G Data CyberDefense AG (until September 2019 ''G Data Software AG'') is a German software company that focuses on

computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

. They are known for being the creators of the world's first

antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the nam ...

. G Data uses multiple scanning engines; one is developed in-house and the other is the

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, ...

engine. G Data provides several security products that are targeted at home and business markets. The company has a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

located in

Newark, Delaware Newark ( )Not as in Newark, New Jersey. is a small city in New Castle County, Delaware, New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is located west-southwest of Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmington. According to the 2010 United States Census, ...

History

G Data was founded in Bochum, Germany in 1985. The company introduced its first computer security product Anti-Virus Kit (AVK) in 1988 for

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

. Beside focus on the security market, G Data also created software for voice recognition (Invox) and speech synthesis (Logox). G Data computer security products use two scan engines, originally by Avast and

. The 2014 release introduced their own scan engine (CloseGap), which replaced Avast. However, the upgrade to new version was not painless, as users of weaker computers experienced system slowdowns. The company promptly solved this issue by issuing another update. In September 2015, G Data launched a new messaging app called Secure Chat which used the

Signal Protocol The Signal Protocol (formerly known as the TextSecure Protocol) is a non- federated cryptographic protocol that can be used to provide end-to-end encryption for voice calls and instant messaging conversations. The protocol was developed by Open ...

. The application was based on a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

Signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

and its

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

was published under the

GPLv3 The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

license. G Data discontinued the service in May 2018.

Features

Some of the features that G Data's solutions support are: * Safe surfing * Safe shopping * Safe emailing and chatting * Protection against

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their privac ...

* Safe

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial inst ...

* Blocks

spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

* Protection against hacking *

Parental control ''Parental Control'' is a reality television show about people looking for love produced by MTV. The two directors, Brendon Carter and Bruce Klassen, have also created other MTV shows. In Asia, this show was aired on Channel V from 2007–2009. ...

s *

Data backup In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", w ...

Data recovery In computing, data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, inaccessible, lost, corrupted, damaged, or formatted data from secondary storage, removable media or files, when the data stored in them cannot be accessed in a usual way. The dat ...

* Security tuning * Data safe * Device control * Safe emailing and chatting * BankGuard

Versions

* Home Security :*AntiVirus :*InternetSecurity :*TotalSecurity :*AntiVirus for Mac * Business Security :*AntiVirus Business :*AntiVirus Enterprise :*ClientSecurity Business :*ClientSecurity Enterprise :*EndpointProtection Business :*EndpointProtection Enterprise :*MailSecurity :*PatchManagement * Mobile Security

Awards and tests

* av-comparatives.org :*Gold award for highest detection rate of products tested (99.7%) :*Gold award for highest proactive detection rate of new/unknown malware (~61%, with 20 false positives) * IPACSO Innovation Framework for ICT-Security :*Innovative Cyber Security Company

References

{{Authority control Computer security software companies Computer security companies Antivirus software Software companies of Germany Information technology companies of Germany Windows security software MacOS security software Android (operating system) software iOS software Companies established in 1985 1985 establishments in Germany Companies based in Bochum German brands Privately held companies of Germany Technology companies of Germany

History

Features

Versions

Awards and tests

See also

References