Start-up GreenBorder Technologies yesterday made its debut with desktop software aimed at preventing spyware and virus contamination from the Internet for users of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser and Outlook e-mail.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's first product is GreenBorder Professional Edition, desktop security for Internet Explorer and Outlook which ships with a centralized management console and forensics tools to distribute and configure the software. By the end of the month, the company also plans to make available a more limited free download for consumers, called Personal Edition, which is solely for Internet Explorer and has no management components.
GreenBorder -- so called because its products wrap a green border around the user's screen whenever the user is on the Internet rather than an internal network -- says its software wards off Internet-originating malware and unwanted file downloads through a barrier process.
GreenBorder isolates Internet content from the user," says Jim Fulton, the company's vice president of marketing. "It creates a protected environment in Windows terms, a kind of vault."
The GreenBorder software acts much like host-based intrusion-prevention software on the market today except its "shields up" focus is on the Internet, assumed to be far more dangerous to users than the intranet.
When the GreenBorder lights the user's screen up green, the software is providing a barrier around operating systems calls or any attempts to access the registry. The outcome is that attempts by spyware, viruses or other attacks from the Internet to change files are stopped.
The PC-based software, which runs on Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional, doesn't provide the same lock-down barrier when used on the corporate intranet. And in this way, GreenBorder's approach differs from the spyware and antivirus software on the market today. However, GreenBorder doesn't require constant updating as most spyware and antivirus software does.
When the user logs off, the Green Border software automatically flushes any code, files or cookies picked up while browsing the Internet.
Fulton says GreenBorder doesn't view its software as a substitute for antivirus or intrusion-prevention systems.
That is the viewpoint at one beta customer, The Epstein School, a private elementary and middle school in Atlanta.
"We have antivirus, too, but we're using GreenBorder on 250 computers as an additional security," says Anthony Shields, the school's systems administrator.
"GreenBorder doesn't hinder Internet access," Shields says. "If you want to download a program file, for instance, it recognizes you're choosing to save it. But it will block things you don't intentionally want to download."
Shields says tests he's done with GreenBorder show it prevents spyware infestation and can block worms. Students and staff using the barrier-oriented software daily over the past few months have largely found their Internet use unimpeded, though an occasional glitch comes up. It's usually resolved by changing the software's configuration.
"This creates a kind of 'virtual environment' on the Internet for us and helps us against spyware," Shields says.
GreenBorder Professional Edition starts at $59.95 per seat, plus $4,995 for the centralized configuration and reporting software.
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