Security Essentials. Controversies The company was acquired in January 2011, as Lavasoft, by the Solaria Fund, a private equity fund, front for Daniel Assouline and Michael Dadoun, key people of UpClick and Interactive Brands. SC Magazine reported that Lavasoft had been acquired by the same entrepreneurs who have been accused of selling software that is available for free to unwitting users under the guise of premium support, including the free version of Lavasoft's security program prior to acquiring the company itself. Security consultant Dancho Danchev has documented this controversy. Additionally, Danchev has reported in 2013 that Lavasoft was used to hide hard-to-uninstall programs into third-party software to trick the users in installing them, like in the K-Lite Codec Pack, and the Lavasoft Web Companion changed your browser without the user's permission. Although the company shields itself behind the complete legality of bundled software and claims that their software is only used to fight malware, there are users who have branded their products as malware. In February 2015, it was reported by CERT Coordination Center, that a new security feature in Ad-Aware Web Companion was implemented with Komodia SSL Digestor, one of Komodia's public SDKs, the company behind the Superfish security incident in Lenovo machines. References External links Computer security software companies Companies based in Montreal Software companies established in 1999 Software companies of Canada 1999 establishments in Quebec