Barely a week after announcing its merger with news aggregator Summify, Twitter has acquired the security startup Dasient. Dasient, which was founded in 2008, bills itself as an “anti-malware vendor for large enterprises in the financial services, media, and online sectors.” According to an article on ClickZ, the implication is that Dasient’s technology will be used to identify malicious ads submitted through Twitter’s new self-serve advertising platform before they can go live.
In 2010, Dasient made a name for itself by releasing a service that scanned for malicious ads, such as those that force downloads on unwary users. The folks who buy these ads often misrepresent themselves as agency media buyers for major brands. When the ads go live, the unscrupulous advertisers can hit millions of victims at once on websites that are supposed to be trustworthy.
“Over the last year, we have been very active in securing the ads and content of some of the industryh’s largest ad networks and web sites,” the folks at Dasient posted on their blog. “By joining Twitter, Dasient will be able to apply its technology and team to the world’s largest real-time information network.”
Terms of the deal between Twitter and Dasient weren’t disclosed in the post. However, Dasient did confirm that they had stopped accepting customers and would be winding down their business.