Norman Safeground AS is a developer of

data security Data security or data protection means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach. Technologies Disk encryption ...

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

, such as

anti-virus Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

anti-spam Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam (unsolicited bulk email). No technique is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade-offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate email ( false positives) as opposed ...

, anti-spyware and

backup In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "wikt:back ...

with local support. The company headquarters is in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway. Norman Safeground has a global partner-network, and the main market is

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Norman competes in the

antivirus Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

industry against

Avira Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG is a German multinational computer security software company mainly known for its Avira Free Security antivirus software. Although founded in 2006, the Avira antivirus application has been under active developme ...

, BullGuard, F-Secure, Frisk, Kaspersky,

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American proprietary software company focused on online ...

, Panda Security,

Sophos Sophos Limited is a British security software and hardware company. It develops and markets managed security services and cybersecurity software and hardware, such as managed detection and response, incident response and endpoint security s ...

, Symantec and

Trend Micro is an American-Japanese cyber security software company. The company has globally dispersed R&D in 16 locations across every continent excluding Antarctica. The company develops enterprise security software for servers, containers, and cloud ...

among others.

History

Norman was founded on 1 October 1984 in Oslo. The company was a pioneer in proactive security software and forensics

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

tools, utilizing a patented

sandbox A sandbox is a sandpit, a wide, shallow playground construction to hold sand, often made of wood or plastic. Sandbox or sand box may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Sandbox (band), a Canadian rock music group * Sandbox (Gu ...

technology. In 1995, Norman acquired 50 percent of IBAS AS, a Norwegian

data recovery In computing, data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, inaccessible, lost, corrupted, damaged, overwritten or formatted data from computer data storage#Secondary storage, secondary storage, removable media or Computer file, files, when ...

company. The company was listed on

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange () (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway's only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, derivatives and fixed ...

on 11 August 1997. Norman ASA bought the remaining 50 percent stake in IBAS in 1999. In 1998, Norman acquired ThunderByte Antivirus. In 2004, Norman and IBAS AS were de-merged and IBAS was listed as a separate entity on the

. Norman was de-listed from

in October 2009 as it was acquired by the private equity fund FSN Capital Partners. In late 2012, Norman ASA was split into two companies, Norman Safeground AS focusing on consumers and SMEs and Norman Shark AS focusing on the enterprise market with their intrusion prevention services. In November 2014, Norman Safeground was acquired by

AVG Technologies AVG Technologies B.V. is a brand of cybersecurity, privacy, performance and utility software applications for desktop computers and mobile devices developed by Avast, a part of Gen Digital. AVG was a cybersecurity software company founded in 199 ...

, which two years later was acquired by Avast.

References

* * {{ cite web , url=http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/05/web-security-firm-beefs-san-diego-operation/ , title=Web security firm beefs up San Diego operation , accessdate=14 May 2013 , publisher=U-T San Diego Companies based in Oslo Computer security software companies Software companies of Norway Software companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in Norway Norwegian brands