Bitdefender software was originally developed by SOFTWIN and sold as AVX from 1996 until 2001, when its name was changed. In 2007, SOFTWIN spun off Bitdefender.
Bitdefender products
Bitdefender develops and markets anti-virus, internet security, endpoint security, and other cyber security products and services.
Consumer products
Bitdefender's Internet of things device protection solution is called Bitdefender BOX. The box is a router designed to protect smart home products and Internet of Things devices by blocking malicious internet traffic. It is available on both Windows and Mac. Bitdefender offers a cloud-based security solution with anti-malware and anti-theft capabilities for Android and iOS users that is called Bitdefender Mobile Security.
Business products
For businesses, the company markets the Bitdefender GravityZone for Enterprise Security. It includes Self-configuring kits for deployment from desktop to datacenter to cloud, software that secures physical, virtual and cloud-based endpoints, and software that uses a Network of malware data to stay updated. Its software product for small businesses looking for simple security called Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security.
Bitdefender technologies
Bitdefender Antispam NeuNet
Bitdefender Antispam NeuNet, is an antispam filter trained by the Bitdefender Antispam Lab on a series of spam messages, so that it learns to recognize new spam by perceiving its similarities with the messages it has already examined.
B-HAVE
In May 2006 Bitdefender developed a new technology, B-HAVE, to reduce dependency on virus signatures through proactive detection of unknown threats. This technology is based on a behavioral analysis in a virtualized environment.
Active Virus Control
Bitdefender introduced Active Virus Control in August 2009. This technology continuously monitors each program running on the PC as it executes, and it notes any malware-like actions. Each action is scored and, when a given threshold is reached, the process is reported as harmful.
Photon Technology
In its 2014 version, the company claimed to feature a new technology called "Photon Technology", which it says visibly improves computer speed and performance by gradually adapting to each PC.
Content filtering technologies have been developed to filter raw online content and are applicable and used in antispam, anti-phishing, web filtering, scanning of spam and social networks. They facilitate the creation of signatures to proactively detect never-before-seen malicious files.
Machine learning
The company claims that Bitdefender is using cloud-based machine learning to identify new malware, malicious URLs and other online threats by processing and analysing big data to obtain behavioral patterns and predict future advanced threats.
Licensing
In 2015, Qihoo 360 acknowledged accusations by three antivirus testing companies of providing for their testing a version of its anti-virus equipped with a antivirus engine licensed from Bitdefender, while the consumer version used Qihoo's own QVM engine instead. Currently, Qihoo's 360 product includes Bitdefender, Avira and Qihoo-developed engine.
Criticism
Support
In May 2009, customers criticized Bitdefender's support service for lack of responses. Bitdefender responded by saying they were aware of the problems, and that they would take steps to solve it. They attributed the problem to an unexpectedly high surge in customers. Currently, the company's website claims that support is available 24/7 on telephone, email, online chat, and an online knowledge base.
Trojan.FakeAlert.5
On 20 March 2010, computers running Bitdefender under 64-bit versions of Windows were affected by a malfunctioning update which classified every executable program as well as dll files as infected. These files were all marked as 'Trojan.FakeAlert.5' and were moved into quarantine. This action led to software and systems malfunctions that affected users around the world. Bitdefender representatives announced the removal of the faulty update and a workaround for the users affected, except for those using the 2008 version.
Bitdefender is incompatible with Asus AiSuite2 and Asus AiSuite3, a motherboard optimization suite of software bundled with Asus motherboards which enables automatic overclocking, power tuning and fan control. Bitdefender claims that the incompatibility is due to "NDIS Asus driver, which prevents the installation of some Bitdefender files".
