Piriform Software
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | 15 September 2005 |
| Founders | Guy Saner and Lindsey Whelan |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | CCleaner Recuva Defraggler Speccy CCleaner Cloud[1] |
| Parent | Avast |
Piriform Ltd is a British software company based in London, UK, owned since 2017 by Avast. It has long developed cleaning and optimisation software for Microsoft Windows, and later macOS and Android operating systems. It is named for a British description for failure, "gone pear-shaped."
Piriform tools include CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva and Speccy.[2][3] On 22 September 2015, Piriform launched CCleaner Cloud,[4] to maintain computers remotely.
CCleaner was launched in 2004 by founders Guy Saner and Lindsey Whelan. In July 2017 the company was acquired by Avast.[5][6]
In September 2017, researchers discovered that CCleaner was compromised by hackers who inserted a backdoor into the software, enabling remote access of infected machines.[7][5][8] The compromise was quickly neutralized by shutting down the server that the non-sensitive data was being transmitted to. CCleaner was then re-built in a new infrastructure and released with a new digital certificate, so CCleaner is safe to use.
CCleaner
CCleaner has the option to clean computer browser software including Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox as well as a computer system's temporary files. It has a separate tab to clean the registry. (A potential backup of regedit is available.) CCleaner's other tools include editing and uninstalling programs, editing the operating system's startup apps and the editing of browser plugins. It can analyse hard disks individually to determine which files are taking the most space. It can search for duplicate files to help reduce drive storage space. It allows one to quickly access system restore points, and it can wipe clean the free space on individual drives to completely remove deleted files.
References
- ^ "Piriform Blog - CCleaner Cloud has Launched!". Piriform. 22 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ^ "Piriform Product page". Piriform. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
- ^ "Piriform company Info page". Piriform. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
- ^ "A first look at CCleaner Cloud - gHacks Tech News". gHacks.net. 25 September 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ a b "Hackers compromised free CCleaner software, Avast's Piriform says". 18 September 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017 – via Reuters.
- ^ Sawers, Paul (19 July 2017). "Avast acquires Piriform, maker of popular system cleaning program CCleaner". VentureBeat. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
- ^ "CCleanup: A Vast Number of Machines at Risk". blog.TalosIntelligence.com. September 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ "Avast urges devs to secure toolchains after hacked build box led to CCleaner disaster," JohnLeyden, The Register, 6 Oct 2017