Computer Associates have acquired PestPatrol, in a bid to expand their portfolio of software to cover anti-spyware tools.
CA will be including PestPatrol’s application in their eTrust Threat Management suite, whilst renaming the tool eTrust PestPatrol.
Russell Artzt, executive vice president of eTrust security management at CA, said: “This acquisition enhances CA’s position as the world’s leading provider of security management solutions for the safety of Internet connectivity and the integrity of computing environments in the office and home alike.”
Anti-virus software houses are keen to expand their range of products to tackle the main problems that internet users face: spam, adware, viruses and hacking attempts. Companies like Symantec and McAfee have acquired and developed their products to meet consumer demand for solutions and also to create single control centres dealing with these problems, rather than relying on three or four separate applications.
Anti-spyware applications are not as mainstream as anti-virus packages, though with increasing consumer awareness could well be the next big thing for security software publishers.
eTrust
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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