When computers were still relatively new, antivirus software defended against the only existing threat at the time – viruses. Today, users must protect themselves and their devices from viruses and from malware such as ransomware, as well as malicious activities carried out by cyber crooks, including Wi-Fi snooping to steal personal information, account breaching, and infecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices to perform DDoS attacks. You may be wondering, then, how to protect yourself from so many – and such diverse – threats.
While small and medium businesses don’t appear to be as concerned about their cybersecurity vulnerabilities as they should be – i.e. SMBs are the principal targets of cybercrime and as many as 60 percent of hacked SMBs go out of business after six months – the reality is that the growing and rapidly changing threatscape and limited resources are driving them to outside help to protect their businesses. That protection can include assessments, remote monitoring and management, and backup and disaster recovery, but one way to stand out from the competition is to focus on their risk tolerances and customize your offerings to their individual risk appetites.
We recently released a new version of our flagship PC product, Avast 2017, which uses various engines, including CyberCapture, to scan for threats. Our engines are protection layers, that can step in at different stages to safeguard you from threats. An additional layer we added to Avast 2017 is a patent-pending technology that we call Behavior Shield.
In cooperation with researchers from CERT.PL, we are happy to announce the release of another decryptor tool, for the ransomware,CryptoMix. CryptoMix has multiple aliases, including CryptFile2, Zeta, or the most recent alias CryptoShield.
Whether internal or external, accidental or malicious, the cybersecurity threatscape is huge and growing, but successfully protecting your information, and your business, is not as difficult as you might think.
In the first of a three-part series, I’ll address how a framework consisting of these three pillars provides the basics for effective cybersecurity.
In the movie Ghostbusters, the imaginary threats ranged from Psychomagnotheric Slime to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Gozer the Gozerian, armed with slime and a bagful of Hollywood special effects. In the real world, small and medium businesses face a growing range of internal and external cybersecurity (CybSec) threats that are just as scary, while at the same time they are handicapped by a shortage of skills and resources. With most SMBs (55 percent) the victim of a cyberattack within the last 12 months, and 60 percent going out of business within six months, it makes partnering with a CybSec specialist (AKA CyberThreatBusters) a necessity.
Websites using HTTPS can increase privacy, as the connection between the browser and the website’s server is encrypted. This means that the browser and the web server are the only points that see your browsing activity and the data you enter. Today, anyone who owns a URL can obtain a TLS/SSL certificate, needed to encrypt the web traffic, and create a HTTPS website. This, of course, includes cybercriminals. Because of this, back in 2014, Avast introduced a way to scan HTTPS URLs for malicious activity in order to protect our users from being infected via malware transmitted over HTTPS sites.
A decade ago the desktop PC was the primary connection to the Internet, and security was a whole lot easier. Fast forward to today and the threatscape has increased exponentially: More devices, more data, more locations, more malware attacks, and less control. Businesses are struggling to protect their data and processes, and everyone now has a role to play in ensuring that security.
Technology has become an integral part of our lives – at work, at school, and at home – even on our bodies. Without security, we wouldn’t be nearly as productive or enjoy the benefits it brings to our lives. The range of devices and the numerous attack vectors the bad guys have at their disposal calls for technologically advanced cybersecurity. The days of simple antivirus scans are gone. Modern systems of threat detection include core processes such as structural analysis, behavioral scanning, and cloud-based intelligence.
When two creative, technologically advanced teams come together to create something, the result is outstanding. That is exactly what has happened in the last few months since Avast acquired AVG Technologies. As the product manager for Avast 2017, it is with great pleasure that I tell you about our redesigned, next-gen security software. On behalf of the entire team, I can say with confidence that the Avast 2017 collection of products – Avast Free Antivirus, Avast Pro Antivirus, Avast Internet Security and Avast Premier – is the most lightweight, state-of-the-art protection that we have ever launched.
Here are some of the features that we you to know about:
