Webroot Updates, Renames Antispyware For Business

Webroot Software is stepping up its corporate play with a revised and rebranded version of its anti-spyware software. What was previously known as Spy Sweeper SME will now be known as Webroot AntiSpyware Corporate Edition.

Webroot AntiSpyware CE will be the first release from Webroot to utilize a behavioral technology from Sophos, called Behavioral Genotype Protection. It analyzes behavior before code executes for suspicious activity, such as file modification or keystroke logging.

Webroot added Sophos' anti-virus detection to compliment its antispyware detection last year. While the technology was developed for stopping viruses, something Sophos excels at, Webroot wanted it for spyware as well because that's where the real problems are these days.

"The virus world has been kind of static lately, but the spyware side has dramatically increased," Peter Watkins, CEO at Webroot told Internetnews.com. "It took us five years to get to 50,000 viruses. In five years, we've seen over 200,000 pieces of spyware."

And the problem is getting worse. A December 2006 Gartner report estimated that by the end of 2007, 75 percent of enterprises will be infected with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that evaded their traditional perimeter and host defenses.

Webroot has offered the Sophos antivirus detection as an option for some time and will sell AntiSpyware CE with or without the antivirus detection from Sophos. It encourages the anti-virus support for the sake of consolidation.

"Having separate products for each function [virus and spyware detection] isn't sustainable in the long term," said Watkins. "That said, we have a lot of customers who do just that because they follow a best of breed strategy."

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