Tag Archives: SMB/Business

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Avast for Business adds 75,000 new customers in just two months

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Avast for Business

Luke Walling, GM of Avast for Business, had confidence in the Avast for Business product all along. But the explosion of new customers has surprised and delighted even him.

Avast for Business is the industry’s first free, easy to use, cloud-managed security offering that protects small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) from cyber attacks and data breaches.

The new product has been available for two months, and already more than 75,000  SMB owners have enthusiastically selected Avast for Business to protect their companies.

The new, cloud-managed solution has specifically been adopted by IT consulting, education, and non-profit sectors. Early results also show a strong uptake in managed service providers, who make up 12 percent of Avast for Business’ total installed device count and 2.5 percent of its new users.

A reason for it’s booming success is because most start-ups, small businesses, schools, and nonprofit organizations lack the IT infrastructure to install costly and complex on-premise security solutions. Avast for Business provides the ideal solution. It’s easily scalable and managed from anywhere. Additionally, Avast for Business starts at a price everyone can afford: free, making it a natural fit for small-to-medium-sized businesses and organizations worldwide.

Avast for Business is free for as long as you want it and for an unlimited number of admins and devices. Protect your company with Avast for Business.

Avast for Business

Avast for Business replaces expensive, complicated security solutions for SMBs.

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Why you need to protect your small business from hackers

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Avast Free Antivirus protects small and medium sized businesses for free.

IT pros have used Avast Free Antivirus at home for years. It’s not a huge leap to use free Avast for Business at their place of business.

Small and medium-sized businesses face a challenge when it comes to keeping their data secure. Many companies don’t have the budget to hire a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to take care of their IT needs, and often, they think they do not have enough knowledge or time to handle it themselves, therefore the path of least resistance is to not have any security at all. At the very best SMBs use a consumer version of antivirus software.

But these days, neither of those options is a good idea. Having no protection leaves you too vulnerable, and the problem with using a consumer product in a work environment is whoever is managing the network cannot look across all computers at once and implement policy changes or updates.

Do hackers really target small businesses?

The media coverage of big time data breaches like Target, Neiman Marcus, and Home Depot may have many SMB owners thinking that they are not at risk, but even small and medium-sized businesses need to make sure that their data and that of their customers is protected.

Here’s a statistic that should get your attention: One in five small businesses are a victim of cybercrime each year, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance. And of those, nearly 60% go out of business within six months after an attack. And if you need more convincing, a 2014 study of internet threats reported that 31% of businesses with fewer than 250 employees were targeted and attacked.

Why do hackers target small businesses?

Hackers like small businesses because many of them don’t have a security expert on staff, a security strategy in place, or even policies limiting the online activity of their employees. In other words, they are vulnerable.

Don’t forget that it was through a small service vendor that hackers gained access to Target’s network. Hackers may get your own customer’s data like personal records and banking credentials and your employee’s log in information, all the while targeting the bigger fish.

While hackers account for most of the data lost, there is also the chance of accidental exposure or intentional theft by an employee.

Avast for BusinessWhat can I do to protect my small business?

For mom-and-pop outfits, Avast for Business, a free business-grade security product designed especially for the small and medium-sized business owner, offers tremendous value. The management console is quite similar to our consumer products meaning that the interface is user-friendly but also powerful enough to manage multiple devices.

“Avast for Business is our answer to providing businesses from startup to maturity a tool for the best protection, and there’s no reason for even the smallest of companies not to use it, because it starts at a price everyone can afford, free,” said Luke Walling, GM and VP of SMB at Avast.

Some companies may still opt to pay for a MSP, and in many cases, especially for medical or legal organizations, handing over administration to a third-party may be a good way to go. Either way, our freemium SMB security can be used, and if you use a MSP then the savings can be passed on to you.

Is free good enough for a business?

Many IT professionals have been using free security on their home computers for years. It’s not such a huge leap of faith to consider the benefits of making the switch in their businesses as well.

“I have been using Avast since 2003 at home, with friends, with family. You really come to trust and know a product over the years. It lends itself to business use really well, nothing held back,” said Kyle Barker of Championship Networks, a Charlotte-area MSP.

How do I get Avast for Business?

Visit Avast for Business and sign up for it there.

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Malvertising is bad for everyone but cybercriminals

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One rotten malvertisement not only ruins the bunch, but can damage your SMB's reputation.

One rotten malvertisement not only ruins the bunch, but can damage your SMB’s reputation.

Malvertising, sounds like bad advertising right? It is bad advertising, but it doesn’t necessarily include a corny jingle or mascot. Malvertising is short for malicious advertising and is a tactic cybercriminals use to spread malware by placing malicious ads on legitimate websites. Major sites like Reuters, Yahoo, and Youtube have all fallen victim to malvertising in the past.

How can consumers and SMBs protect themselves from malvertising?

Malvertising puts both website visitors and businesses at great risk. Site visitors can get infected with malware via malvertising that either abuses their system or steals personal data, while businesses’ reputations can be tarnished if they host malvertisments. Even businesses that pay for their ads to be displayed on sites can suffer financial loss through some forms of malvertising because it can displace your own ads for the malicious ones.

To protect themselves, small and medium sized businesses should make sure they use the latest, updated version of their advertisement system, use strong passwords to avoid a dictionary attack and use free Avast for Business to discover and delete malicious scripts on their servers. Consumers should also keep their software updated and make sure they use an antivirus solution that will protect them from malicious files that could turn their PC into a robot, resulting in a slowed down system and potential privacy issues. Avast users can run Software Updater to help them identify outdated software.

How does malvertising work?

Businesses use ad systems to place and manage ads on their websites, which help them monetize. Ad systems can, however, contain vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities in general are a dream come true for cybercriminals because vulnerabilities make their “jobs” much easier and vulnerabilities in ad systems are no exception. Cybercriminals can take advantage of ad system vulnerabilities to distribute malicious ads via otherwise harmless and difficult to hack websites.

Why cybercriminals like malvertising

Cybercriminals fancy malvertising because it is a fairly simple way for them to trick website visitors into clicking on their malicious ads. Cybercriminals have high success rates with malvertising, because most people don’t expect normal looking ads that are displayed on websites they trust to be malicious. Targeting well-visited websites, not only raises the odds of ad clicks, but this also allows cybercriminals to target specific regions and audiences they normally wouldn’t be able to reach very easily. Another reason why malvertising is attractive to cybercriminals is because it can often go unnoticed, as the malicious code is not hosted in the website where the ad is being displayed.

Examples of malvertising

An example of an ad system platform with a rich history of vulnerabilities is the Revive Adserver platform, formerly known as OpenX. In the past attackers could obtain administrator credentials to the platform via an SQL injection. The attackers would then upload a backdoor Trojan and tools for server control. As a result, they were able to modify advertising banners, which redirected site visitors to a website with an exploit pack. If the victim ran outdated software, the software would download and execute malicious code.

Another malware family Avast has seen in the wild and reported on that spread via malvertising was Win32/64:Blackbeard. Blackbeard was an ad fraud / click fraud family that mainly targeted the United States. According to our telemetry, Blackbeard infected hundreds of new victims daily. Blackbeard used the victim’s computer as a robot, displaying online advertisements and clicking on them without the victim’s knowledge. This resulted in income for botnet operators and a loss for businesses paying to have their ads displayed and clicked.

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Business owners rejoice – you can now get business-grade security for free from Avast

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Avast is pleased to offer the World’s First Free Business-Grade Security to small and medium-sized businesses.

Avast for Business protects SMBs for free

In a move that will make a difference to the security of local businesses across the USA and the UK, Avast launches Avast for Business—a free, easy to use, cloud-managed security offering that protects small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) from viruses and cyber attacks.

This is the first free information security product built specifically for businesses with cross-platform protection, meaning that it protects both PCs and Macs. It solves a problem that many businesses have: No IT staff, lean IT budgets, lack of know-how, or even any security at all.

“Since 2001 we’ve delivered great, free security products for home users,” said Vince Steckler, Chief Executive Officer of Avast. “We believe the time is right to provide great security that is not only free, but also simple for SMBs to implement and manage. A small business may not view their customer database or online orders at the same level as data of an enterprise. Avast for Business addresses the problem of those businesses using consumer products and not being adequately protected; it gives those enterprises a business-class solution they can grow with.”

Avast for Business is easy for SMB owners to install, configure and manage advanced security solutions with or without the help of a full-time IT manager. Users are able to effortlessly monitor, manage and protect devices anywhere, anytime from Avast’s cloud-management console.

“Anybody can use the interface,” said Kyle Barker of Championship Networks, an Avast partner in North Carolina, USA. “If you’ve ever seen a simple installment of Avast, you’ve seen the interface, you know the controls. Anybody that ever used the small office console already knows every feature that’s in this product. It’s a simple transition.”

From the easy-to-navigate console, users have the ability to configure robust reporting and alerting to easily stay on top of what is happening inside of their environment. Avast for Business features include:

  • Free Essential Antivirus protection (File Shield, Web Shield, Mail Shield)
  • HTTP and HTTPS Threat Scanning & Integrated Browser Protection
  • A Web-based management console that is accessible anywhere, anytime.
  • Robust reporting and alerting engine
  • Cross-Platform Support including Windows and Mac OSX.

For advanced security requirements, Avast for Business also offers premium services. There are no limits on the number of protected devices, and businesses can activate and deactivate licenses as needed. This allows them to grow comfortably without the concern of overwhelming costs.

“It’s very easy to choose on a month to month basis the number of licenses you want. Any number of licenses can be mixed from free and premium and you can change this on a month to month basis,” said Barker.

Later in 2015, Avast will introduce programs for managed service providers and the reseller channel, to benefit from the power of free. In the spring, Avast will form its first ever partner advisory council in order to bring partners closer to Avast, to discuss features and functions specific to their needs.

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Good guys finish first: Avast is the leading security company worldwide

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“Installing an antivirus product is the first, not last, step to having a safe and secure computer.”

Avast is the leader in the cyber security arms race.

There are others fighting the fight, but a 21.4% share makes Avast the leader in the antivirus vendor market as reported in OPSWAT’s quarterly market share report.

That’s good news for individuals and business owners concerned about protecting themselves from vulnerable networks, swiped passwords, pilfered finanical data, erased online identities, and stolen Social Security or national ID numbers. Opinions about the future of cyber-attacks range from doom and gloom to optimism about the steady progress in security, but the fact remains that in today’s world, we have to work around the Internet’s vulnerable design and motivated hackers challenging businesses and home users.

“Installing an antivirus product is the first, not last, step to having a safe and secure computer,” said OPSWAT’s Gears product manager, Adam Winn. “Avast’s popular antivirus and security products are helping to improve security for all. Creating accessible antivirus products for home users contributes to an overall improved security status for everyone, even businesses.”

The OPSWAT report contains the latest figures on antivirus market share and usage, as well as analysis of compromised devices. A disturbing finding from the report stated,

More than 90% of Windows PCs have not run an antivirus full system scan in the last 7 days. Of these, 15% hadn’t even had their antivirus definitions updated within the previous three days which might explain why over3% were found to be seriously infected.

“It’s reasonable to assume in an organization with 400 PCs, a full dozen are compromised,” said Winn as an illustration of the seriousness. “The interconnected state of computing has blurred the lines between home and business, especially with BYOD, remote working, and SaaS. For this reason, it’s in everyone’s best interest that traditional antivirus protection continues to be in place to deter casual and commodity attacks.”

A lack of regular updates and full system scanning is especially problematic. Organizations without robust endpoint management and solutions in place to identify and remediate these risks are giving insecure devices access to their networks and could find themselves in violation of data security regulations.

Avast for Business protects companies for free

A lack of regular updates and full system scanning is especially problematic. Organizations without robust endpoint management and solutions in place to identify and remediate these risks are giving insecure devices access to their networks and could find themselves in violation of data security regulations.

Avast for Business“Our anti-malware engine keeps businesses and individuals protected with up to hundreds of continuous streaming micro-updates throughout the day, providing realtime protection against today’s complex threat landscape,” said Luke Walling, GM and VP of SMB at Avast. “By protecting the most devices we have the best insight into that threat landscape, and that translates into better protection for all of our users. Avast for Business is our answer to providing businesses from startup to maturity a tool for the best protection, and there’s no reason for even the smallest of companies not to use it, because it starts at a price everyone can afford, free.”

The data for the report was collected by OPSWAT GEARS, a free device security and management tool. You can add your computer to the sample if you don’t mind them collecting information regarding the applications installed on your computer. Check it out here, https://www.opswatgears.com/

Avast leads in the antivirus vendor market with a 21.4% share

Avast leads in the antivirus vendor market with a 21.4% share

Avast

Infographic: Privacy tips for business

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Privacy plays a growing part in customer buying decisions. With every data breach, trust is eroded further.

Privacy and security are intertwined when it comes to our individual information. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the value of their personal data, so that means that businesses have to step up and do a better job of securing that data. Identity theft is the #1 fear of consumers, but for your business the risk is loss of trust and brand damage.

Since trust is the core of any transaction it’s important to know how privacy factors into your customer’s buying decisions. Research shows that almost 40% of consumers made buying decisions based upon privacy. When looking at who these people are, it was found that these individuals are aged 46-65 and have the highest incomes. But don’t rely on the business of the younger generation to supplant that once trust is lost; 27% of millenials abandoned an online purchase in the past month due to privacy or security concerns.

To mark Data Privacy Day on January 28, the following Privacy is Good for Business tips were created by privacy experts in civil-society, non-profit, government and industry and aspire to help business address the public’s growing privacy concerns:

DPD-Privacy-is-Good-for-Business-2014_1_13

  • If you collect it, protect it. Follow reasonable security measures to keep individuals’ personal information safe from inappropriate and unauthorized access.
  • Be open and honest about how you collect, use and share consumers’ personal information. Think about how the consumer may expect their data to be used.
  • Build trust by doing what you say you will do. Communicate clearly and concisely to the public about what privacy means to your organization and the steps you take to achieve and maintain privacy.
  • Create a culture of privacy in your organization. Explain to and educate employees about the importance and impact of protecting consumer and employee information as well as the role they play in keeping it safe.
  • Don’t count on your privacy notice as your only tool to educate consumers about your data practices.
  • Conduct due diligence and maintain oversight of partners and vendors. You are also responsible for how they collect and use personal information.
Avast

Wanted: Avast for Business beta testers

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Join our Avast for Business beta test program and prove its value to your company.

IMG_9675
In 2001, we began our journey toward becoming the leader in consumer desktop security by doing things differently and delivering a great product for free. Today, we protect more than 175 million home computers, more than anyone else.

In 2011, we began our journey toward becoming the leader in mobile security by doing things differently and delivering a great product for free. Today, we protect more than 50 million smartphones, making us one of the top 2 mobile security providers and well on our way to becoming number one.

In 2015, we start our next journey – this one toward becoming the leader in business security. And we’ll do so by doing things differently and delivering a great product for…

…well, keep an eye on this space. We’ve clearly shown that when we focus our efforts, we know how to deliver differentiated solutions that become market leaders despite stiff competition.

We don’t do any of this by ourselves though. Over the years, we have listened to our evangelists on the forum, our fans on social media, consumer reviews, and the people who test out our products before they are released. We gather feedback, opinions, and suggestions and integrate those into Avast products.

Now we’re doing it again.

Avast Software will turn business information security on its head with our new business-grade security product designed specifically for small and medium sized businesses. But first, we need your help.

Join our beta test program for Avast for Business and prove its value to your company.

Here’s what you get:

  • YOU GET EARLY ACCESS  – As a participant in the Avast for Business beta program, you have exclusive access to the pre-release version. You get to be the first one to experience the power and ease-of-use of Avast for Business.
  • YOU HELP US CREATE THE BEST SECURITY SOLUTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS – When you join our beta test team, you’re first in line with suggestions for improving the product, now and into the future..
  • YOU GET REWARDED FOR YOUR EFFORTS –To thank you for your participation in our beta program, and compensate your business for the time you invest, we’ll give you three full months of Premium service after the release of the new product in 2015.

How to join the program

  • Review the information about Avast for Business on our website
  • Click on SIGN UP NOW
  • Follow the on-screen instructions and start putting Avast for Business to work
  • Send us your feedback via email to [email protected].

As much as is feasible without delaying the product release, we’ll incorporate your comments into Avast for Business; other suggestions will be reserved for incorporation into future releases. And your business name will be added to the list of companies that will receive three months of Premium service after the product is released.

Avast Software’s security applications for PC, Mac, and Android are trusted by more than 200-million people and businesses. Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

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Pony stealer spread vicious malware using email campaign

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Most people want to stay on top of their bills, and not pay them late. But recently, unexpected emails claiming an overdue invoice have been showing up in people’s inboxes, causing anxiety and ultimately a malware attack. Read this report from the Avast Virus Lab, so as a consumer you’ll know what to look for, and as a systems administrator for an SMB or other website, you will know how cybercrooks can use your site for this type of social engineering scam.

Recently we saw an email campaign which attempted to convince people to pay an overdue invoice, as you can see on the following image. The user is asked to download an invoice from the attached link.

mail1

The downloaded file pretends to be a regular PDF file, however the filename “Total outstanding invoice pdf.com” is very suspicious.

When the user executes the malicious file, after a few unpacking procedures, it downloads the final vicious payload. The Avast Virus Lab has identified this payload as Pony Stealer, a well-known data-stealing Trojan which is responsible for stealing $220,000, as you can read here.

We followed the payload URL and discovered that it was downloaded from a hacked website. The interesting part is that we found a backdoor on that site allowing the attacker to take control of  the entire website. As you can see, the attacker could create a new file and write any data to that file on the hacked website, for example, a malicious php script.

backdoor

Because that website was unsecured, cybercrooks used it to place several Pony Stealer administration panels on it, including the original installation package, and some other malware samples as well.  You can see an example of Pony Stealer panel’s help page written in the Russian language on the following picture.

panel

Avast Virus Lab advises:

For Consumers: Use extreme caution if you see an email trying to convince you to pay money for non-ordered services. This use of “social engineering” is most likely fraudulent. Do not respond to these emails.

For SMBs: If you are a server administrator, please secure your server and follow the general security recommendations. As you learned from this article,  you can be hacked and a backdoor can be put in your website allowing anyone to upload whatever he wants to your website. Protect yourself and your visitors!

SHA’s and detections:

4C893CA9FB2A6CB8555176B6F2D6FCF984832964CCBDD6E0765EA6167803461D

5C6B3F65C174B388110C6A32AAE5A4CE87BF6C06966411B2DB88D1E8A1EF056B

Avast detections: Win32:Agent-AUKT, Win32:VB-AIUM

Acknowledgement:

I would like to thank Jan Zíka for discovering this campaign.

Thank you for using avast! Antivirus and recommending us to your friends and family. For all the latest news, fun and contest information, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Business owners – check out our business products.

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5 steps to keep your SMB data protected

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SMB-security

When Edward Snowden came forward in May 2013, accusing the world’s largest intelligence service of spying on US allies, people, and private companies, it became evident that electronic data is quite vulnerable. This major event even caused Russian and German government officials to consider cataloguing their data, using old-fashioned manual typewriters instead of computers. Should you do the same with your business’ data to protect it?

The only way to keep your data absolutely safe from hackers and spies is to keep it far away from computers and servers, but this approach isn’t realistic. So here are five steps that you can take to protect your small or medium size business’ data:

1)     Configure your computer network properly Regardless of the way your computers are connected in your company, via work group or server, make sure that you have implemented the right configuration. Make sure you haven’t left any gaps for hack attacks, such as software that has not been updated or free network accessibility to suppliers or all company employees.

2)     Install a business-grade antivirusThis one sounds obvious, however, it is important to point out that several SMBs still use personal antivirus to protect their business data. A company that opts to use consumer security products might not get into legal problems (although this is possible), but the major issue here is the security of the data itself. Business antivirus allows an entrepreneur to manage the company’s electronic security remotely instead of being obligated to check   each PC’s security manually. With a administration console, you can check on current problems, their solutions, and in the event of an infection or unauthorized action your console can get real-time alerts.

3)     Educate your employees about online security At AVAST we receive 50,000 samples of new viruses a day. Online security is evolving, which means you need to educate your employees about the dangers of online security and how they can best protect your company’s data on a regular basis. Try to focus on explaining the concept of social engineering to your employees, what the most recent methods of attacks are, and what the latest malware on the market is. The AVAST blog is a great place to find this information.

4)     Keep in mind that humans can fail Remember that although a great part of online security can be automated, it continues to be dependable on human actions, which from time to time can fail. Minimize the risks by training your employees properly and sharing the responsibility for data security with everyone. If a mistake is made, take it as an experience to learn from as a company, rather than cracking down on one person.

5)     Encrypt your most important data Currently, SMB owners have the option to encrypt data, so that in the case of an attack, their files will be protected. Encrypting files turns the information into unreadable code and only those who have the access to the encryption key are able to restore the files to their original state. This process is not simple, which is why it is recommended to encrypt your most important and sensitive files.

In addition to these five steps, make sure you stay up-to-date with the latest data security news. If a company in the same field as yours gets attacked, it can hit your SMB quicker than you may think! Remember, the digital world has neither frontiers nor barriers!

Thank you for using avast! Antivirus and recommending us to your friends and family. For all the latest news, fun and contest information, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Business owners – check out our business products.

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Bad news for SMBs: Target’s “Backoff” malware attack hits 1,000 more businesses

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PoS attacks

avast! Endpoint Protection can protect your network

U.S. merchants advised to protect themselves against same PoS hack that hit Target and Neiman Marcus last year.

More than 1,000 U.S. businesses have had their systems infected by Backoff, a point-of-sale (PoS) malware that was linked to the remote-access attacks against Target, Michaels, and P.F. Chang’s last year and more recently, UPS and Dairy Queen. In the Target breach alone, 40 million credit and debit cards were stolen, along with 70 million records which included the name, address, email address, and phone number of Target shoppers.

The way these breaches occur is laid out in BACKOFF: New Point of Sale Malware, a new U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report. Investigations reveal that cybercrooks use readily available tools to identify businesses that use remote desktop applications which allow a user to connect to a computer from a remote location. The Target breach began with stolen login credentials from the air-conditioning repairman.

Once the business is identified, the hackers use brute force to break into the login feature of the remote desktop solution. After gaining access to administrator or privileged access accounts, the cybercrooks are then able to deploy the PoS malware and steal consumer payment data. If that’s not enough, most versions of Backoff have keylogging functionality and can also upload discovered data, update the malware, download/execute further malware, and uninstall the malware.

General steps SMBs and consumers can take to protect themselves

  • You should use a proper security solution, like avast! Endpoint Protection, to protect your network from hacking tools, malicious modules, and from hackers using exploits as a gateway to insert malware into your network.
  • Regularly monitor your bank and credit card statements to make sure all the transactions are legitimate.
  • Change default and staff passwords controlling access to key payment systems and applications. Our blog post, Do you hate updating your passwords whenever there’s a new hack?, has some tips.
  • Monitor your credit report for any changes. You’re entitled to one free report per year from each of the three reporting agencies.

Specific tips to protect your business and customers

Remote Desktop Access

  • Configure the account lockout settings to lock a user account after a period of time or a specified number of failed login attempts.
  • Limit the number of users and workstations who can log in using Remote Desktop.
  • Use firewalls to restrict access to remote desktop listening ports.

Network Security

  • Review firewall configurations and ensure that only allowed ports, services and Internet protocol (IP) addresses are communicating with your network.
  • Segregate payment processing networks from other networks.

Cash Register and PoS Security

  • Implement hardware-based point-to-point encryption. It is recommended that EMV-enabled PIN entry devices or other credit-only accepting devices have Secure Reading and Exchange of Data (SRED) capabilities.
  • Install Payment Application Data Security Standard-compliant payment applications.
  • Deploy the latest version of an operating system and ensure it is up to date with security patches, anti-virus software, file integrity monitoring and a host-based intrusion-detection system.

See more mitigation and prevention strategies from DHS.

Learn more about PoS attacks against small and medium-sized business in our blog, Should small and medium-sized businesses be worried about PoS attacks?

Thank you for using avast! Antivirus and recommending us to your friends and family. For all the latest news, fun and contest information, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. Business owners – check out our business products.