History

1990–1991

• The first experiments of Igor Danilov to cure viruses take place (using AIDStest and other anti-viruses and debuggers).
• The first resident anti-virus monitor Tadpole is created.

1991

• Tadpole is rewritten and becomes more flexible and versatile.
• The anti-virus doctor (scanner) Tornado is created. Tornado could interact with hard disk file system at a low level (BIOS) and cope with the new Ghost-1963 virus and was distinguished by a high scanning speed.

1992

• Spider's Web incorporating the Spider guard (Tadpole successor) and doctor Web (the successor to Tornado). That moment became the starting point in the history of Dr.Web’s development.
• Igor Danilov took part in the "1 & 1" contest, held this year for Eastern European countries, to find interesting software products and technologies. His SpiderWeb won a grant providing its maker with a stand at CeBIT'93.

1993

• Dr.Web at CeBIT'93 (Hanover, Germany).
• Scorpion disc inspector is created. Like the Tornado, Scorpion worked with a hard disk file system at the BIOS level, which enabled it to detect stealth viruses.
• The first polymorphic virus is created. Its emergence became a watershed separating real ant-viruses capable of detecting and curing polymorphs from other programs performing some of the anti-virus functions. Dr.Web becomes the first program in the history of the anti-virus industry that could detect and cure complex polymorphic viruses. It is this anti-virus technology that first made Dr.Web famous among professionals.
• Igor Danilov participated in the All-Russian Seminar and got acquainted with Igor Lozinsky and other virologists.

1994

• The heuristic analyzer, which detects previously unknown viruses, is implemented.
• A processor emulator to uncoil and detect polymorphic viruses is implemented. Dr.Web Anti-virus becomes one of the few in the world to have coped the world-famous polymorphic virus Phantom-1.
• Doctor Web anti-virus scanner 1.00 is released.
• Commercial distribution of the Dr.Web anti-virus begins.

1995

• Dr.Web anti-virus is presented at CeBIT'95 (Hanover, Germany).
• A feature is created that enables updates to be delivered to the Dr.Web virus database without changing the code of the program.
• Dr.Web for WinWord is released.
• Dr.Web becomes one of the first anti-viruses for Novell NetWare.
• For the first time Igor Danilov presents a report at the EICAR-95 conference in Zurich. Computer virologists from all over the world attend these conferences

1996

• The January issue of Virus Bulletin magazine features the results of comparative testing for programs capable of neutralizing polymorphic viruses.
• Virus Bulletin magazine publishes its first review of the Dr.Web Anti-virus. The Dr.Web heuristic analyzer is awarded the highest mark.
• The online Dr.Web scanner service appears.

1998

• Dr.Web 4.0 is released. It incorporated innovations that fundamentally changed the anti-virus's architecture and operational routines.

1999

• The first comprehensive system to prevent virus penetration is created for Windows 95/98.
• The resident monitor SpIDer Guard for Windows 95/98 joined the Dr.Web family.
• Dr.Web becomes the first anti-virus in the world to feature a virtual machine memory scan under Windows NT.

2000

• The Dr.Web anti-virus is certified by the Russian Defence Ministry.
• Dr.Web virus database updating frequency increases dramatically. Today the databases are updated every day on an hourly basis.

2002

• The Dr.Web engine is licensed to the Chinese anti-virus developer KingSoft.

2003

• Igor Danilov establishes Doctor Web and becomes its technical director.

2004

• Dr.Web Enterprise Suite for corporate network protection is released.
• Dr.Web engine is licensed to the South Korean developer of the Virus Chaser.

2005

• The free utility, Dr.Web CureIt!, is released and immediately becomes the most popular and trusted means for emergency virus curing among users of other anti-viruses.
• The Technical Support Center in the Ukraine is opened.

2006

• Doctor Web Central Asia is established in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
• Doctor Web Deutschland GmbH office opens in Germany.

2007

• The first version of Dr.Web AV-Desk is released. From this point on, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) era in Russia’s anti-virus industry is underway. Now service providers are delivering the Dr.Web Anti-virus to home users on a monthly subscription basis. Doctor Web becomes the first company to offer an anti-virus as a service on the Russian market and, to this day, is still the undisputed leader in this segment of the anti-virus market.
• The first Dr.Web anti-virus for mobile devices is released.

Since viruses for mobile devices are scarce at this time, Doctor Web makes the unprecedented decision to provide the product free of charge. The motto: "protection from non-existing threats must be free!". Doctor Web adheres to this principle with regard to all its anti-viruses for mobile devices till 2012 when the number of threats to mobile platforms starts growing exponentially.

2008

• Doctor Web France opens for business.
• Doctor Web announces that it will no longer participate in comparative tests by the British magazine Virus Bulletin, as they "have little to do with assessing the capabilities that are really in demand in the face of today's virus threats".
• Dr.Web Office Shield appliance is released. Like many Doctor Web products, it is ahead of its time. In 2012, four years after its release, Dr.Web Office Shield is named top innovation for SMB software by PC Magazine.
• Dr.Web AV-Desk is recognized as one of the best security products in 2007 by PC Magazine.

2009

• Doctor Web releases an anti-virus for macOS. The number of viruses for macOS has been negligible only because there have been too few users to make virus writing for Macs profitable; Doctor Web invested in developing this product and is proud of its quality. Only in April 2012, after Doctor Web found a of many thousands of Macs, did Apple release a utility that removes Backdoor.Flashback.39, thus acknowledging de facto the existence of viruses for Macs.

2010

• Dr.Web AV-Desk makes it possible to provide business users with the Dr.Web Anti-virus Service.
• The in-house developed firewall has been incorporated into Dr.Web products for home users.
• Doctor Web Pacific opens its office in Japan.

2011

• Dr.Web Enterprise Security Suite achieves certification required to deliver software to Gazprom.
• Doctor Web Software Company (Tianjin), Ltd opens in China.

2012

• Doctor Web marks the 20th anniversary of Dr.Web anti-virus development.