360 Safeguard () and 360 Total Security is a program developed by Qihoo 360, an

internet security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules a ...

company based in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. 360 Safeguard's focus is on stopping

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...

such as

computer virus A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a compu ...

es and

trojan horses The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

and providing security patches for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. 360 Safeguard trojan horse scanner is

cloud-based Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multip ...

. A

heuristics A heuristic (; ), or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, ...

engine is built into the scanner. 360 Safeguard uses

Avira Avira Operations GmbH is a German multinational computer security software company mainly known for their Avira Free Security antivirus software. Avira was founded in 2006, but the antivirus application has been under active development since ...

engine in addition to own engines, while 360 Total Security has the Kunpeng engine, made by

Qihoo Qihoo 360 (; approximate pronunciation CHEE-hoo), full name 360 Security Technology Inc., is a Chinese internet security company that has developed the antivirus software programs 360 Safeguard and 360 Mobile Safe, the Web browser 360 Secure Brow ...

Dispute with Tencent

In 2010, 360 Safeguard analyzed the QQ protocol and accused QQ of automatically scanning users' computers and of uploading their personal information to QQ's servers without users' consent. In response,

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

called 360 itself

and denied users with 360 installed access to some QQ services. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information reprimanded both companies for "improper competition" and ordered them to come to an accord.

Dispute with testing bodies

On 30 April 2015, the three independent security testing bodies

AV-Comparatives AV-Comparatives is an Austrian independent organization that tests and assesses antivirus software, regularly releasing charts and reports that are freely available to the public and the media. Antivirus vendors have to meet various requirements r ...

AV-TEST AV-TEST is an independent organization which evaluates and rates antivirus and security suite software for Microsoft Windows and Android operating systems, according to a variety of criteria. The organisation is based in Magdeburg, Germany. Ever ...

and

Virus Bulletin ''Virus Bulletin'' is a magazine about the prevention, detection and removal of malware and spam. It regularly features analyses of the latest virus threats, articles exploring new developments in the fight against viruses, interviews with anti-vi ...

published a joint press release criticizing Qihoo 360 after they found that Qihoo 360 had submitted products for comparative which behaved significantly different from end user products. The products for comparative used an engine by

Bitdefender Bitdefender is a Romanian cybersecurity technology company headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, with offices in the United States, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. The company was founded in 2001 by the current CEO and main shareholder, ...

, while the end user products use Qihoo 360's own QVM engine instead. The testing bodies claimed that the end user products would provide a considerably lower level of protection and a higher likelihood of false positives. As a consequence, the three testing bodies revoked all certifications and rankings from earlier that year. Qihoo 360 denied cheating allegations claiming that the QVM engine developed by Qihoo 360 would be more effective in China.

References

External links

360 Total Security (global version) official website

{{Antivirus software Computer security software IOS software Antivirus software

Dispute with Tencent

Dispute with testing bodies

See also

References

External links