users by them first logging into our network through a VPN, then separately logging into whichever web app they need. Not the best situation I think you'd agree!
Cheers
Tim
Just what we need, Google making unstable security software. I have not used this particular brand, but in general, such programs are irritating at best, unstable and exploitable at worst.
Once, I had a bug in my program that caused my XP development system to bugcheck (BSOD). It puzzled me how a bug in my lowly non-Administrator user-mode program could bring down the entire system. I attached a serial cable to WinDbg it and traced to the system calls. It turns out I was passing a bad pointer to a system call. I traced it further and found that some code in the kernel was doing an unprotected read of my pointer.
But it wasn't Microsoft's. It was a rootkit installed by an "enterprise-level intrusion detection system" that our company makes us all use. Apparently, this vendor doesn't know how to develop NT kernel code, since they weren't using __try let alone ProbeForRead. With code quality like that, I'm sure if someone cared they could find an exploit to get ring 0.
Microsoft decided to make PatchGuard because rootkits like these make Windows appear more unstable than it really is. Helps a bit with DRM too.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Not yet. We're waiting though. She wont want to remind us that we HAD a military force before she came in ;)
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Hmmm... As an Aussie, I quite like the Anzac Day logo. It's simple, shows an image that every Australian and New Zealander can connect with the day and what it represents, and can tastefully show a logo that looks almost joyous.
I'm not familiar enough with US symbols to know what they'd do for Memorial Day, but perhaps you could make some recommendations to them about what would be tastefully appropriate?
I know google is reputedly all powerful, but I'm struck by the thought - after reading your comment - that you could find some use as a solution to this problem... offer your advice. Crank up whatever open source image editor you use and give it a go.
And that kids is how I met your mother.
Thanks for the tip, i'll try it out.
For the lazy, here's a link: www.sandboxie.com