Category Archives: AVG

AVG

Planning Your Digital Legacy

January 20, 2015 007admin

Over the last few years, as I have seen family and friends lose loved ones, I am constantly reminded of the importance of our digital legacy.

Just this past year, a friend and former colleague passed away. I, like so many, was shocked and saddened. He was healthy and vibrant until the day he died of a heart attack while out cycling.

I first learned of his death online – where family and friends announced his passing on a Facebook page. What soon followed was a vast outpouring of friends gathering to remember, mourn and celebrate him, and to console his family and each other.

That Facebook page remains to this day, months later, with occasional new posts that continue in remembrance and celebration of his life.

I don’t know if my friend left a directive about his digital assets, but I do think he would be pleased by the tributes and what has become a living online memorial.

While that approach was absolutely the right one for him as a tech industry figure, it may not be for everyone. We don’t always know what our loved ones would want if and when the time comes. Or we might not know how to secure and remove their assets per their wishes.

“Boomers will be one of the first to leave behind a vast and varied digital footprint”.

Our generation (the Boomers) will be one of the first to leave behind a vast and varied digital footprint – including social media accounts, emails, tweets, images, videos and more. But most of us have yet to consider just what it is we are leaving behind, and what we want others to do with it?

To me, it is like any form of estate planning. It’s something we know we should do, but most of us put off– unless forced to deal with it. Except that it’s not exactly the same, because to date there are few of us who have even thought about our digital legacy, let alone planned for it.

In new research we at AVG have just conducted with those 50-plus (aka Boomers and Seniors), 83% of nearly 5,000 people we polled in nine different countries, have yet to consider their digital legacy.

Among our research findings:

Even the among the respondents who were familiar with the concept of digital legacy (12%), had never thought about it
Only 3% could say they actually have taken steps to prepare their family ahead of time
Yet, when the concept was explained to all, 1 in 4 admitted concerns about having a digital legacy.

This corroborates findings of other earlier independent surveys, which I wrote about in my column first exploring this topic last spring.

Clearly, further education is needed to help people make plans for their online lives – after they are no longer with us.

Even when all relevant paperwork is in place and documented, the task of managing a digital estate of a deceased relative can be a difficult and emotional task.

Here are three suggestions I have on digital legacy planning:

Make a will and add a digital codicil, which is a simple document that amends your will, to include your digital assets.
Make a list of your digital assets, passcodes and avatars, if you have them.
Share information and help educate your family and friends about the need for digital estate planning.

Because AVG is committed to helping people deal with the security and privacy of data, devices and people, this is a topic where we feel we can contribute.

We have developed an eBook Dealing with Digital Death that offers a starting point for tackling the issue.

It offers considerations, recommendations, resources and guidance – from how to tackle the sensitive issues around what to do with social media profiles and blogs to creating memorials and practical information on digital estate planning and how to delete retail accounts. I hope you’ll find it useful.

AVG

A Time to Celebrate Diversity Â

January 19, 2015 007admin

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day in the U.S., a day to remember the great Civil Rights champion. I think it’s also a day for us in the tech industry to celebrate diversity and reflect on it.

There was a significant development in tech diversity earlier this month. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich pledged in his CES keynote address to invest $300 million over the next five years to improve the diversity of the company’s workforce. The investment will be used to attract more women and minorities for engineering and computer science positions, actively support and retain those new employees, and fund programs to support more positive diversity within the larger technology and gaming industries.

And, at least in my mind, equally importantly, as part of its effort, Intel is attempting to achieve “full representation” of women and under-represented minorities within the company by 2020, including in senior leadership positions.

“It’s not good enough to say we value diversity and then under-represent women and minorities,” Krzanich stated in his address. “Intel wants to lead by example.”

This was really refreshing and good news to hear from one of technology’s leading companies, and I applaud it.

The move follows a breakthrough last year when top tech companies released their workforce make-ups for the first time. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, Instagram were among the companies to report.

The numbers show that women represent no more than 30 percent of the workforce in many of the top companies. (Full disclosure: This is true for AVG as well.) Another snapshot provided in the latest (ISC)2 workforce study, published in spring 2013, shows that as a whole, the information security sector trails significantly with only 10% of its professionals female.

That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the overall representation of minorities. This chart from the Guardian newspaper created by Information is Beautiful provides a view of gender and racial diversity make-up of the tech and social media industry.

Since last year’s report, a number of companies have begun to step up and invest in diversity, as we’ve previously written. In June, Google announced a program to get more women into tech with a $50 million fund to encourage girls to take up computer science in college and other grants and programs. Its “Made with Code” campaign is in partnership with Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that runs summer coding schools for girls, and The Clinton Foundation, whose No Ceilings project aims to promote full participation by girls and women in all aspects of society. You can read about it here.

More recently, the Hour of Code, while not aimed specifically at women and minorities, was another excellent step in promoting overall interest in computer science during Computer Science Education Week. They reported more than 10 million girls tried computer since in that one week – more than the total of the last 70 years! You can learn more at code.org.

While there is more work to be done to move diversity forward, these are good starts for our industry.

I am looking forward to contributing to the effort to help close the diversity gap in the tech industry and encourage women in technology careers as a speaker at the 2015 SXSW Interactive program with a Core Conversation on “Boardroom or Baby? The Choices Women have in Tech” on March 14th. If you’re planning to attend the conference in Austin, Texas, please put 3:30-4:30 p.m. on your calendar to join the conversation. I’m sure it will be lively!

Title image courtesy of the bbc

AVG

The Internet of Things must begin with privacy

January 15, 2015 007admin

Earlier in January, thousands of attendees and exhibitors descended on Las Vegas for the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

One of the most exciting and talked about trends was the mass market arrival of the Internet of Things, something that I have been talking about since August 2013.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a catch-all term for the growing number of Internet enabled devices in our lives. If you wear an activity tracker, have a smart Nest thermostat, or remote access CCTV in your home, these are all part of the IoT.

What we saw at CES was a potential glimpse into the future. We saw smart dog bowls, smart baby monitors and even Belty, a smart belt.

Image courtesy of stuff.tv

Apart from excitement, all smart devices have something in common, they create data. They generate data that helps us as users to take more steps each day, brush our teeth for the required time, not forget to water our plants etc.

All this data is very useful but it is also very real privacy concern. In fact, shortly after CES, the chairwoman of Federal Trade Commission Edith Ramirez warned that privacy and security should be a key consideration as we add more devices to the Internet of Things.

She outlined three major concerns brought about by the IoT:

ubiquitous data collection
the potential for unexpected uses of consumer data that could have adverse consequences
heightened security risks

I couldn’t agree more with Ramirez, as we have seen with voice recognition technologies, the connected world of the IoT has witnessed a land grab. Companies are developing smart devices as quickly as possible and putting them out into the market without proper consideration for what is safe or how data should be used responsibly.

The line between our connected lives and physical lives is more blurred with each passing year and we must change the way we view data and personal information.

I don’t believe that collecting data is a bad thing, in fact its data collection that allows many of the web’s most popular services to function at all. What I do insist on, however, is that data collection is transparent, easy to understand and most important of all, consensual.

People have come to learn that their data has value, and they should be the ones to decide who they share it with, and how it can be used.

AVG

Is It Safe To Give Out your CVV Code?

January 15, 2015 007admin

If you’re a regular online shopper like me, you’re sure to be familiar with your credit card security code – otherwise known as the card verification value (or CVV).

If not, you can find the 3-4 digit code on the back of your VISA/MasterCard (the final 3 digits of the number printed on the signature strip) or on the front of your Amex card (the separate 4 digit code above the card number).

The intended purpose of the CVV is to provide added security when making purchases over the internet – it helps to verify that you’re in possession of the card, as the code shouldn’t be known to anyone other than you as the card holder. So it’s essentially a way of counteracting credit card fraud.

Is it safe to give out your CVV?

For online shopping, the answer is generally yes – it’s just simply a good idea to stick with well-known, reputable companies that you trust. You’ll find that most online retailers nowadays do require a CVV for purchases, which is encouraging because it means that they’re actively trying to prevent fraudulent transactions occurring on their site.

You may also be asked for your credit card security code when processing a payment over the telephone. As with online transactions, it’s usually safe to do this – you just need to be sure that no one overhears the details you give out (so avoid public places when doing this).

On the other hand, when purchasing an item or service in person, you should never provide the details of your CVV. In fact, there’s no need for the retailer or service provider to request this – it doesn’t show up when the card is scanned normally and they have other ways of verifying that you’re the authorised card holder (signature or another form of identification) should they need to.

Handing over your CVV for purchases completed offline serves no purpose other than providing someone with the opportunity to steal the information. Because if they were to do this, they’d have everything they need to go ahead and make a bunch of fraudulent online transactions – on you!

Tips for staying safe

To avoid any issues with security or credit card fraud, there are a few things you can do:

Only transact with reputable websites that you trust. And when you do, follow our 10 golden rules for safe online shopping.
Install internet security software on your PC, tablet and/or smartphone. Doing this will help you steer clear of malware and phishing messages that could lead you to fake websites designed to steal your personal details.
Always keep a close eye on your bank statement to identify any charges that haven’t been authorised.
Never read out the full details of your credit card in a public place, or write them down anywhere for someone else to find.
Avoid making payments over the phone with a credit card, unless you make the call directly and obtain the number from a trusted source. Scammers have been known to cold call victims and convince them that money is owed immediately for a problem that doesn’t exist!
Don’t provide your CVV when processing a payment in person. It should never be required and if someone tells you otherwise, it’s a reason to be highly suspicious!

Have you had any dramas when using your credit cards online? Share your story with us below.

AVG

9 Ways to Boost Your Gaming Rig

January 14, 2015 007admin

PC gaming is a $25 billion industry – and it’s growing! No longer is it limited to the young folks, but the industry now delivers blockbuster titles that bring in more revenue than some movies. If you’re one of those gamers, we’ve got a couple of treats for you over the next couple of weeks and months: This week, we’ll kick off a new series around optimizing your PC for the latest games and also how to tweak the blockbuster releases of 2014, such as GTA V, Dark Souls 2 or Watch Dogs, with great tips, downloads and our own AVG performance product, which help boost performance!

If there’s anything that’s not optimized about your PC, your games speed will suffer: they’ll stutter and will look not as beautiful as they could. That’s what this series about: making your games look stunning, fluid and simply more enjoyable.

However, optimizing your PC is just part of the equation: Games themselves have ton of hidden potential that can drastically improve the way they look and feel. For that reason, over the next few months we’ll look at the biggest games and discuss how to maximize their potential. Which games you ask? so far, this is on the list:

Dark Souls 2
Watch Dogs
GTA V
The Evil Within
Dragon Age 3 Inquisition
Alien Isolation
Dying Light
Mad Max
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Mass Effect 4

Anyway, before we dive into each game, let’s have a look at the top things you need to do in order to get your PC or laptop in shape for the latest blockbuster releases:

#1 – Upgrade Your Graphics Drivers for An Immediate Speed Boost

Your graphics card is the center piece of your gaming experience (more on that below), but it can’t unfold its true performance without the proper software installed on your PC or laptop. Going from the driver that came either with your PC or with your graphics card to the latest version can make a large performance difference. Just look at nVidias latest graphics drivers, for example:

As you can see, even with some older games (such as Skyrim or Tomb Raider) you will see a performance increase between 6% and 64% on a GeForce 700 series GPU. That’s because game makers and the big graphic behemoths like AMD, nVidia and Intel constantly work together to make games faster. So let’s have a look at where to get the latest drivers for the three big graphic card types out there:

Nvidia GeForce owners: Go to http://www.geforce.com/drivers. Next, select your graphics card and your Windows version from the list and hit the “Start Search” button. My tip: Always go for the driver marked as “BETA”. This isn’t quite a finished driver, but they all run as stable and good as the final release these days and will likely give you even more performance!
ATI Radeon owners: ATI fans go to http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx and select the appropriate device. This will give you access to the latest official driver which you can download and install. To get the beta driver with more performance improvements or features, head over to http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx.
For Intel HD Graphics owners: Mostly found on ultrabooks or tablets, the Intel graphics chipsets are the weakest of the bunch. I wouldn’t recommend doing any sort of gaming on the older integrated Intel HD chipsets (such as the HD 3000 or earlier) – unless you’re heavily into slideshows instead of smooth gameplay – but their latest graphics chipsets are powerful enough to play even recent titles, albeit not at the highest possible resolution or with all the bells and whistles turned on.To get updated drivers go to the Graphics driver page of the Intel Download Center.

Wait, how do I even know what graphics card I own?

Not a problem: To find out the maker and exact serial number, all you need to do is follow these steps. First, go to “Control Panel” and head to “Hardware and Sound”. From here, click on “Device Manager”:

This will bring up a list of all the built-in devices of your system. Head over to where it says “Display adapters”:

In these cases, you’ll see an Alienware X51 gaming rig with two graphic chips (the nVidia is usually always the faster one) and a laptop with a GeForce GT 650M. At any rate, make sure you’re using the latest drivers!

#2 – Supercharge Your Graphics Card: A Slight Overclock Doesn’t Hurt!

Your gaming performance is mostly dependent on the power of your graphics chip – even more so than on how much memory your have or how fast your processor is! The bottleneck and the reason for stuttering gameplay is in almost all cases the graphics chip. To improve performance, you may want to look at running the graphics card beyond the factory speed setting – or in other words: overclocking! Now, 5-10 years ago, I wouldn’t have recommended overclocking as it posed a significant threat to your hardware, but nowadays most systems turn themselves off automatically before they take any damage. Besides, I only recommend a slight overclock by about 10-15%.

On my desktop gaming PC, an Alienware X51, I pushed the GeForce GTX 660 TI roughly 15-20% above its factory clock. On my main laptop, a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and a GeForce 650M running Windows, I always push the GPU from its factory 900 MHz to 1035 MHz (CPU) and the memory clock from 1800 MHz to 2100 MHz with no problems.

Bear in mind that overclocking increases the stress on and temperature of all of your hardware, not just the CPU or GPU, so it should be done with extreme care. In both cases, I ended up with a system that’s 5° Celsius hotter than before, but still well within the limits:

To overclock the GPU, I recommend two tools:

GPU Tweak –a classic overclocking tool from ASUS.

EVGA Precision X – allows overclocking of both the GPU and memory clocks.

Using 3DMark 11 I measured that overclocking my system as described above yielded a 10% performance boost:

#3 – Boost Your Games with AVG PC TuneUp’s “Uninstaller” and “Program Deactivator”

Windows® keeps getting slower and slower with each program you install on your PC or laptop – and that has a direct effect on all of your games! The reason for this is that a lot of programs run some sort of background activity, even when they’re not being used. AVG makes it easy to uninstall programs that you don’t use and even reduce the impact of ones that you need.

Uninstall those old programs you don’t need! Download AVG PC TuneUp from this page (don’t worries, the 15 day trial works fine). Once you’ve installed the suite, go to the “Optimize” category and click on “Uninstall Programs” first. Now what sets us apart from the built-in Windows uninstaller is a filtering feature that allows you to look for programs you haven’t used in ages. Click on “Filter list” and go to “Rarely used programs” and “Programs not used for a long time”.

Found a program you don’t need? Click the “Uninstall” button!

Turn off programs you need! But what about all those other programs you use on a regular basis that are still reducing your day-to-day performance? Well, with our AVG Program Deactivator, you can turn them off safely. Just go to “Turn off programs” and browse through the list of all applications that affect your PCs performance.

By flipping the switch to “Disabled”, our little helper turns off all background activity of your programs when you don’t need them and turns it back on when you actually do. In short: with no heavy background tasks, your PC will run almost as good as new and your games will run faster.

#4 – Upgrade Your Graphics Card [Desktop only]

Earlier last year I noticed that my Late 2011 Radeon 7850 was quickly running out of steam with the latest titles such as Tomb Raider or Crysis 3. Gameplay was choppy at 1080p with full details. Since I wanted the full graphical experience and also did not want to spend more than $300, I opted for the best bang for the buck which was – in my opinion – the GeForce GTX 660 TI (I went for the EVGA version). There’s even a newer version, the 770, out now.

* Tests were performance on a 2012 Alienware X51 Gaming PC: Core i7 3.4 GHz, 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 660 TI

As you can see, upgrading from the older 7850 to the GTX 660 TI brought an increase of about 25-50% in Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider. That’s probably still the most effective way to boost performance.

#5 – Upgrade to an SSD

SSDs are much faster than mechanical hard disks and while this most certainly doesn’t boost your game’s frame rate, it will definitely reduce load time in game.

My recommendation is to go at least with an SSD with more than 250 GB as most games these days take up between 8-20 Gigabytes. My Steam folder, for example, clocks in at a massive 60 Gigabyte and all I bought was Age of Empires III, Bioshock 1-3, Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider and Crysis 3. Add to that Windows (another 30 GB), your personal data and some applications. You’re approaching the 256 GB quickly.

I tried the Samsung 840 which offers a fantastic value (250 GB for 139$). However, I went for the 480 GB SanDisk 480 GB Extreme which boosts an incredible 540 MB/s of sequential read and 460 MB/s of sequential write, for my Alienware X51 gaming rig which – before – featured a stock 7200rpm drive. The performance difference is mindboggling:

As you can see it has slashed my load times, meaning I spent more time playing and less time waiting!

#6 – Disable SuperFetch and Prefetch

Both SuperFetch and Prefetch are Windows features that are supposed to boost Windows and applications startup times. For games, however, I noticed that loading times and background activity actually increases when these features are enabled. That’s why I recommend turning them both off if you’re an avid gamer. Here’s how:

To do this, go to “Control Panel”, “System and Security”, “Administrative Tools”, and “Services”. Scroll down until you see the “SuperFetch” entry, double-click on it, and choose “Disabled” from the list.

Hit “OK” and close all windows. Next, open up the registry; click on the Start orb and type in “regedit”. Hit Enter, and go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters”. Double-click on “EnablePrefetcher” and enter “0” (default value is “3”) to disable the Prefetcher.

Note: Please follow the above instructions precisely as deleting or changing the wrong values in the registry may cause problems with your PC.

# 7 – Defrag or TRIM Your Disk

As data is written or deleted from your hard disk, files become fragmented and will physically spread out all over the disk drive. This will lead to a significant performance hit, especially with games, as the hard disk will first need to collect all of these portions in order to be able to fully process the entire file. As both your games and their files usually take up several GBs, it is vital that all of these files can be read in a continuous manner.

1. To defrag the disk, fire up the Start menu, and go to “All Programs”, “Accessories”, “System Tools” and “Disk Defragmenter”.

2. Select your Windows disk, and hit “Defragment disk”. Note, if you have an SSD, you should not defrag. Instead, use the TRIM command to optimize them.

3. In Windows 8, Microsoft integrated the TRIM command into the Disk Defragmenter—so, simply hit “Optimize”. Windows 7 doesn’t offer this, so be sure the TRIM command gets executed regularly. To see if TRIM is enabled, open up a command prompt by clicking on the Start orb and typing “cmd” into the search bar. Right-click on the first result (“cmd”), and click “Run as administrator”. Next, type in the command “Fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify”, and hit Enter. If this returns the result “= 0″, you’re good to go! Otherwise, TRIM isn’t supported and needs to be enabled. Try entering the command “fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0″. If that doesn’t help, a firmware upgrade might be necessary to enable TRIM.

#8 Tweaking the NVIDIA Control Panel

All NVIDIA drivers come with their own control panels that let you tweak the most essential 3D settings. While you can set many of the following options in-game, some are not available or directly controlled by the driver. This is why it’s always a good idea to go through the list of all options and tweak them to best balance performance and visual quality.

To get to the NVIDIA Control Panel, right-click on your desktop, select “NVIDIA Control Panel” and head over to the “Manage 3D Settings” category on the left. These are the some of the lesser known but still important settings to tweak:

• Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames: This controls the number of frames that the processor prepares before transferring them to the graphics card. Increasing this value results in smoother game play, but you may notice a lag when using the mouse and keyboard. To eliminate the lag, try the “1″ setting.

• Threaded Optimization: This option should always be “On”, as it allows the support of multi-threaded optimization for modern multi-core processors.

• VSync: It synchronizes the frames that your graphics card renders with the refresh rate of your monitor. If you disable it, you might find that games run more smoothly; however, you will notice that some parts of the screen might not be rendered correctly and appear to lag. Disable it only if your monitor has a higher frame rate than your gameplay.

#9 Tweaking the AMD/ATI Control Center

The AMD/ATI Control Center is another fantastic way to squeeze out more performance and increase the visual quality of your games. To fire it up, right-click on your desktop, select “Catalyst Control Center” and head over to the “3D Application Settings” on the left.

These are the most important settings:

• SMOOTHVISION HD: Anisotropic Filtering: The higher this setting is set, the sharper distant textures will appear. However, this will also increase the processing load on your graphics card. If your GPU is powerful enough, enable it and see if there is a noticeable visual difference.

• Mipmap Detail Level: It determines texture quality. You can choose between “High Quality” (which equals the original texture quality) and “High Performance” (which omits many details and thus produces a higher frame rate). I found that having “High Performance” makes games look blurrier. If your GPU is powerful enough, make sure to set it to “High Quality”.

• Wait for Vertical Refresh: Vertical Sync (or Vsync) synchronizes the frames that your graphic card renders with the refresh rate of your monitor. If you disable Vsync, you might find that games run more smoothly, however, in most cases, you will notice that some parts of the screen might not be rendered correctly and appear to lag. Disable Vsync only if your monitor has a higher framerate (for example 60hz) than your gameplay (for example 40 FPS).

You can achieve the right balance of performance and visual quality with nearly all of the settings described above. There is no right way to configure your ATI Control Center—it depends on what games you play and the power of your ATI graphics card. If you have a relatively new graphics card but play games that are a couple of years old, we recommend adjusting all of the options to the maximum settings (except Mipmap).

Conclusion

Now that we’ve explored 8 critical tweaks to improve gaming performance, what kind of an effect can you expect? Well, it depends on the hardware you’re using. If you’re running on an older laptop or PC that wasn’t meant for gaming at all, our tips can very well mean the difference between stuttering and smooth gameplay.

But even on faster PCs or laptops and gaming rigs, things will feel faster and loading times will decrease when you’re playing games.

Followed most or all of our advice? Now it’s time to dig deep into the upcoming blockbuster titles to make sure they run great from the get-go.

AVG

Google to remove support for old versions of Android WebView

January 14, 2015 007admin

Earlier this week, Google announced that they will no longer release patches for WebView versions JellyBean and older.

WebView is a core Android component which is used to display web pages on mobile devices and has been a target for exploitation from hackers. Google’s decision to stop patching old versions of WebView could potentially leave millions of users at risk.

Here is a video of Elad Shapira, one of our mobile security experts, executing an exploit on WebView.

Video

Demonstrating a WebView exploit

How many people are affected?

While it’s quite common for companies to pull support for legacy products, Android is a special case as there are many devices still running old versions of the operating system.

In fact, the latest mass-market version of Android (4.4, KitKat)- only makes up 40% of the overall Android market meaning that up to 60% of all Android devices might receive no further WebView patches.

Image courtesy of securitystreet

Why does this matter?

Support in the form of patches and security fixes are one of the most important ways to keep our devices safe. New vulnerabilities in operating systems and apps are found all the time and can cause privacy and security concerns for end users.

Software developers use security patches to protect fix these vulnerabilities and protect users from harm.

Having said that, Android is by its very nature open source, so there is always the possibility for newly discovered vulnerabilities to be patched by the Android community but that is a Band-Aid fix at best.

What can be done to help you keep safe?

The most straightforward step to help stay safe (and the one Google is likely hoping we all adopt) is to upgrade to the latest version of Android. For some however, this would prove prohibitively expensive and would require the purchase of a new device.

Those with recent devices should be able to upgrade to KitKat without much problem and people with brand new devices should be on version 5, Lollipop.

As a complementary measure, having a fully updated security app running on your device will help keep you safe from most scams and malware.

AVG

The web gets ready for voice recognition

January 13, 2015 007admin

News broke earlier in January that Facebook has acquired Wit.ai, an 18 month old startup that specializes in voice recognition technology. At first, this might seem like a strange move but upon closer inspection, the rationale is clear.

Millions of users are turning to mobile as their preferred platform, where typing long messages and interacting with friends is far more challenging than on a PC keyboard.

It’s clear that companies like Facebook face a challenge to make mobile interaction easier and more engaging.

Using Wit.ai’s expertise, Facebook can build a mobile-first platform with a voice activated interface and text-to-speech messaging some obvious steps.

The Facebook acquisition highlights the excitement and potential behind voice recognition technology. We are potentially witnessing a fundamental shift in the way we interact with our technology forever.

As we start integrating voice activated functionality into new smart devices and services we use on a daily basis, my primary concern isn’t one of convenience but of security.

As I wrote in this blog in September 2014, there is much work to be done in securing our digital devices from voice commands.

Most voice recognition technologies scan commands for meaning and then execute them. I believe there is a need for an additional step, one of authentication.

Does the person issuing the command have the authority to do so? When I ask the device to execute a command, does it validate that it is really me and not someone else?

As I demonstrate in the below video, it is quite simple to have a device act upon a voice command issued by a synthetic voice or by a 3rd party that has an access to the device – even remotely:

Video

Voice hacking a device

As Facebook and other leading companies add more voice activation technologies to their roadmap, it’s important to realize that we are also increasing the number of services and devices that are potentially vulnerable to voice attacks. So considering this, , let’s build it with safety in mind.

AVG

The arrival of toy drones

January 12, 2015 007admin

Drones have landed – as one of the hottest gifts over this past holiday season and one of the biggest hits at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show this past week.

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), as they are also known, are like model airplanes on steroids. They can hover, fly and often come equipped with cameras. They can belong to you or anyone else for under $100 dollars.

The cheap availability and growing capabilities of drones means that there are privacy and safety issues at stake.

We’ve already seen drones experience near misses with aircraft at major airports while unmanned flying cameras are an obvious threat to privacy.

It’s clear that drones are going to be around for a while and that legislation is needed to set reasonable and responsible limitations for recreational drone use.

However, regulation is still very much up in the air, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Who is taking action on drones?

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued a list of do’s and don’ts for flying safety regarding model aircraft for recreational use. These mostly focus on keeping them away from flying aircraft, airports and within sight line of the user. (See guidelines here.)

National Parks Service has banned drones from all National Parks, worried that the noise and proximity to wildlife would disturb nesting, migratory, and reproductive habits. The NPS also noted visitor safety was an issue.

Drone industry officials announced that they are teaming up with the government and model aircraft hobbyists to launch a safety campaign, which includes a website (www.knowbeforeyoufly.com) that includes safety tips and FAA regulations.

In the U.K, the Civilian Air Authority has already set protocols, mostly involving flying over congested areas and airspace, and the European Aviation Safety Agency is developing EU-wide safety standards which reportedly will be as high as those for manned aircraft.

Commercial use of drones has become a thorny subject and there is pending legislation in U.S. Congress that might even require commercial drone operators to have pilot licenses.

With all this legislation in the works, it’s clear there’s a lot more to this year’s hot toy story than first meets the eye. And you can bet there’s going to be a lot more to come…

Title image courtesy of firstsing

AVG

How to make a strong password in 3 easy steps

January 11, 2015 007admin

The truth is that the most important aspect of a password is actually length: a relatively simple but longer password is harder to crack than a really convoluted short one.

With that in mind, we put together a really simple method for you to create a strong password, and not go insane trying to remember it.

Little systems like these can help you create strong passwords easily. Updating them can be simple if you add a simple letter or number to change over time.

If you still find this too complicated, you can always use a password manager like RoboForm.
With a password manager, you’ll only need to remember a single master password: it will create new random passwords and remember them for you every time you need them.

AVG

Thoughts from CES: The physical world is becoming digital

January 9, 2015 007admin

As a long-time attendee of CES, I tend to look forward to it with both excitement and trepidation. As it gets bigger each year, it steadily becomes busier and more difficult to physically get around and take it all in.

This year, I walked away from the show thinking we finally have reached a point where smart digital tech doesn’t just sit within a specific market or category any more. Instead, it’s finally become ubiquitous and is now being embedded throughout our everyday lives. It was evident at the show that we are truly in the “smart” and “Internet of Things” era.

Image courtesy of GigaOm

Shawn DuBravac, chief economist for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), identified this phenomenon as the ‘digitization of physical space”, “permeation of logic” and the “Internet of Me”.

Regardless of what you call it, CES 2015 showed me that innovation in connected technology is now everywhere – from baby pacifiers to dog bowls, home appliances to, of course, the self-driving car.

As always, we must remember that as fascinating as they are, many of the products at CES are in the prototype phase –and many will never reach the wider market. But nonetheless, it’s always interesting to observe and try to gauge what we may have in store a few years down the line.

This year I was fortunate enough to also be exhibiting at CES as part of the Lifelong Tech and Family Tech Summits. AVG exhibited many of our family-focused products (including our Location Labs, Privacy Fix, and Zen products) in the Sands Expo Hall.

We were surrounded by all things smart and wearable for health, fitness, education and families. It was a fascinating and highly trafficked place to be where the digitization of everything and the Internet of Things was on display in full force.

Where it will all go from here in the year ahead, will be, not doubt, rooted in practicality. For example, let’s take that baby pacifier I mentioned.

The Pacif-i, a “smart” baby pacifier designed by U.K.-based Blue Maestro was a big hit. This product connects to parents’ smartphones via Bluetooth, and alters them to situations such as as when their baby is running a fever. In this instance, smart devices are creating very useful and valuable information to help parents.

Then at the other end of the spectrum were many fun, novelty and me-too items (names I’ll withhold) whose value will need to be proven…

It’s an exciting new world that we’re embarking upon. But it also reminds us that our privacy and security is increasingly paramount. That’s why we at AVG are continually looking at the trends and what we can do to help you guard and defend your data, devices and “digital” selves.

007 Software