At the end of November 2012, AVAST launched our Free for Education program, giving business-grade antivirus protection to schools, universities, school districts, libraries, and other education institutions in the USA – for free.  I have to say… things are going really well      (Albeit there is one unbelievable “but”…) Read more…

We face quite a dilemma every time we have something worthwhile to celebrate here at AVAST. For example, when we reached 100M and then 150M PCs users, when we launched a new product, or when this new free product achieves better detection scores than paid-for competition. Since we now have a solution for mobile security we of course also celebrated the launch last December and then we celebrated reaching 10M protected phones less than a year later. We celebrated seeing our Facebook fan club growing by 300 000 in a single day and sure enough we will celebrate when our fan club reaches 2 million as it is getting closer to every day.

The problem is… celebrated with WHAT? Read more…

A Google alert just popped up this review from Android Authority titled:  “The best just got better“. And I just love the writeup from the author Simon Hill…

“After trying a number of Android security apps and comparing their performance in independent tests it is easy to recommend Avast Mobile Security as your best option. The sheer variety of features is more in keeping with a premium app, but it is still completely free.”

So if you have an Android phone – and according to the latest data by Gartner there should be about 450 million of you out there – go to Google Play and get the best rated security app.  For free.

I’m still having my old Nokia but I guess time has come to get the shiny Galaxy S3 and install as well 

According to study by NSS Labs (here),  avast! Internet Security and 3 other security products out of total 13 tested protect users against Microsoft vulnerability withing XML Core Services and against vulnerability in IE 8  (IE8 has approx. 15% share). Both exploits were patched by Microsoft in June and July respectively but users who failed to update are of course at risk.  A good news for avast! Free Antivirus users… you have the same protection against those exploits as users of the paid-for avast! Internet Security suite.

PS:   having everything up-to-date and patched is of course one of the golden stay-secure-rules.

Nice review from Digitaltrends.com of top Android security apps.  And the winner is:  avast! Free Mobile Security!

I love this quote:  “if you do want to go ahead and get an Android security app, Avast is your best bet”.

The author of the review – Simon Hill – is at the end asking a (rhetorical) question that we might introduce a fee for the product. Well, this is certainly not going to happen. avast! Free Mobile Security will continue to be offered loaded with features and for free.  Just priceless

You might have noticed the little revolution announced some time back by ICANN with respect to the new unlimited horizons in Top Level Domain registrations. Instead of the standard generic domains (i.e.  .com, .biz, .org, and so on) or country specific domains (such as .uk, .fr, or others), it is possible now to register pretty much anything. For example, www.milos.korenko – which I will certainly not do, because the registration costs is WHOPPING $185,000 plus an extra $25,000 annual fee.

Over 1,900 domains were applied for (a nice $357M business for ICANN and obvious brand names such as Amazon, Apple, or BBC have applied. But I was wondering who from the antivirus industry would apply for generic TLD with their brand name. And as far as I could see, only Symantec came forward with application for .symantec and .norton. But surprise, surprise, aside from their brand names they want  also:

.cloud

.security

.protection, and (!)

.antivirus

I’m sure they can afford it, but what makes Symantec believe they have the best right to own the .antivirus domain is a little mystery to me.

If you are planning to visit Europe these days or actually live here… get ready for some very cold weather and temperatures much lower than normal.   -37 degrees Celsius is not a temperature to be enjoyed and we have it here in Czech Republic. Well not everywhere – just in the mountains – but even the -20 we are likely to have tomorrow in Prague is calling for some extra defensive measures:  Stay at home. Keep warm. Sip mulled wine. Read a good book. Watch the TV -  or -  get on the internet to chat, browse,  and socialize. Read more…

Several news alerts picked up an article about an “avast! Apptrackr” application that is under attack by the Apple legal team.  Wow! What is going on?!   So just in case you were wondering what is happening or in case you actually read the article yourself, please be assured that it has nothing to do with our AVAST company nor is there any “avast! Apptrackr” product.

This is just an example of poor grammar on the part of the author.  His intent was to use the word “avast” in the old nautical meaning “stop” but he completely sailed past the Harbor of Grammar. I’m not going to link his website to drive any traffic there.  Let me just say that we have contacted him and explained in a polite fashion that he is misleading his readers, but he has refused to clarify his writing.

Christmas is getting ‘awfully’ close for all the husbands – me included – who still don’t have any gift for their wives (no gift and no idea for one.) Yes, it is only 18 days left – time to panic. Of course, the kids are excited, having no such pressures.   And just like the kids, the other people who are absolutely excited about the fact that Christmas is around the corner are the mobile phone producers.  The fourth quarter of the year is the season to be merry as sales of new devices skyrocket and reach record highs.  Economic crises or not… this year will be no exception.  It is therefore a good time to introduce a security solution that will ensure your new shiny phone is protected. Read more…