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Twitter acquires anti-malware company Dasient

Twitter brought the malware-fighting startup Dasient into its team today.

"Effective immediately, we will be bringing our technology, tools, and team to the revenue engineering team at Twitter," Dasient wrote on its blog.

This company, which specializes in malware protection and Web security, launched its Web anti-malware platform in 2009. In 2010, it debuted the first anti-malvertising service to protect sites from "malicious ads."

"By joining Twitter, Dasient will be able to apply its technology and team to the world's largest real-time information network," Dasient wrote on its blog. "As part of … Read more

Firms tackle virus-laden Web sites, ads

Taiwan-based Armorize knows something about keeping malware off Web sites.

Four years ago, Wayne Huang left his job researching ways to help secure the Taiwanese government's networks from attacks. He and his brother, Matt Huang, a Stanford MBA graduate, decided to commercialize the research and launched Armorize, which became an anti-malware leader in Asia.

Now the company is taking its malware expertise to the United States. This week, Armorize announced it is moving its headquarters to San Francisco while keeping most of its research and development in Taipei. Armorize also is announcing a new version of its cloud-based service … Read more

Microsoft sues over malicious online ads

Aiming to crack down on a growing problem, Microsoft said it filed five lawsuits Thursday against parties it suspects of posting online advertisements laden with malicious code.

Microsoft has tried to work with ad networks to thwart such "malvertising" in the past, but this is the first time it has gone to court.

"Our filings in King County Superior Court in Seattle outline how we believe the defendants operated, but in general, malvertising works by camouflaging malicious code as harmless online advertisements," Microsoft Associate General Counsel Tim Cranton said in a blog posting.

In each case, … Read more