Superfish

Superfish
Company typePrivate
IndustryInternet
Founded2006 (2006)
DefunctMay 2015
FateClosed
SuccessorJustVisual.com
Headquarters
Palo Alto, California
,
United States
Key people
  • Adi Pinhas (co-founder & CEO)
  • Michael Chertok (co-founder & CTO)
ServicesVisual search[1]
Revenuec. $40 million
Number of employees
90

Superfish was an advertising company that developed various advertising-supported software products based on a visual search engine. The company was based in Palo Alto, California.[1] It was founded in Israel in 2006[2] and has been regarded as part of the country's "Download Valley" cluster of adware companies.[3] Superfish's software is malware and adware.[4][5][6][7][8] The software was bundled with various applications as early as 2010, and Lenovo began to bundle the software with some of its computers in September 2014.[4] On February 20, 2015, the United States Department of Homeland Security advised uninstalling it and its associated root certificate, because they make computers vulnerable to serious cyberattacks, including interception of passwords and sensitive data being transmitted through browsers.[4][9]

  1. ^ a b Hoge, Patrick (October 21, 2014). "Superfish dives deep into visual search". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  2. ^ "Microsoft, Lenovo scramble to protect users from Superfish security flaw". CBSnews.com. CBS/AP. February 22, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  3. ^ Hirschauge, Orr (December 25, 2013). "Another blow to Israel's 'Download Valley' as Google bans toolbars". Haaretz.com. Retrieved September 11, 2015. Among the companies in Download Valley most likely to be hurt by the change are the startups Revizer, Superfish, CrossReader and the Client Connect division of the company Conduit …
  4. ^ a b c "Alert: Lenovo "Superfish" Adware Vulnerable to HTTPS Spoofing". United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lenovo's Superfish 'Malware' was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "U.S. government urges Lenovo customers to remove Superfish software". Reuters. February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.