Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/04/07/trusteer_fights_code_theft_lawsuit/
Trusteer vows to fight 'baseless' code-theft lawsuit
Keystroke cops in legal bunfight
Posted in Security, 7th April 2011 12:24 GMT
Transaction security firm Trusteer has vowed to fight a US lawsuit filed by rival developer Blue Gem Security which alleges code theft.
Blue Gem is seeking unspecified damages, costs and an injunction over allegations that Trusteer plagiarised code to maintain compatibility between anti-keystroke logging software types of Intel chipset that were first introduced back in 2007.
Trusteer's Rapport transaction security software "includes idiosyncratic features of the Intel Compatibility Code that Trusteer would have had no reason to include if it had written the code independently," the Blue Gem lawsuit (filed in a Californian court late last month) alleges.
For example, Rapport allegedly uses the same arbitrary variable as Blue Gem's Total Privacy to replace a user's keystroke with a dummy keystroke.
Israel-based Trusteer's Rapport browser lock-down technology is offered as a voluntary download by 50 banks worldwide, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK. US customers include ING Direct USA, eBay and PayPal – firms Blue Gem also pitched its technology to without being awarded contracts.
Trusteer is by far the biggest player in the emerging market of transaction security software, technology designed to stop fraudsters from extracting personal information from machines even if they are infected with malware.
In a brief statement, Mickey Boodaei, chief exec of Trusteer, dismissed Blue Gem's accusations as without merit. "These are false, baseless accusations which Trusteer will defend vigorously in court," he said. ®