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Avast

Support for older Avast versions will end

At the end of this month, Avast will end support for our older consumer versions of Avast Antivirus. Those are: Avast Free Antivirus, Avast Pro Antivirus, Avast Internet Security, and Avast Premier.

Avast boxshots

Update to Avast 2015 for maximum protection.

A good antivirus program is a necessity to protect your Windows PC from malware attacks, to keep your computer running smoothly, and to protect your online identity and personal data. Over the past 3 years, Avast engineers have improved our database of known virus definitions, the mechanism in which  zero- day and widespread malware are detected, and the frequency of streaming updates sent to our customers. Avast 2015, with its unique Home Network Security feature which scans your home network for potential risks, is our best performing security product yet.

After May 31st, 2015, Avast will no longer provide security patches or technical support for versions 8.0.1497 and lower. Security updates patch vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malware, endangering your machine and the data on it. Please update to the latest version so you can receive regular security updates and benefit from the enhanced features and higher detection rates that protect your computer from malicious attacks. This update is also recommended because the latest version is compatible with Windows 10.

If you are running an older version of Avast, you can easily move to the latest version of Avast 2015.

How to check for the latest version and do a program update

If you need to update later, here’s a quick way to do it.

  • Right click on the orange Avast ball icon in the system tray.
  • Select Update from the menu and then click Program.

The update screen in the Avast user interface shows you the overall progress of the program update. When it’s done you will be asked to restart your computer. Click Yes to reboot immediately. Once the computer is restarted, information about the update may appear. If you are using a paid subscription, then your protection will be valid for the remaining period of your subscription.

 

Version 2014 update
Veriosn 8 update
Version 7 update

Why to upgrade

  • Better detection rates
  • Easier technical support
  • We fixed bugs and problems that still might exist on your current version
  • Receive further program updates to ensure best protection
Av-Comparatives data

Avast 2015 has better detection rates than older versions. Update as soon as possible for maximum antivirus protection.

If you prefer an older version of Avast and require technical support, you will be asked to update first before we can assist you. There will be no patches issued and technical support will end on May 31st, 2015.

 

Panda Security

Your likes in Facebook can be the passwords of the future

smartphone keyboard

Do you remember, who was the last person you spoke on the phone with? And the first one you sent a WhatsApp message this morning? If the answer is yes, you might want to change your usual passwords for the answers to this questions.

Do you imagine your passwords changing depending on your last ‘Like’ in Facebook? Anything you have done with your smartphone or your computer during the last few hours can be used as a password by ActivPass. A system developed by researchers of the universities of Illinois and Texas and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, in India.

These researchers have developed a new method of authentication to unlock applications for which users had to answer correctly questions about recently completed actions. Something that it has proven to be possible, despite of what our absent minds might think. In fact, those who took part in this study answer correctly 95 percent of the questions.

ActivPass could be a possible solution to the many times a user forgets his password and clicks on “forgot your password”. In fact, they hope to reduce the amount of passwords we have to remember thanks to their tool, as the questions will be about recent topics and will change overnight.

forgot-password

They first thought of it as an evolution to the questions about our past which are already used as security measures in many platforms. Questions like: “What was your first pet’s name?” or “What was the first name of your favorite teacher?”

“Whenever there’s something you and your phone share and no one else knows, that’s a secret, and that can be used as a key” says professor Choudhury, University of Illinois. However, this new security method is not foolproof yet. Still raises some unknowns, like what would happen if a long period of time passes and the user can’t remember what he did last time.

Researchers are working to improve it, but for now they just conceive it as a part of a user’s authentication on a platform. Also, during the firsts test they found other disadvantages. Those who volunteered to take part in the tests not only had a high percentage of success in the questions about their own activities, but also were able to answer question about other people less than 6 percent of the time, which is quite disturbing.

forgot password

As the research conducted by Jason Hong, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, demonstrated the percentage of users correctly answering questions about other people is low.

So, despite of having to fix some details, it doesn’t seem far away when we will use a system like ActivPass instead of standard passwords. An option that is gaining popularity among platforms where you can share content with our friends and family. If, for example, you were to be subscribed to Wuaki.tv, you can give access to your cousin one night without having to worry about changing the password the next day. The password will change depending on what we have done that day, something our cousin would not know, unless you told him.

Passwords that change every day. A method of discouraging those who want to access others accounts, but also a challenge to the absentminded. Would we be able to remember the first thing we did with our phone?

The post Your likes in Facebook can be the passwords of the future appeared first on MediaCenter Panda Security.

Panda Security

ICSA stands out Panda Security for 15 years of excellence

icsa labs

The good performance and the excellence of Panda Security has been recognized by ICSA (International Computer Security Association) because of having received quality certifications on their products for the last 15 years.

Panda Security received the 15 year ICSA Labs’ Excellence in Information Security Testing (EIST) Awards which recognizes Panda’s “outstanding achievements” maintaining the quality certification of their products during these 15 years.

Stephen Gaus, ICSA Labs Business Development gave the award to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of Panda Labs during the RSA 2015 Conference in San Francisco.

luis corrons icsa

This distinction recognizes the resources, dedication and efforts invested by Panda Security to maintain this certification. Also highlights the “willingness to persevere the quality” of their products to benefit their customers and the security universe.

Congratulations to all! :)

The post ICSA stands out Panda Security for 15 years of excellence appeared first on MediaCenter Panda Security.

Avast

BYOD increases the need for Anti-Theft protection

smartphone and tablet

The convenience of BYOD can go down the drain if the employee loses their device. Protect it with Avast Anti-Theft.

Small business owners embrace the idea of employees supplying their own computers, smartphones, and tablets in the workplace. But the savings and convenience can go down the drain if the employee falls prey to a phishing scam and downloads malware or loses their device. Protecting mobile devices has become increasingly more important as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) grows in popularity.

Technical security measures to protect information are of obvious importance. However, many security incidents relate to the theft or loss of equipment.

We can write multiple blog posts about BYOD policies and educating your employees about the latest threats and tricks that cybercrooks play (spearphishing, for example), which is all extremely important, but if you simply lose your device, then all bets are off anyway. You can avoid headaches in the case of misplaced or stolen devices by having a way to remotely locate the missing device and wiping the data away if it ends up in the wrong hands.

Avast Anti-Theft allows users to log on to their desktop account or use a friend’s phone to remotely locate their device, lock it, activate the remote siren, or wipe its data clean.

Learn 5 ways to thwart the thief who stole your Android.

Business owners also need to consider what to do about company data on an employee’s personal device when they are terminated or leave the company. Some companies have resorted to wiping personal devices clean of all data, but that includes contacts, family photos, apps and music, which can lead to unpleasant lawsuits or complaints from former employees. Mobile device management systems (MDMs) are available, but could be overkill for very small businesses.

If you only have a few employees, and do not require a full-blown MDM, then Install Avast Anti-Theft for free from the Google Play store to protect your own devices and those of your employees.

 

Panda Security

Heartbleed. Why do the vast majority of companies remain vulnerable?

heartbleedWhen you visit a webpage, your computer actually accesses the server where the files displayed on your screen are located. If you enter a password on this site, it will also go to the server, where it will be stored. Companies use secure protocols, like the popular OpenSSL, which encrypt communications of computers connected to the network.

So when in April 2014 a serious vulnerability in the software package of OpenSSL was published, companies all around the world held their breath. Since 2012, the open source SSL protocol version was not complying with its protection duty.

The ultimate responsible for the finding was Google’s engineer Neel Mehta, who found it after thoroughly reviewing the tool’s open source code. Mehta along with team members of Codenomicon gave CVE-2014-0160 a simplest name: Heartbleed. With a logo of a bleeding heart to expose the severity of the fault.

The vulnerability allowed cybercriminals to access users information (passwords, bank accounts, and other sensitive information) stored on the Internet servers using OpenSSL.

The news kept on edge thousands of companies that used this system to encrypt communications in their webpages or between internal servers. Even ‘routers’ use the SSL system. One of the affected organizations was the Community Health System (CHS) in the United States: compromising the data of 4.5 million patients until the authorities fixed the error.

keyboard

Fortunately, as with any other security breach, a fix was found. OpenSSL team developed a software update which made it disappear. Professionals had only to follow a few steps to safeguard their communications again.

However, a recent report carried out by a group of security experts revealed that 74% of the largest companies in the world are still at risk. The reason being that those companies have not yet gotten rid of the malware. In addition to installing the new version (1.0.1g or higher) they had to cancel and change the encryption keys and the library certificates. This process requires some computer skills and, in many cases, contact with the digital certificates’ suppliers. Something many of them left half done.

Although some experts doubted the test results, the fact is that Heartbleed is not a regular ‘bug’. When vulnerabilities affect only one program they can be quickly fixed but during its two years of life the OpenSSL breach infected 66% of the active pages on the Internet, according to Netcraft. Even Yahoo! or Flickr were affected and had to fix the problem.

The cryptographic library is one of the companies most used software, from an online shop to a simple user identification on a corporate platform. OpenSSL is often used to protect mail servers, chats and virtual private networks.

Internet users couldn’t do anything about it, just trust that the people responsible for their most visited websites had solved the security breach. Companies did have homework to do in order to solve the problem. We just hope that, at least, the report results make the stragglers get down to work.

 More | Heartbleed, how bad was it?

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Panda Security

10 commandments for remote desktop managers – Infographic

 

10-commandments-desktop-managers1

Try Systems Management, the new way to manage, monitor and support IT systems!

If you want to share this infographic, here you have the code:

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Panda Security

The famous reversible USB could be a ‘malware’ loophole for your devices

usb

Wouldn’t it be nice not having to turn around several times your USB before connecting it to the computer? You won’t remember that feeling, very soon. The new connector Type-C USB, better known as reversible USB, is the answer to your problems, with the same number of pins or connectors in both sides. It will allow you to transfer data much faster as video signals or electric energy, with a similar size of a micro USB.

It is predicted that this new connector will be the standard in the future and maybe someday we will be able to charge all our devices with it. This specification, announced a couple of months ago by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), is already been included in some laptops. Apple’s new MacBook integrates a USB-C port which allows you to charge your phone and to connect it with conventional devices, though you will have to buy a separate adapter.

Google has followed up and will include two new USB-C ports in their new ultra-thin laptop, the Chroomebook Pixel. The incorporation of these ports will be the trend to follow in the next months.

mac-usb

But it’s not all good news here: the new USB-C brings serious safety issues. After all it is based on the standard USB so it is vulnerable to ‘firmware’ attacks and other kinds of attacks that would affect the device in which the USB is connected to.

None of these issues are new, probably your USB drive has been infected more than once after connecting it to different computers. However, if we consider that the purpose of this new USB is to create a universal connector we will be facing more and more sophisticated attacks, which will be more difficult to avoid, so the port will become a malware loophole.

BadUSB vulnerability

One of the biggest concerns is the recent discovered BadUSB vulnerability, which lives in the firmware and modifies it, allowing the connected mobile device to become an attack vector.

“The additional openness and flexibility of USB Type-C comes with more attack surface,” says Karsten Nohl, one of the researchers who first discovered this type of attacks. “No solution for BadUSB is in sight even with this new standard.” USB is an open standard built on backwards compatibility and easy third-party access, which implies a serious security problem and which is not even near to fix it.

computer usb

In practical terms, this means MacBook and Chromebook Pixel users are exposed to what we call a “borrowed charged attack”. Although new chargers don’t have the necessary firmware to carry the BasUSB malware, it would be very easy to infect a device and spread it within the compatible gadgets. After all, who doesn’t share almost daily a USB cable with another person?

Although Apple includes an authentication chip in all their power cords to verify that the firmware has not been changed, the port remains vulnerable to older devices.

If you have already decided to buy the latest MacBook or the new Chromebook, the best thing you can do to protect it, is to avoid connecting it to a device or charger you haven’t purchased. Despite all the benefits these reversible USB ports have, like high speed and efficiency, security must be improved to enjoy all the advantages of USB-C on laptops.

The post The famous reversible USB could be a ‘malware’ loophole for your devices appeared first on MediaCenter Panda Security.

Avast

TGIF: Avast news wrap up for April 18 – May 1

The Avast bi weekly wrap-up is a quick summary of what was on the Avast blog for the last two weeks.

Woman using smartphoneMost everyone knows their PC needs antivirus protection, but they don’t think about their smartphone. These days smartphones are just about as powerful and have as much or more personal information as our desktop PC at home. We answer the question do Android devices really need protection?

Avast finds porn clicker app named Dubsmash 2 on Google PlayThe answer is a resounding YES. The Avast Virus Lab gives us an example from a trusted download source, Google Play: A porn clicker app slipped into Google Play imitating the popular Dubsmash app. If we cannot completely rely on trusted app stores to weed out nasty apps, then it’s time to add an extra layer of security.

AV-Comparatives internet study 2015Once you decide that you do want to protect your Android device, you can be confident in Avast Mobile Security, Avast’s free security app available on Google Play. A survey by AV -Comparatives said that Avast was the #1 choice for mobile security in the entire world. No need to wait any longer to protect your smartphone or tablet.

newABSOne of the challenges with using a smartphone for so many activities, is that the battery gives out before we do. Our new free app Avast Battery Saver raises the bar with new Wi-Fi based smart profiles that can increase battery life by an average of 7 hours.

battery-saver-infographics-EN one sectionAvast Battery Saver has only been available for a month or so but already 200,000 customers have downloaded it from the Google Play Store. For Earth Day we highlighted battery saver users for their positive impact on the environment. Who knew that Avast Battery Saver would be so green? A cool infographic shows just how much they saved –  not only from their own battery –  but in energy costs too. Now Earth Day can be everyday!

office-workersSmall and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) run the risk of data breaches just like there Enterprise cousins. Luke Walling, the General Manager of Avast for Business, explains that the biggest threat to SMBs is not actually hackers sitting somewhere far away. The biggest threat to your SMB could be sitting in your office!

blog3-enSpeaking of Avast for Business, our new disruptive free security offering for SMBs has 75,000 new customers in just 2 months. If you have a start-up, a small business, if you work in a school or non-profit organization, then it’s time to stop paying for security protection.

Cybercrooks use lots of tricksOur researchers are constantly surprised by the creativity of malware authors. Recently, they found a new way cybercrooks trick people in giving up their banking information. It’s a crafty combination of spam email, social engineering, and a macro code embedded in an innocent looking Word document.

usb_hub_robotMost people have security protection on their computers. That’s great when there are things like the banking malware we wrote about. With all that great protection why is it that they don’t trust the warnings? The Avast Virus Lab explored why some people would rather be right than believe a malware warning.

Avast

PCs require antivirus. Smartphones don’t. Right?

Woman using smartphone

That smartphone means a lot to her. Protect it from hackers and thieves with Avast Mobile Security.

It’s very common to find people concerned about Windows viruses and malware that say, “Oh, my PC is protected by Avast Antivirus, but we don’t need it for our smartphones and tablets.”

With more than 230 million Avast Antivirus customers, we see “only” 60 million or so Android users of Avast Mobile Security. Many more mobile devices are sold every second than desktops and notebooks together. Why are people not as concerned about the security of their smartphone as their desktop?

The AV-Comparatives survey that we wrote about yesterday  in Avast Mobile Security is the #1 choice for Android users says that Android users in North America protect their phones more than anywhere else in the world with 31 percent of respondents reporting they have protection. South America, Asia, and Europe are much lower at 17 percent.

What about the rest of the Android users?

– Do you realize that mobile malware is increasing?

– Do you realize that you (most probably) have much more personal info in your smartphone than your PC? Like photos, selfies, contacts, videos, and also banking and financial information.

– What if one of your apps is using your personal info against you like the Dubsmash 2 app we just discovered?

Your Android device needs protection

Avast Mobile Security is a complete suite for Android protection. It is completely focused on security and privacy features.

Maybe you have a friend or your girlfriend that should be reading this… Take this opportunity to introduce them to Avast Mobile Security and teach them some tips about mobile security. Maybe we’ll see a better protected world if we reduce the number of unprotected devices and the cybercrooks have more work to steal from innocents. Download Avast Mobile Security for free on Google Play.

Earn free Avast Mobile Premium

In the latest update of Avast Mobile Security, we added a referral program, so you can recommend Avast Mobile Security to your friends and family. Not only can you recommend the best mobile security app available on Google Play, but you will be rewarded for doing so; you can earn up to three months of Avast Mobile Premium for free!

Here is how it works: For every five friends you send an SMS to recommending Avast, you get one free month of Avast Mobile Premium. Cool, huh?

Do your good action today: Tell someone you care about that smartphones and tablets need to have a security app installed and updated..

 

Panda Security

Cyber-attacks made it into the Global Risks TOP 10

computer office
Almost every day, we hear news about cybercriminals leaking confidential information, cyber-attacks to the media, massive cases of phishing or WhatsApp scams.

That’s why for the first time risks from cyber-attacks are part of the TOP 10 Global Risks, ranked ninth according to Aon Risk Solutions, Aon plc global division of risks management.

The participants in this survey pointed out that brand damaging and maintaining the company’s reputation is what organizations fear the most. The online risks’ “increasing importance” is linked to the consequences a company may face when its sensitive information has been compromised.

This survey confirms what the Global Risks Report 2015, elaborated by the WEF, had already reported, including cyber-attacks within the most pressing dangers of the future. Stating that companies should consider cyber security as priority.

This is confirmed by experts and data. If PandaLabs described the year 2014 as the year of massive cyber-attacks, we are sure we will see an increase of this types of threats during this year and the ones to come. That’s why if you want to protect your company’s servers and endpoints try our solutions for business and you will sleep a little more soundly at night.

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