Twitter Buys URL-Checking Anti-Malware Firm Dasient

Twitter has acquired web security firm Dasient, a real-time link checking system that scans URLs for malware and other online threats, in a move that will likely make clicking a link on the terse social network safer in future. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dasient's technology scans both web addresses and sites for potentially harmful content, as well as operating a service that keeps web-based advertising malware-free.

The acquisition is not Twitter's only security-related buy in recent months. Back in November 2011, the short messaging service bought Whisper Systems, an Android security and encryption app specialist. No indication of exactly what Whisper's tech – which includes modifying the core Android kernel to lock down user date – will be used for at Twitter has been given.

Use-cases for Dasient are far easier to envisage, however. Twitter continues to struggle with malware links shared by fake accounts, masked by the general use of URL shorteners to get longer web addresses to fit into the 140-character messages. "Dasient will be able to apply its technology and team to the world's largest real-time information network" the security firm says.

Dasient was founded in 2008, by a team including ex-Google staff and security researchers from well-known firms like McAfee.