Purewire, launched in November 2007, provides an in-the-cloud security service for web traffic. Its services block malware

Malware

Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...

 and secure the use of the Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. The Purewire management team includes former employees of CipherTrust

Ciphertrust

CipherTrust was an anti-spam email software company based in Alpharetta, GA , although they had offices around the world. Since August 2006 it is part of Secure Computing Corp, which was acquired by McAfee in 2008. The company was co-founded by Jay Chaudhry and Lawrence Hughes...

, which was acquired by Secure Computing

Secure Computing

Secure Computing Corporation, or SCC, was a public company that developed and sold computer security appliances and hosted services to protect users and data...

 and IBM Internet Security Systems. The company competes with similar services offered by MessageLabs

MessageLabs

Symantec.cloud, is a major provider of integrated messaging and web security services , with over 19,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500 located in more than 86 countries and the United Kingdom Parliament...

, ScanSafe

ScanSafe

ScanSafe was a privately held company backed by investors Benchmark Capital and Scale Venture Partners, it was a provider of Web security-as-a-service for organizations. Co-founded in 1999 by brothers Eldar and Roy Tuvey, its services block malware and secure the use of the Web and messaging...

, Webroot, Websense

Websense

Websense is a San Diego-based company specializing in Web security gateway software. It enables clients to block access to chosen categories of websites.-History:Websense was founded by Phil Trubey in 1994...

 and Zscaler

Zscaler

Zscaler, launched on August 4, 2008, provides an in-the-cloud security service for web traffic. The service offers SaaS protection against malware and enforce policies for outbound web traffic. The company was founded by Jay Chaudhry, a security industry veteran and K. Kailash, former chief...

.

In January 2009, Purewire acquired Opinity, an online reputation management system.

On October 13, 2009, Barracuda Networks

Barracuda Networks

Barracuda Networks, Inc. is a privately held company providing security, networking and storage solutions based on appliances and cloud services. The company’s security products include solutions for protection against email, web surfing, web hackers and instant messaging threats such as spam,...

announced the acquisition of Purewire. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.