Infosystem1

Where it all started.

The roots of ALWIL Software began with two Czech scientists in 1988 and their passion for computer programming. Today, with 90 employees at its Prague headquarters in the Czech Republic, a dedicated community of enthusiasts around the globe and distribution partners in all markets; ALWIL Software now offers a portfolio of computer security software. The Avast! product~lineup starts with Avast! Free Antivirus for home users and continues with top~of~the~line solutions for business.

Be Free!

At Avast! we believe you should not have to pay for good security, Avast! Free Anti~Virus is not only free but it provides excellent protection, even out~performing some better known paid products. Independent testing laboratories such as VB100, ICSA Labs and Check mark have verified its effectiveness. But of course, the most important feedback is what you ~ the user ~ actually thinks about Avast!.

Go ahead. With Avast!, you can be free.

Having over 100 million users has its downside~it means that users searching for Avast are also a prime target of scammers as well as legitimate companies trying to piggy~back on our name recognition. Every day we receive complaints from people that have been scammed. Some have been scammed into paying to download a free copy of Avast. Others have been tricked into buying a product they thought was Avast but was not. This happens in many different ways but at the core is the greatest scourge of the internet~socially engineered scams and deceptions. Thieves and even legitimate companies are masters at taking advantage of people’s natural penchant to trust others. Some scams are quite blatant and most of us would consider them theft or cheating. Others are much less obvious and may even be considered zealous marketing and selling. One finds such deceptions in search results, on download websites, and even in internet domain names.

Cybersquatting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting) is a common means of scamming a user. In this someone (or another company) uses the Avast name to sell their own products~real or fake. This sometimes happens with competitors but most commonly cybersquatters are individuals trying to “extort” a payment in exchange for selling the name to us. We recently paid a British woman living in the UK a significant amount of money to buy the name www.avast.jp (Japan). We should not have done that~we should have taken her to court~but it was cheaper to just pay her. In the future I do not think we will pay any such person. It sets a very bad example. Also in the UK is www.avast.co.uk. It is legitimately owned by a plumbing company named Avast but for a long while was being used to misdirect Avast buyers to other products. It is now being used legitimately and we have no issue with it. After all, we are not the only company in the world named Avast and there is no chance a British Avast customer would be misled when they land on a plumbing website.

Cybersquatting websites are also the leading source of complaints we receive from users that paid for a free copy of Avast. There are a number of such websites going by names such as helpmedownload.com, downloadnow.com, etc. Here they are leveraging the Avast name and the download.com name (a major English language download website) to scam users into paying. They typically sell a yearly download subscription to Avast and some of their own (usually useless) content. They charge $5 ~ $10 a month (non~refundable and paid up front of course) and then provide the user a link to our download website and a Free Antivirus key. We have a list of hundreds of such websites and also have the black~listed in our product.

Selling fake Avast products is one of the most recent socially~engineered scams and has become very popular. Fake Avast is a program that does not do anything wrong and thus was initially difficult for real Avast programs to detect. Instead of trying to steal information or do bad things to a user’s computer, all it did was pop up a real~looking message pretending to be from the user’s anti~virus program. This message would tell the user that they were infected and that the infection could be fixed by buying the product. After buying the fake product, the message would of course stop. One of the recent websites even offered toll~free 800 number ordering support for customers that were having problems ordering online.

We drive a lot of traffic to download websites and in exchange for hosting our downloads, download websites sell advertising space on our download pages. For example, here is a popular English download page. Notice the three big download buttons~only one of which is for our product (which was the product that brought the user to this page). Sometimes we even see the traditional large competitors buying these advertising spaces. There are also download websites I have seen where it is almost nearly impossible to find the download button for our product amongst all the advertising links.

Web searches also can deliver a lot of misleading advertisements. Below is a US~based search for “download Avast”. Notice that in addition to the search results, 10 ads are also served up. And only one of these ads is for Avast. One would not expect that someone that is searching for how to download Avast is looking for these other products but apparently enough users are interested or get misled to make this advertising profitable. A lot of this may also be innocent. Ad placement software may automatically place many of these ads. For example, an advertiser may want their ad placed with searches for “anti~virus”. The ad software knows Avast is anti~virus and thus places other anti~virus ads here. However, some of these advertisers are purposely buying the term Avast for their ads.

An even more egregious example is the 11 ads served up to someone that searches for “antivirus free”. Only one of these ads is actually for a free product. Most of these ads are purchased by firms hoping to sell their products to users looking for a free solution. They do this by promoting a 30-day free trial and then hope to convert the user to a paid user after the end of the trial period. I find one of these especially interesting as it advertises the product as “Free” with no mention of a trial. Only after clicking on the link does the user find that not only is the product not free, to even get the trial the user has to provide a credit card number which will be charged if the user doesn’t cancel the order within 30 days.

To us security is fundamentally about trust. Users trust that we will protect them during their online journeys. Unfortunately though, sometimes users trying to get to us get misled into other products or services. If you do find any misleading sites, do let us know and we will do what we can to have them removed.

Become a reseller.

The popularity of avast! anti~virus is growing every year, and not only among free users ~ there is also increasing demand for Avast! security solutions from businesses and other institutions. Join our team today and become part of our success.

It pays to join.

• Avast! security software is easy to install and easy to use

• We offer above standard club discounts

• You can take advantage of the NFR license for your own business

• You can earn market development funds to sponsor your activities

• You will receive a credit line to free up your financing

• There are no minimum sales requirements

• Last but not least, you will join a well established and rapidly growing company

Joining our reseller team is easy.

• Fill in the application form ~ go to http://www.avast.com/reseller-application-form.php

• You will receive an automatic acknowledgment of your application

• Following approval, you will receive your login details to access the Avast! Partner Portal

• You can start ordering immediately via the Portal with your newly granted credit line

Become an affiliate.

10 million people search for Avast! every week. Grow your revenue by offering them Avast! security solutions via your own website.

Join the Avast! affiliate program on oneNetworkDirect and start earning. With our tiered commission rate, you can earn up to 35% on very Avast! sale. The more you sell, the more commission you make.

Affiliate advertising is simple and profitable. Just promote avast! on your website, generate a referral which concludes with a sale for avast! and you earn a commission. It is as easy as that.

Benefits

• Get linked to a global brand - avast! is the world’s most popular antivirus software

• Earn a starting commission rate of 25%

• Raise your commission rate up to 35% as sales increase

• Boost traffic to your website

• Benefit from avast! support for individual affiliates

• No cost to becoming an avast! affiliate

How can I join?

• Register on oneNetworkDirect via link:

• https://aff.onenetworkdirect.com/affiliate_signup.html?super_affiliate_code=CD57150&program_id=384

• Pick up the Avast! affiliate text link or banner from oneNetworkDirect and use it on your website.

• Through these links, your sales will be tracked and your commission paid.

Technology Integration.

Avast! technology has more than 100 million users in almost every country around the world.

We offer easy integration of our SDK package into various products.

Scanning Kernel.

The latest version of Avast! anti~virus kernel features excellent detection capabilities, combined with high performance (data throughput). You can expect 100% detection of ITW viruses/worms (In~The~Wild, those viruses already spreading amongst end users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses.

The kernel is certified by ICSA and frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, yielding the VB100% award multiple times.

Scanning archives.

Avast! kernel has extensive support for archives (compressed files). The kernel supports selected EXE~packers, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, ZOO, ZIP, RAR, ARJ, ARC, ACE and all MIME forms, all that including SFX versions. Additionally, the Windows version supports CAB and NTFS streams. All archives are scanned recursively, i.e. even files inside of nested archives are tested.

Interested in knowing more?

If you are interested in becoming an OEM customer, integrating Avast! technology into your product, and would like to know more, then please contact us.

Updates.

A key risk to your anti~virus strategy is that of out~of~date anti~virus products; Avast! gets around this by implementing automatic updates, both of the virus database and of the program itself. All Avast! updates are incremental, so that only new (or changed) data are downloaded, thus reducing the amount of transferred data significantly. The typical size of virus database updates are tens of KB, with program updates usually in the hundreds of KB range. This way it is possible to perform the updates more often, and so more efficient than in other similar products.

However, we offer a further possibility: “PUSH” updates. “PUSH” updates are a dramatic change in the philosophy of updates. Usually, every installed program checks periodically whether a new version is available. PUSH updates, however, are initialized by our server; they result in the target computer (with Avast! engine installed) quickly responding and performing the necessary update. The system is based on the SMTP protocol (such as that used for e~mail messages). The host program has to provide the necessary support for such messages; however, it can use Avast! library functions that make it rather easy.

The whole system is protected by asymmetric ciphers and is resistant to unauthorized misuse.

Supported Platforms.

Avast! engine is available both for Microsoft Windows environments (Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/2008), and for the Linux environment (i386 only, for kernels 2.2 and higher). The detection capabilities are identical on both platforms.

Using in mail servers.

Avast! kernel features full support for “MIME archives”, i.e. it is able to scan the content of structured messages, used especially in electronic mail. Avast! has paid particular attention to the MIME module, since (even though the MIME format specification is quite strict) there are many (commercially successful) e~mail clients that can interpret an invalid MIME file; unfortunately, such a “feature” is often misused by viruses that are able to pass through anti~virus checks at the gateway and arrive at the client computer.

Avast! MIME module has been heavily tested and it was found capable of detecting viruses even in these kind of messages.

Awards and Certifications.

ALWIL Software is a finalist for the 2010 Red Herring 100 Europe Award.

ALWIL Software, makers of Avast! Anti~virus Software, is a finalist for Red Herring’s Europe 100 award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising European private technology ventures.

Avast! is regularly tested by the Virus Bulletin, an independent organization focused on computer security issues. Their VB100 test is based on 100% detection of all in~the~wild viruses without false alarms.

The release of the original free Zone Alarm utility in 1999 effectively created the personal firewall market. Over the years, that initial simple tool has evolved into a range of security products, with Zone Alarm Extreme Security 2010 at the top of the food chain. Though the company never abandoned their original free utility, they did let it languish without significant updates for quite some time. Zone Alarm Free Firewall 9.2 (free, direct) streamlines basic firewall protection and adds significant bonus features, bringing the product back to preeminence in the personal firewall realm.

Interface
Zone Alarm’s main window offers the expected overview of security status and access to configuration options. It also displays several features that are not present in the free edition such as anti~virus/anti~spyware protection, Download Protection, and OS Firewall (which detects malicious program behavior). Clicking one of these takes you to a Web page with more details about the paid products and an option to buy, but it is not a hard sell. The page even notes that you may already have the missing pieces, supplied by another vendor.

Solid Protection
A full~blown personal firewall should protect your computer from attack by hackers and also prevent misuse of your Internet connection by local programs~Zone Alarm excels in both areas. It puts up maximum protection for connections in the Internet Zone~public networks, coffee~shop wireless, and such. Your local network goes in the Trusted Zone; it is still plenty secure, but you can share printers and files without hindrance. Zone Alarm passed all of my port~scan tests and fended off all Web~based attack tests.

Program control is the feature that makes some personal firewalls horribly annoying. When any program attempts to access the network or Internet, the firewall must decide whether to allow it or not. The firewall in Norton Internet Security 2010 makes all of those decisions itself, allowing access for known good programs, terminating known bad programs, and carefully watching unknowns. Zone Alarm Extreme Security makes those decisions by relying on a feature called Smart Defense Advisor, which taps into a massive database of known programs (resulting in far fewer queries for the user). The free Zone Alarm, however, has always been known for its deluge of confusing popups that ask the uninformed user to make important security decisions. Not anymore.

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 9.2, much like Zone Alarm Extreme Security, leverages the Smart Defense Advisor. According to Check Point, this feature automatically configures firewall settings 97 percent of the time, so where the old free firewall would have overwhelmed the user with 100 popups, the current one would just display three. The only popups you will see relate to uncommon programs (ones not in Zone Alarm’s database), so you should stop and pay attention in those rare cases when Zone Alarm Free asks what to do.

Comodo Internet Security Suite 4.0, which includes a free firewall, takes a different approach to minimizing popups. Initially it assumes that all programs already on your system are valid and should be allowed network access. For each program that connects with the network it not only allows access, it creates a rule to always allow access. Thus any malicious programs already present on your system will get a free pass. I prefer the approaches taken by Norton and by Zone Alarm.

Advanced Protection
Ever since the first personal firewall appeared malware authors have been seeking ways to evade program control. Typically they will try to connect with the Internet by manipulating or masquerading as already~trusted programs. The OS Firewall feature in paid Zone Alarm products specifically detects and blocks most of these sneaky techniques, but even without that feature Zone Alarm Free does a pretty good job.

To start, any attack that relies on manipulating Internet Explorer will fail. Check Point’s Jordy Berson explained that the firewall protects its own processes using Zone Alarm’s ForceField technology, and that this protection extends to Internet Explorer. I saw this feature in action with my own test programs that launch and terminate instances of Internet Explorer. My programs had no trouble launching IE to open specific Websites, but they could not shut it down. Note: Internet Explorer is the only browser protected; you will need Zone Alarm Extreme or the standalone Zone Alarm Force Field for full protection.

I challenged Zone Alarm with a collection of leak tests, harmless programs that demonstrate techniques use to evade program control. Between the browser protection and the firewall’s own capabilities, Zone Alarm blocked all but one of the tests. Not surprisingly, Zone Alarm also resisted my every attempt at disabling it the way a malicious program might. I could not terminate any of its processes or disable its essential services. When I tried to change a Registry value to turn the firewall off I got “access denied.”

I also attacked the test system using the Core IMPACT penetration tool. Some products, Norton among them, detect and report such Web~based exploits even when the system is fully patched and hence not vulnerable. Zone Alarm Free does not do so. None of the exploits managed to penetrate the test system, but Zone Alarm took no note of those attempts. I would much prefer to know when a Website has attacked me, even if the attack failed.

Who we are.

Founded in 1991, with corporate offices in Europe, the US and the UK, AVG is focused on providing home and business computer users with the most comprehensive and proactive protection against computer security threats.

With more than 110 million active users around the world, the AVG family of security software products is distributed globally through resellers and through the Web and supports all major operating systems and platforms.

Employing some of the world’s leading experts in software development, threat detection and prevention, and risk analysis, AVG is uniquely positioned to spearhead innovation in the industry. The company continues to invest in R&D, teaming with leading universities to maintain its technological edge.

AVG has experienced significant growth in the last few years, becoming the world’s fourth largest vendor of anti~virus software measured by installed user base. The company will continue to expand and address the needs of the global market through improved technology and broader language and platform support.

What does it mean to be “tough on threats, easy on you”?

Computer and internet use is an integral part of our everyday lives. Every aspect of our lives is accessible electronically, which brings considerable benefit ~ and, unfortunately, considerable risk. Our role is to shield you from that risk by providing powerful, easy~to~use protection that works efficiently and invisibly in the background so you can focus on using your computer, not worrying about security.

As the nature of threats continues to evolve ~ from computer ~ and web~borne viruses to complex exploits designed to steal information for financial gain, the nature of protection must also evolve. Using the latest technology developed by world~renowned security experts, AVG provides real~time defenses against real~time threats. With AVG software on your system, you can safely surf the net, create online profiles, shop, bank online, download files, store data, chat, and e~mail, safe in the knowledge that your personal and professional information will not be stolen or misused.

In a nutshell, AVG enables people and businesses to use computers with confidence and without aggravation by protecting them from disruption and loss.

Technology Overview

Scanning engine

The heart of AVG Anti~Virus is the scanning engine ~ you can imagine it as a “black box” into which requests to scan objects enter and the box returns information indicating if these objects are virus~free or infected.

The scanning engine includes an application interface for communication with other AVG Anti~Virus components (Resident Shield, Scans, E~Mail scanner modules and plug~ins etc.) which use this service. It was created with an emphasis on AVG Anti~Virus modularity and is common for all of the mentioned components.

Detection Methods

Efficiency in detecting infected files is guaranteed by using a combination of different detection levels. Before the scan itself, the file is pre~processed, which involves removing any parts unnecessary for virus analysis. A quick scanning process is achieved using this technique.

• Known virus detection
  This is the simplest technique in which files are scanned for the presence of virus identifiers (a sequence of bytes characteristic for an exact virus). Based on this kind of detection, detailed analysis is performed to identify the exact infection.

• Generic detection
  This is a more common method for the detection of known viruses and this is used to determine new variants of known viruses. If no known virus is identified, generic detection looks for sequences within the file typical for certain viruses. Such sequences usually do not change within the virus when it is modified, even if the behavior of the new variant is different. This method is effective especially in the detection of macro~viruses and script~viruses.

• Heuristic analysis
  The last method for detecting viruses (where previously mentioned methods were not successful) is Heuristic analysis. Its skill lies in its capacity to (in some cases) detect a virus which is not included in the internal virus database. During Heuristic Analysis, two methods are used:
  1. Static Heuristic analysis ~ looking for suspicious data constructions
  2. Dynamic Heuristic analysis ~ code emulation:
  3. This means the file is started inside the protected environment of a virtual computer inside AVG. The file is analyzed for actions typical for viruses. An example being an application which when run looks for other executable files in order to modify them.

Detection Levels

AVG E~Mail Scanner (EMS)

E~Mail scanning is supported either directly by plug~ins for certain applications (Microsoft Outlook, The Bat!) or by Personal E~Mail scanner~  AVG EMS works at POP 3 and SMTP protocol level. EMS can also protect the  E~Mail communication of all other E~Mail clients (for example Outlook Express).

• With AVG EMS, it is possible to filter attachments by their extensions or by their content

• The solution at POP 3/ SMTP protocol level is independent of the E~Mail client used

• It is possible to protect multiple e-mail accounts and to check multiple E~Mail servers

• SMTP authentication is supported

• Secured (SSL) communication is supported

Computer Scanner ~ On ~ Demand Scan

On~demand checking of files or system areas can be performed in three ways:

• Scheduled Tests
  By default, the Complete Test is set to be started every day as scheduled to ensure the basic functionality of this level of protection. From the User Interface it is possible to create new Tests and to set when and what should be checked and what to do in case of infection.

• Manually started Tests
  It is possible to start defined Tests from the User Interface whenever required. An example would be the Selected areas scan.

• Windows Explorer extension included in AVG integration into Windows
  This is a simple and very quick method of checking a specific file. You can use the Windows Explorer environment by right~mouse~button clicking on the appropriate file and selecting the option “Test by AVG”.

Resident Shield ~ On ~ Access Scan

The Resident Shield protects the computer whenever the operating system is running. It works in the background and ensures transparent anti~virus file scanning when opening or executing files. There is also the option to scan when saving files. The Resident Shield runs automatically if a virus is detected, the Resident Shield blocks the opening or running of the infected file. The Resident shield stores information about files it has checked eliminating the need to recheck them if no modifications have been made.

Online Shield ~ Network Scanner

The Online Shield works for networks in the same way as the Resident Shield does for files. The Online Shield intercepts all traffic on selected ports and passes the data into several scanning engines:

HTTP traffic is scanned by AVG’s Scanning Engine as well as XPL’s LinkScanner, Instant Messaging Protection allows users to define their own white and black~lists for ICQ and MSN protocols.

Anti~RootKit

Anti~Rootkit technology detects malicious programs that try to hide in the system by comparing two different views of the file system and running processes. The user~level view is compared to the operating system’s kernel view and any discrepancies are reported as the possible presence of a root~kit in the system.

Update

It is vital for successful virus detection to keep your AVG installation up~to~date. AVG Anti~Virus offers you several ways to keep it up~to~date, including a fully automated update process. The availability of update files is guaranteed even when a large number of requests to download updates are sent to our servers. We distribute our update files using a professional worldwide server network service.

Main Feathers

• Small update files (the size is typically only tens of KB)

• Rare requirements to restart the computer after the update

• Regular updates are released 2 times every week, priority updates are released whenever necessary (whenever a new virus is being spread)

• Possibility to schedule or manually perform an update

• Proxy server authentication support

• Registered users can receive information about new updates through the AVG UPDATE e~mail conference

• Update files are available even during periods of high demand for downloads

Options for how to update

• Automatic detection of an Internet connection (if you are using a Dial~up connection) followed by an automatic update

• Detection of the existence of a new update file included in the scheduled tasks (AVG Anti~Virus and AVGADMIN)

• Manual download of a new update file from the Internet

• Manual update from a folder

• Automatic detection of an Internet connection (if you are using a Dial~up connection) followed by an automatic update

• Detection of the existence of a new update file included in the scheduled tasks (AVG Anti~Virus and AVGADMIN)

• Manual download of a new update file from the Internet

• Manual update from a folder

Partners

Business Partner Program

AVG Partners, Authorized Distributors, and Authorized Resellers comprise a distribution network in over 150 countries and are a major contributor to the awareness of AVG Anti~Virus around the world. We also provide other ways for business cooperation such as Affiliate and OEM programs. The growing success of AVG and our business partners is a testament to our strategic business partner programs.

Partners and Distributors

• Our Partners and Authorized Distributors are authorized to manage multi~tier relationships in their region. They have been specially trained in the AVG product line and they are able to provide local dealer, customer and technical support.

• List of Partners and Distributors

Resellers

• Generous reseller discounts ensure high margins. Our Authorized Resellers have priority access to support.

• Become a Reseller

• If you require additional information, please contact our Sales Support. For local reseller information, be sure to include your country and state (if applicable).

Affiliates

• Earn commissions by adding an AVG Affiliate link to your website.

• Become an Affiliate, please contact our Sales Support.

OEM

• Special licensing for high~volume system builders, hardware manufacturers and ISP’s. Add extra competitive value to your products and services.

• Become an OEM Partner, please contact our Sales Support.

Technology Partner Program

AVG offers SDK and API packages that allow you to integrate the AVG Anti~Virus Engine into your solution.

AVG Anti~Virus Engine Integration

• Become a Technology Partner, please contact our Sales Support.

Beta Program

Beta testers can test and provide feedback on AVG products and contribute to their development.

• Test AVG products before they are available to the public

• Contribute to the development of new products

• Become a Beta Tester, please contact our Sales Support.

These are my views about using AVG Anti~Virus program. I have used AVG for many years and have had no problems as for it doing as claimed, about the only thing that has not changed over the years is the user interface. Please do not get me wrong, the interface is rather user friendly, it is the makeup that could use a uplift.

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