“Qwik-Fix Pro is the first product from PivX, which made a name for itself as a security research and consulting company with a knack for uncovering security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. Concerned about long delays in issuing patches for critical security holes, PivX researchers, including company founder and Chief Scientist Geoff Shively, Senior Security Researcher Thor Larholm and Chief Software Architect Oliver Lavery, created Qwik-Fix in 2003 to protect customers and Internet users from exploitation using dozens of unpatched IE vulnerabilities, Shively said.

“The product makes temporary changes to the Windows operating system, such as changing Windows configuration settings to close holes that hackers and worms crawl through. For example, one of the initial security fixes incorporated into the product changed IE’s configuration to prevent hackers from exploiting the standard implementation of Web surfing “zones,” or sets of security settings and privileges used by IE.”