Spider.io
{{Short description|British software company}}
Spider.io is a British software company that specializes in the detection of malware. It was founded in 2010 by Douglas de Jager, and is based in London, England.{{cite web |last1=Ebbert |first1=John |title=Google Acqui-hires Spider.io, And Founder Douglas De Jager |url=https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/google-acquires-spider-io-and-founder-douglas-de-jager/ |website=AdExchanger |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=February 21, 2014}} The company is known for its use of open-source software applications such as Hadoop and Mahout while handling large amounts of data. Spider.io is also known to have written its own proprietary software.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Ashley |title=Storm at spider.io - London Storm Meetup 2013-06-18 |url=https://www.slideshare.net/ashleywbrown/storm-at-spiderio-london-storm-meetup-20130618 |website=Slideshare |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=June 19, 2013}}
Accomplishments
In 2012, Spider.io flagged a vulnerability in the search engine Internet Explorer, and claimed that it had been exploited at a large scale.{{cite web |last1=Bradley |first1=Tony |title=Is Internet Explorer leaking sensitive information? |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/456044/is-internet-explorer-leaking-sensitive-information.html |website=PCWorld |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=December 13, 2012}}{{cite web |last1=Saarinen |first1=Juha |title=Internet Explorer vulnerability permits mouse cursor tracking |url=https://www.itnews.com.au/news/internet-explorer-vulnerability-permits-mouse-cursor-tracking-326269 |website=iTnews |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=December 14, 2012}}
In 2013 the company reported its discovery and analysis of the Chameleon botnet on its blog.{{cite web |title=Discovered: Botnet Costing Display Advertisers over Six Million Dollars per Month |url=http://www.spider.io/blog/2013/03/chameleon-botnet/index.html |website=spider.io |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=March 19, 2013}}
Spider.io has also made an effort to raise awareness of the ease with which hackers can generate fake web traffic, and shared information on techniques which can be used to combat the problem.
Acquisition by Google
In 2014 Spider.io was acquired by Google Inc. At that time, the company had seven employees.{{cite web |last1=Etherington |first1=Darrell |title=Google Acquires Spider.io To Help Spot And Stop Online Ad Fraud |url=https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/google-acquires-spider-io-to-help-spot-and-stop-online-ad-fraud/ |website=TechCrunch |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=February 21, 2014}} The acquisition was presumed to be a step taken by Google to combat false advertising on its platform, an activity with which Spider.io had some prior experience.{{cite web |last1=Taube |first1=Aaron |title=Google Bought Spider.io To Purge The Sleaze And Fraud From The Ad Business |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/why-google-bought-spiderio-2014-2 |website=Business Insider |access-date=December 13, 2022 |date=February 21, 2014}}