Malwarebytes vs. IObit fiasco comes to a close

Last month the interwebz was jolted by Malwarebytes’ claims of IObit stealing their intellectual property and using it in IObit Security 360. Now, it seems, the fiasco has come to a happy (sort of) ending:

Some weeks ago we presented evidence demonstrating that the Chinese company IObit had stolen Malwarebytes’ database and incorporated it into their software. In the days that followed we saw a complete denial of wrongdoing by IObit. They ascribed the matches between their database and our own to anonymous sample submissions, a dubious claim which we debunked.

Nevertheless, IObit did subsequently remove all of Malwarebytes’ definitions from their database (thereby cutting their database size by ~40% in one fell swoop). Though we did not receive an apology from them, nor any official acknowledgment of their theft, this reaction speaks for itself. Removal of our intellectual property was what we wanted, and we therefore consider that we have won. We thank the community, online media outlets and our partners for their support in helping us achieve this favorable result.

Now if only Malwarebytes will redesign their interface to look half as attractive as IObit’s, all will be well. (Whattttt? I appreciate aesthetics!)

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