Comodo Group

Comodo Group, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Computer security internet security
Founded	United Kingdom (1998 (1998))[1]
Headquarters	1255 Broad Street, Clifton, New Jersey, United States
Key people	Melih Abdulhayoğlu (President and CEO)
Products	SSL Certificates AntiVirus Firewall PCI Compliance EndPoint Security Managed DNS
Number of employees	1,100+
Website	www.comodo.com

Comodo Group, Inc. is a privately held group of companies providing computer software and SSL digital certificates, based in Clifton, New Jersey in the United States. It has offices in the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Romania, China, India, Turkey and Clifton, NJ.^[2] As of 24 February 2015, Comodo is the largest issuer of SSL certificates with a 33.6% market share on 6.6% of all web domains.^[3][4]

History

The company was founded in 1998 in the United Kingdom,^[1] by Melih Abdulhayoğlu, who remains its CEO. The company relocated to the United States in 2004. Its product line is focused on computer and internet security. The firm operates a Certificate Authority that issues SSL certificates, offers a computer security suite that includes antivirus and firewall protection and offers other web and network protection services.^[5]

Companies

• Comodo CA Limited: Based in City of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK,^[6] is a digital certificate authority that issues SSL and other digital certificates. According to W3Techs.com, Comodo is the largest digital certificate provider.^[7][8]
• Comodo Security Solutions, Inc: Based in Clifton, NJ, develops and markets security software for commercial and consumer use. This includes web site vulnerability and penetration scannng, corporate and consumer pc security systems and other networks security products. Comodo AntiVirus Labs support all versions of their security systems.^[9]
• DNS.com: Based in Louisville, Kentucky, the company provides managed DNS services.^[10]

Products

Security products and tools offered by Comodo

• Comodo SSL - Comodo was founded as a Certificate Authority selling Comodo SSL and digital certificates. Its primary source of revenue comes from related products to business and enterprises. Related E-Commerce products include PCI Compliance Scanning and Web Site Vulnerability Scanning.
• Comodo Internet Security (CIS) is a suite of security products for the desktop, provided free, with additional features available for a fee.^[11] Support requires a subscription. It includes a personal firewall, Host-based intrusion detection system and antivirus program.^[12]

• Comodo Antivirus- A free Antivirus product that supports all major OS including Mac, (from OS X 10.4),^[13] Linux (from Ubuntu 12.04)^[14] and Windows (from XP S2, including Windows 10).^[15]
• Comodo Cloud Antivirus - CCAV is a lightweight and powerful AV application that utilizes Comodo's auto-containment and realtime cloud scanning to immediately neutralize both known and unknown malware.^[16]
• Comodo Mobile Security - A free Android application that protects mobile devices against viruses, worms and scripts. In addition, it also features SMS & Call Blocking, a software & process manager, data and apps backup and data traffic Monitor.
• Comodo email certificate - S/MIME-enabling certificates, free for personal use, per-year fee for corporate use.^[17]

Web browsers offered by Comodo

• Comodo Dragon - A Chromium-based browser with enhanced privacy and security^[18]
• Comodo IceDragon - a Firefox-based browser, both with enhanced privacy and security features
• Chromodo - another Chromium-based browser released in 2015 that has been criticized for removing security features

Other Comodo Products

1. Comodo Endpoint Security Manager (CESM)- CESM is a centralized device management system that includes the ability to distribute PC security software. The software used includes a version of the same firewall, antivirus systems and sandbox containment technology that comprise Comodo Internet Security.^[19][20][21]
2. Comodo Securebox was released in July 2014 and was jointly developed with Western Union with the intention of solving the problem of an application needing to conduct sensitive activities such as financial transactions from an already compromised system. Securebox containment technology protects the application and its activities even if the computer is infected with malware^[22][23]
3. Comodo System Utilities - PC Magazine reviewed the product concluding "it is an effective system-enhancing utility that is as potent, if not more so in certain cases, as paid apps".^[24]
4. MyDLP - In May 2014, the Comodo Group had acquired MyDLP, an open source data loss prevention system. Comodo has begun marketing the Enterprise version through its Comodo Security Solutions subsidiary.
5. SurGate Labs - In 2014 Comodo acquired SurGate Labs, a Turkish Software company that specializes in secure email an messaging systems. SurGate only recently began marketing its products outside of Turkey and Eastern Europe.^[25][26][27]
6. Comodo Korugan - In 2014 Comodo introduced the Korugan line of Unified Threat Management Appliances that provide a bundle of network security solutions such as firewall, gateway antivirus and end security management.^[28][29]
7. Comodo Backup - In 2014 Comodo introduced Secured backup for Online Storage.^[30]
8. Comodo Penetration Testing - Comodo Penetration Tests will identify critical attack paths present in network infrastructure manually and provide advice to eliminate threats.^[31]
9. Comodo Mobile Device Management - Comodo MDM software could rightly be called a powerful tool in the hands of IT administrators. Using this tool they can manage and at the same time ensure the security of a large number of mobile devices, both personal as well as those that are part of a corporate network.^[32][33]

Industry affiliations

Comodo is a member of the following industry organizations:

• Certificate Authority Security Council (CASC): In February 2013, Comodo became a founding member of this industry advocacy organization dedicated to addressing industry issues and educating the public on internet security.^[34][35]
• Common Computing Security Standards Forum (CCSF): In 2009 Comodo was a founding member of the CCSF, an industry organization that promotes industry standards that protect end users. Comodo CEO Melih Abdulhayoğlu is considered the founder of the CCSF.^[36]
• CA/Browser Forum: In 2005, Comodo was a founding member of a new consortium of Certificate Authorities and web browser vendors dedicated to promoting industry standards and baseline requirements for internet security.^[37][38]

Competitors

Norton AntiVirus

On 29 September 2010, Neil J. Rubenking, the lead analyst for security of PC Magazine, published an article on Comodo Antivirus 5.0 that concluded that Comodo Antivirus 5.0 blocked a higher percentage of malware than Norton AntiVirus, but was less effective than the Norton solution when it came to malware removal.^[39][40]

Controversies

Symantec

In response to Symantec's comment over the effectiveness of free Antivirus software, on September 18, 2010, the CEO of Comodo Group challenged Symantec to see which products can defend the consumer better against malware.^[41] Symantec responded saying that if Comodo is interested they should have their product included in tests by independent reviewers.^[42]

Certificate hacking

On March 23, 2011, Comodo reported that 8 days earlier, on 15 March 2011, a user account with an affiliate registration authority had been compromised and was used to create a new user account that issued nine certificate signing requests.^[43] Nine certificates for seven domains were issued.^[43] The attack was traced to IP address 212.95.136.18, which originates in Tehran, Iran.^[43] Though the firm initially reported that the breach was the result of a "state-driven attack", it subsequently stated that the origin of the attack may be the "result of an attacker attempting to lay a false trail.".^[43][44] Such issues have been widely reported, and has led to criticism of how certificates are issued and revoked.^{[45][46][47][48]} As of 2015, all of the certificates have been revoked.^[43] Microsoft has issued a security advisory and update to address the issue.^[49][50]

On March 26, 2011, a person under the username "ComodoHacker" made several posts to Pastebin.com claiming to be an Iranian responsible for the attacks.^[51][52]

Enabling man-in-the-middle attacks

In February 2015, Comodo was involved with a man-in-the-middle enabling tool known as PrivDog, which claims to protect users against malicious advertising.^[53]

Certificates issued to known malware

In 2009 Microsoft MVP Michael Burgess accused Comodo of issuing digital certificates to known malware.^[54]

Chromodo browser

In January 2016, Tavis Ormandy reported that Comodo's Chromodo browser exhibited a number of vulnerabilities, including disabling of the same-origin policy.^[55]

Let’s Encrypt trademark registration application

In October 2015, Comodo applied for the trademarks "Let's Encrypt", "Comodo Let's Encrypt", and "Let's Encrypt with Comodo" trademarks.^[56][57][58] These trademark applications were filed almost a year after the Internet Security Research Group, parent organization of Let's Encrypt, started using the name Let's Encrypt publicly in November 2014,^[59] and despite the fact Comodo's “intent to use” trademark filings acknowledge that it has never used “Let's Encrypt” as a brand.

On June 24, 2016, Comodo publicly posted in its forum that it had filed for "express abandonment" of their trademark applications.^[60]

Dangling markup injection vulnerability

On July 29, 2016, Matthew Bryant showed that Comodo's website is vulnerable to dangling markup injection attacks and can send emails to system administrators from Comodo's servers to approve a wildcard certificate issue request which can be used to issue arbitrary wildcard certificates via Comodo’s 30-Day PositiveSSL product.^[61]

See also

• Comparison of antivirus software
• Comparison of computer viruses
• Internet Security
• Antivirus software
• Comparison of firewalls

References

Bibliography

• Comodo Backup User Manual Source

External links

• Official website