Grisoft acquires Exploit Prevention Labs

AVG to incorporate LinkScanner in further consolidation of security offerings.

Grisoft

, developer of the

AVG

security product whose free version is widely deployed on home-user desktops, has announced the acquisition of

Exploit Prevention Labs

, a small firm whose headline product

LinkScanner

focuses on detecting exploit attempts in web pages before they are visited.

LinkScanner

is designed to spot attempts to exploit vulnerable software by websites, and to block such attempts until vulnerabilities can be patched. A ‘Lite’ version of the product is made available free, and is expected to be rolled into the free-for-personal-use version of

AVG

, while the more fully featured versions will become part of

Grisoft

‘s expanding product line, which includes the

Ewido

anti-spyware solution the company acquired last spring.

Financial details of the deal have not been released, but the acquisition was supported by

Intel Capital

investment, who bought a sizeable stake in

Grisoft

just over two years ago. Industry veteran and

Exploit Prevention Labs

co-founder Roger Thompson will become Chief Research Officer at

Grisoft

, while other staff and facilities will also be absorbed into the

Grisoft

operation.

The move follows a string of acquisitions in the security marketplace recently, with many security firms expanding to cover a broader spectrum of threats. Anti-spyware specialist

Webroot


merged

with email and web filtering firm

Email Systems

, while


Symantec


and


Trend Micro


have bought into data leak prevention and

McAfee

has invested in

encryption

and

website trust rating

firms, all in the last few months.

Full details of the

Grisoft

acquisition can be found on its website

here

, with some more from

Exploit Prevention Labs


here

.

Posted on 05 December 2007 by

Virus Bulletin