SurfControl rides the spyware wave

SurfControl last week signed a $6.8m deal for the intellectual property of threat management firm Apreo which hands the UK firm a market-ready spyware protection product. Today the company's EMEA president told silicon.com he believes SurfControl has stolen a march on its competitors.

The deal makes SurfControl the latest security vendor to add spyware protection to its enterprise offering – adding further support to claims the covert malware on users' machines is by far the greatest security concern at present.

Patrick Jolly, president EMEA of SurfControl, told silicon.com it was that immediacy which was crucial to the timing of the deal.

"It was about time to market," said Jolly of what swayed the "build, partner or buy" decision.

Jolly claims the Apreo deal doesn't just provide spyware protection – "it protects against keyloggers, Trojans and peer to peer, for example" – but admits spyware is certainly the current hot topic and a major reason why the company acted now.

"We looked around the market and we saw very few enterprise-level solutions," said Jolly.

"There are a lot of really good applications out there aimed at consumers or individual users, such as AdAware. But these applications mean huge amounts of work in order for the IT department."

"In order to be sure of administering them effectively the IT manager would have to go around every single desktop and run it locally."

The SurfControl deal follows the acquisitions last year of anti-spyware firms Pest Patrol, by Computer Associates and Giant, by Microsoft.

Last November McAfee also launched its own enterprise-level spyware solution and vied with CA for the right to claim the first enterprise-level solution.

Jolly believes the deal positions SurfControl ahead of other content filtering companies and told silicon.com those companies who don't currently offer an anti-spyware solution "soon will have one".

But following the recent spate of acquisitions Jolly believes rivals will have to look at "build" rather than "buy" – a move which may set them back many more months.

Frost & Sullivan today added some strength to SurfControl's claims about the depth of its offering. The analyst house awarded the company its top award for content filtering.

Jose Lopez, senior security analyst for Frost & Sullivan, said spyware is now a serious consideration for enterprises and SurfControl's addition of spyware protection stands the company on an even stronger footing.

“Customers who require an additional level of protection from the damaging effects of internet threats such as spyware, phishing and spam want more than point web and email solutions from disparate sources," said Lopez.