Immunet Corporation

Immunet Corporation, established in 2008, developed cloud-based antivirus and desktop security technologies for PC users. The company was founded in Palo Alto, California, by a team of antivirus industry veterans including Oliver Friedrichs, Alfred Huger, and Adam O'Donnell. Friedrichs, who served as CEO, had a notable background in cybersecurity, having previously co-founded SecurityFocus (acquired by Symantec) and Secure Networks (acquired by McAfee). The founding team aimed to address the evolving internet threat landscape by leveraging advances in cloud computing and collective intelligence.

The company's core business revolved around a community-driven approach to threat detection called "Collective Immunity". This model operated on the principle that once a threat was detected and neutralized on a single user's computer, that protection was almost instantly extended to all other users in the network. Immunet's business model was based on a freemium structure, offering a main product, Immunet Free, at no charge to personal users, with the goal of building a large user base to strengthen its collective detection capabilities. This free version was designed to be lightweight and compatible with existing security products, acting as an additional layer of protection. While a commercial version named Immunet Plus was available, it was later discontinued. The company generated revenue through this premium version and was venture-backed, securing a $2 million Series A funding round in 2009.

In January 2011, Immunet was acquired by Sourcefire, a network security firm known for creating the Snort intrusion detection system, for approximately $21 million. This acquisition was intended to accelerate Sourcefire's cloud initiatives and integrate Immunet's endpoint protection into its broader security portfolio. All Immunet employees, including the founders, were retained and joined Sourcefire. Subsequently, in 2013, Cisco Systems acquired Sourcefire for $2.7 billion, bringing Immunet under the Cisco umbrella. Under Cisco's ownership, the free version of Immunet continued to be supported and integrated the ClamAV engine for offline detection capabilities. However, Immunet's services were officially discontinued on January 1, 2024, as the product no longer aligned with Cisco's strategic focus on its Talos threat intelligence platform.

Keywords: Immunet Corporation, Oliver Friedrichs, Alfred Huger, cloud antivirus, collective immunity, community-based security, freemium antivirus, antimalware, endpoint protection, Sourcefire acquisition, Cisco, ClamAV, PC security, network security, desktop security, threat detection, cloud-based detection, behavioral blocking, cybersecurity, Palo Alto startup