Security software company PC Tools claims to have developed an automated bot, called Threat Expert, which enables content sharing businesses to analyse and decode online threats in a matter of minutes.

Users of the automated service can send suspected threats to PC Tools through a web portal where Threat Expert will provide a detailed report which can then be used to create the patch to eliminate these threats.

"We are seeing an explosion of new threats and variations that major anti-spyware and antivirus companies cannot handle," said Simon Clausen, CEO of PC Tools.

"The time it takes to manually decode these dangerous threats means consumers and businesses are vulnerable until threats are decoded and fixes are made."

Threat Expert claims to be able to detect behaviour ranging from spyware to keylogging, rootkits, malware, adware, dialers, downloaders, worms and viruses.

Clausen said that new threats identified by an organisation traditionally require a thorough evaluation to determine whether they pose a real threat to users.

Once a threat is identified, it can take hours, or even days, to reverse engineer and eventually produce a report and finally a solution. Threat Expert claims to offer a threat analysis in a matter of minutes.

"We radically save time cracking complex spyware and virus codes by automating this detection process and giving real-time threat information to businesses and security researchers," said Clausen.