BrowserStack

BrowserStack is a cloud-based cross-browser testing tool that enables developers to test their websites across various browsers on different operating systems and mobile devices, without requiring users to install virtual machines, devices or emulators.

The subscription-based service was founded by Indian Institute of Technology graduates Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal in 2011 in Mumbai, India and since then it has gained widespread acceptance in the web development community worldwide to test the layout and performance of a website from their desktop browsers. As in August 2015, BrowserStack has 30,000 paid users and 520,000 registered developers in more than 135 countries.

In November 2014, a grey hat hacker gained access to about 5,000 email addresses belonging to BrowserStack developers - approximately 1% of their 500,000 customers - apparently through an exploit of the ShellShock vulnerability. The hacker then emailed those users a message supposedly from the BrowserStack team, announcing that the company "will be shutting down", and apologizing for not meeting users' expectations for various security measures. A later statement, this time genuinely from the BrowserStack team, explained "BrowserStack application servers run using Amazon Web Services. The configuration is vast, consisting of thousands of servers. One of these was an old prototype machine, which was the target of the breach". The statement went on to counter many of the claims made by the hacker's message, and further noted that the hacker was blocked before obtaining a complete list of addresses, or any data stored on the patched machines used for normal operation.

In October 2015, BrowserStack was recognised as Bootstrap Champ by Economic Times Startup Awards.