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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."
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!
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.
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)
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.