Website www.lavasoft.com | Parent organization LULU SOFTWARE, Inc. | |
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Products Ad-AwareLavasoft Digital LockLavasoft File ShredderAd-Aware Web CompanionLavasoft Privacy Toolbox Profiles |
Lavasoft registry tuner 2011 full crack t i u h a h th ng
Lavasoft is a software development company that produces spyware and malware detection software, including Ad‐Aware. Lavasoft software is often bundled into third-party installers, thus reaching unwilling users in the same way used by the malware they claim to fight.
Contents
- Lavasoft registry tuner 2011 full crack t i u h a h th ng
- Lavasoft and the antispyware industry
- 19992002
- 2002Present
- Malware products Ad Aware
- PC tune up products
- Data security products
- Lavasoft Privacy ToolBox
- Controversies
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2013
- 2012
- References
The company offers a free, downloadable version of Ad‐Aware titled Ad‐Aware Free Antivirus+ and three commercial versions called Ad‐Aware Personal Security, Ad-Aware Pro Security and Ad-Aware Total Security. Other Lavasoft products include Ad-Aware Web Companion, Lavasoft Digital Lock, Lavasoft File Shredder, Lavasoft Privacy Toolbox and Lavasoft Registry Tuner.
Lavasoft’s headquarters are in Montreal, Canada, having previously been located in Gothenburg, Sweden since 2002. Nicolas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund established the company in Germany in 1999 with its flagship Ad-Aware product. In 2011, Lavasoft was acquired by the Solaria Fund.
Lavasoft and the antispyware industry
1999–2002
In the late 1990s computer users were beginning to encounter new variations of spyware and malware not covered by existing antivirus products. Users were faced with pop-ups, decreased computer performance and frequent interruptions. In response to the shifting online landscape, Nicholas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund established Lavasoft AB and launched the company’s flagship product, Ad-Aware.
The company launched the first anti-spyware product commercially and was the first to provide a no-strings-attached free security product for home use. Lavasoft was a founding member of the Anti-Spyware Coalition, a trade organization focused on best practices in the anti-spyware and anti-malware industry.
In 2002, they moved the company headquarters to Gothenburg, Sweden.
2002–Present
In 2011, Lavasoft was acquired by the Solaria Fund and moved its headquarters to Montreal, Canada. The company has continued to expand on its free antivirus solutions and added malicious URL filtering products, ad blockers, and a secure web browser to its product line.
In October 2013, Lavasoft released Ad-Aware 11. The new version of its flagship product incorporated BitDefender’s award winning antivirus engine and combined it with Lavasoft’s existing anti-malware technology. The partnership signaled a new direction for the company, finding and licensing the best technology solutions for use within its existing suite of products.
In 2015, Lavasoft partnered with Avira and licensed their cloud-based malicious URL (MURL) database and program classification service (AUC). The cloud-based malicious URL list was used as part of the company’s Web Companion malicious URL filter. Avira builds its own MURL lists by analyzing samples collected through automated sandboxes and the malicious sites encountered by the 100-million-users of Avira Antivirus. Avira further applies advanced heuristics in real time to assess new threats submitted to the Avira cloud.
At present time, Lavasoft’s flagship commercial application, Ad-Aware, has been downloaded over 390,000,000 times on Download.com
Malware products: Ad-Aware
PC tune-up products
Data security products
Lavasoft Privacy ToolBox
- contains File Shredder, Digital Lock, and Encryption Reader
Controversies
The company was acquired in January 2011 by the Solaria Fund, a private equity fund. It was soon discovered that the fund was actually a front for the entrepreneurs (Daniel Assouline and Michael Dadoun) behind UpClick and Interactive Brands. SC Magazine discovered that Lavasoft had been acquired by the same entrepreneurs who have been accused of selling software that is available for free (such as the free version of AVG antivirus) to unwitting users under the guise of premium support. Assouline and Dadoun used to sell the free version of Lavasoft's security program prior to acquiring the company itself. This has been well-documented by security consultants such as Dancho Danchev.
Lavasoft is now used to hide hard-to-uninstall programs into third-party software to trick the users in installing them, like in the K-Lite Codec Pack, and the Lavasoft Web Companion changes your browser home page without asking first. Although the company shields itself behind the complete legality of bundled software and claims that their software is only used to fight malware, several users are starting to brand their products as malware.