Print - Microsoft Purchases GIANT Company Software for Antispyware Solution

This morning, Microsoft pleasantly surprised me by purchasing GIANT Company Software, which makes what I believe is the best antispyware solution on the market. The acquisition includes all of GIANT's products, technology, and staff. Microsoft will soon launch a beta of an upcoming version of Giant AntiSpyware, which will likely be branded a Microsoft product, and will present the solution as the ultimate security companion to Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).

"Spyware is a serious and growing problem for PC users, and customers have made it clear that they want Microsoft to deliver effective solutions to protect against the threat," Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit, said. "Through this acquisition we're excited to be able to provide near-term relief to Windows customers by offering new technology to help keep spyware and other deceptive software off their PCs."

I spoke with GIANT Cofounder Andrew Newman just the other day, before the Microsoft acquisition was finalized, and he told me that his company's spyware solution is unique for several reasons, including its community-driven approach to identifying malware. The company has created an online resource called Spynet that helps catalog and identify the types of executables people install on their PCs. "The Spynet technology helps users decide what is and is not spyware," Newman told me. "The biggest goal is to develop a system that is knowledgeable and intelligent about what applications are spyware. We have the users contribute to it as well. What's amazing is that the Spynet community is helping us determine the actual logic that goes into the system."

Although Microsoft has committed to shipping a public beta of the next version of Giant AntiSpyware sometime in the next 30 days, the company hasn't yet determined final product plans, pricing, and a delivery timeline. However, Newman told me that GIANT was working on an enterprise version of its product, which was to have hit the beta stage by the end of 2004. That means Microsoft could very well have sewn up spyware solutions for both its XP and Windows 2000 clients and its Windows Server 2003 and Win2K Server products.

As a matter of full disclosure, I investigated numerous antispyware solutions this year after a nasty series of Trojan horses hit my laptop, and I found Giant AntiSpyware to be the best solution by far, well ahead of more well-known applications such as Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I strongly recommend that all XP and Win2K users take a look at Microsoft's public beta of the next version of Giant AntiSpyware when it's released early next month. If we're lucky, Microsoft will simply roll the technology into future versions of Windows.

I thought GIANT was no good? I guess i read wrong. I still prefer right now Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Ad-Aware, SpyWare Guard, CWSShredder, HiJack This!, Spywareguide.com registry killbit file, and counter spy by sunbelt software. It is unfortunate that i need to use all of these to detect and eliminate spyware :(

I ama computer support professional dealing with spyware issues almost evry day. I used to use both Adaware and Spybot together as they both found different objects. I found GIANT about 4 months ago and do not need anything else. It cleaned spyware that others did not. While not perfect (what is) it is the best single antispyware solution out there. Smart move by MS, but what was once a free download will probably become a need-to-buy productor otherwise mangled. That part sucks...

Sunbelt CounterSpy has the same engine as Microsoft (former Giant Company), but CounterSpy has more definitions than the Microsoft's version.

Sunbelt just announced their enterprise version of CounterSpy today. Sunbelt's signature database will benefit from the Microsoft/Giant acquisition.

I can only hope that Microsoft will put spynet.com back online soon. It has the BEST documentation of spyware in the world. The new threats section was also awesome. Please bring it back...

Is this a strategic move by Microsoft? By including an anti-ad and anti-spy feature in Windows they can wipe out the competition from the desktop ad market, which may be extremely lucrative.

I love spyware. Microsoft makes it so easy. They still can't figure out how to stop this. If they did, we would not have it. All of the tools needed for malware and viruses show how fragile Windows is. I'm afraid!

Smart move by MS, after all it's their customers who need this software the most.

#2 i am the #1 post. Thanks for the info. I would really like to get it down to 2-3 spyware programs at most, but really 2 would be enough! I dont like having to waste resources by having different apps running at boot time to stop this malware. For me at least for Antivirus, Panda has been the way to go. All my customers are happy and so am i. Until something forces me to change from them i will stick by.

To the user who claimed counterspy has the same engine as GIANT - can you prove that? Sun-belt has it's own spyware research lab and site like spynet - what's up here? I just tried the downloadable eval of counterspy and it immediately found two spyware that others didn't - and BOTH were false positives! One broke ACDSee and the other I know the DLL was safe. Not a good sign. Also, the counterspy interface has many typo's and errors (the "bad" icon used for "good" BHOs). Their list of activex objects they block is approx 20. The one for spybot is about 2000.

If MS bought Giant and all it's IP. And Counterspy uses the GIANT engine - I'd suspect MS could easily prevent sun-belt from using it anymore. Eh?

I don't get it. MS buys the company and removes the product from the shelves?? You can't even download a trial version!? Weird.

Counterspy uses 13-30 megs of memory while resident. **13-30** - come on! If you've ever checked to see how much slower your computer is running with Antivirus loaded, imagine just that much more with antispyware. ARGH!

Norton antivirus 2005 uses approx 35 MB of memory for autoprotect! Imagine: EVERY single disc access that occurs on your PC has to pass through the AV engine and get checked against an ever growing database of signatures and pattern checking. Even opening .ICO and .BMP files triggers a pass through AV. Wanna be amazed, uninstall your AV for a day and do your usual tasks. You'll think you just upgraded your PC.

Maybe Microsoft should just design it's software better. This is like saying, our software is really bad, and we know it, but don't worry, we are also going to sell you a tool to make it a bit better.

I just tried this new spyware blocker called Zero Spyware and it worked better than the rest, so far it found the most number of spyware in my pc.

Just like Ms - sell you a rubber with the end missing then make you pay for the solution to your problem

I get sick and tired of so called Tech experts that like to bash Microsoft without taking a few minutes to THINK before they bash. The conversation here is about SPYWARE not security vulnerabilities. If you are not technically savvy enough to understand the difference perhaps you should strive to learn the difference. If MS were to tighten up enough to stop spyware, guess what, no legitimate software would be able to function either. Software MUST have access to the operating system. Spyware authors know that and those are the access points they use to develop spyware. To blame Microsoft for all of the spyware problems is unfair to say the least. Of course, the standard Microsoft basher does not care about fairness as long as the can appear cool by being so technically smart.

windows XP must have inbuilt antivirus(total internet security) and antispyware which can be live updated along with critical updates. Also IE should have Download managers(like download accelerator). This will make MS self sufficient.

I'm a Microsoft basher. It's fun. haha you think you're the moderator? "Software must have access to the operating system." haha dumbass.

i had the last version of GIANT anti-spyware and found it to offer alot to users...and it did alot more than any of the other programs so far, alot of add-ons and features and i would highly reccomend it and when i saw this article i was amazed....this program is rlly what the pc user needs to rid spyware....from the surface of the earth..lol jk

Guess what, anybody who has used MS products for more than a few years, has learned that they sell shoddy software and expect the end user to let them know what the bugs are. Do you want that kind of development running software that can arbitrarily decide software installed on your computer is bad and remove it? They have chosen as a corporation, bigger is better, features over stability, and marketing over customer need. SPYWARE is only able to operate because Microsoft chose to allow software to be installed through their browser with no interaction from the user except a single or doubleclick. This doesn't happen in Linux... guess what? legitimate software continues to run on Linux... take a few minutes to THINK on that.

I tested all the good anti spyware. Giant was the best. Microsoft takeover was great I thought, but their beta is faulty and no innoculations. Why is counterspy almost the same? I ordered from Giant, their triple set at the beginning of Dec. Microsoft says they do not have a departmnt to deal with missing orders. I may have to buy counterspy during my wait?

To the person whom made the comment about Microsoft having shoddy products. You waited a few years before you decided then? I think they are great, and we all know that nothing is perfect, but fortunately we do not have a gun at our heads, and can make choices between the various competition. Microsoft is a well known and well trusted brand. As for the bugs, you get that with ALL software, and it is not always to do with faulty software. Even different computers and the different specs, and the millions of other applications, can all make a difference. Fortunately, Microsoft deals with the most important security fixes. What I do think, and this does affect all software makers, is that since we are bound by unreasonable contracts that do not allow for multiple installations within a persons own family (the average family has two computers now, like they might have two cars, and actually share their music or dvd), and what with these bugs being problems of a sort, and the expenses for the internet, and then there is the yearly anti virus/firewall and anti spyware that may include seperate other needed utils to clean up private data, perhaps the licenses should not be too easily available on those one-sided terms, especially the fact that they do not wish to take enough responsibility for the use of the software. In other words, the disclaimers are unreasonable.

To the MS bashers here...why are you wasting your time here? Its like going in a walmart everyday to tell its customers they suck. Go to kmart sparky. I have no use for Macs, but you don't see me on a mac magazine web site wasting my time telling them that.

I've used all the above anti-spyware and have found that the best isn't even mentioned...Spysweeper from Webroot software. They have a standalone and enterprise version which both work excellent.

MeshFire also offers a very large scale distributed "security grid" to tackle viruses, worms, spyware, malware, trojan horses, hacker intrusion detection prevention, etc. From their Web site, it can protect millions of devices like servers and desktops. I think MeshFire like companies' barrier is in large scale, high-performance, accuracy, and short time in response, etc.