Malwarebytes announced its acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs, Inc today. The company has multiple products such as a browser and a utility to protect against drive-by downloads through exploits. With an agent running on the computer, it adds another layer of protection to the end user browsing the web. With the acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs, a new version of ExploitShield was released. It is rebranded Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit and includes new features. It is available at www.zerovulnerabilitylabs.com.
I installed the application and allowed it to run. It shields specific applications while residing in the system tray. If you open the application, you can see the number of applications protected and logs of any exploits it has blocked. I didn’t browse to any known bad sites so I can’t say how well it works but it is also important to remember the software is in beta and may have some bugs of its own. It will be interesting to see how this technology and the engineering talent benefit Malwarebytes down the road.
You can read the press release regarding Malwarebytes’ acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs following:
Malwarebytes Completes Acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs
Malwarebytes Acquires Exploit-Focused Software Company, Expands Technology Base in Vulnerability Protection
SAN JOSE, Calif. – June 20th, 2013 – Malwarebytes, a leading provider of anti-malware software, today announced the acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs, Inc. , a vulnerability, exploit and security research and development firm. ZeroVulnerabilityLabs technology proactively shields software applications from zero-day exploits, malware infections from exploit kits, and other web-based vulnerability exploits.
The acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs complements and expands Malwarebytes’ industry-leading anti-malware suite, which includes Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro. Like Malwarebytes, ZeroVulnerabilityLabs has worked tirelessly to develop software that fights and protects users against malicious attacks.
“I am very pleased to announce the acquisition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs and to welcome its employees to the Malwarebytes team,” said Malwarebytes CEO, Marcin Kleczynski. “We are always looking to improve upon our existing offerings, and have done so with the addition of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs’ technology. The proactive nature of this technology makes it a great addition and compliment to the existing Malwarebytes software suite.”
ZeroVulnerabilityLabs has developed multiple products, including a browser and corporate edition of its flagship product, ExploitShield. Both the corporate and browser editions include all the protections needed to prevent drive-by download attacks originating from commercial exploit kits. The corporate edition adds additional protection against file format-targeted attacks, media format-targeted attacks and advanced stealth-targeted attacks.
“We are excited to be joining the Malwarebytes team and to work to advance the latest anti-exploit R & D efforts, which we started at ZeroVulnerabilityLabs,” said Pedro Bustamante, Co-Founder and CEO of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs. “It is a great fit between two companies who are fighting malware in innovative and effective ways in order to protect both users and companies from the most dangerous and complex types of attacks.” A new and improved version of ExploitShield with new features and rebranded as Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit is available for a limited time through the ZeroVulnerabilityLabs website.