Continue to stay safe with Avira Antivirus – it works great on Windows 10!
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Tag Archives: Company
The all-you-need PC solution: Antivius + Office software
„Users often run several programs and browsers at once. What matters to them is that they can complete their daily tasks without fear of data theft and unwanted malware. This includes sharing documents, managing photos and videos, creating presentations for school and work, as well as online banking and shopping“, explains Daniel Prauser, Manager Global Channel Management at Avira.
Avira Antivirus Pro + WPS Office Suite are easy to install and resource-friendly. Avira’s fast malware protection with award-winning detection technology provides the perfect level of security for your PC. Better still: Your personal data also remains safe – for example, from web trackers who monitor your browsing habits or from unsolicited promo messages that keep popping up.
The WPS Office Suite also includes programs to edit and create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. The software is Microsoft Office and Google Docs compatible, and can open and save all common file formats. And with cloud support, files can be edited anywhere.
The Avira Antivirus Pro + WPS Office Suite license is available for 1 device / 1 year. The WPS Office Suite can be used on two additional PCs, plus an unlimited number of Android and iOS devices.
Interested in this great bundle? Contact your local partner.
The post The all-you-need PC solution: Antivius + Office software appeared first on Avira Blog.
Avira’s Secure Browser: Plans and Tactics (Part 2)
The goal with the browser is to create an easy-to-use, secure and privacy respecting browser. These are the more advanced tactics we will be using:
Our Cloud DBs
Adding cloud features to file scanning was a large success. The detection quality of malicious files went straight up. Short:
On the client there is a behaviour detection kind of pre-selection. If a file is suspicious the cloud server is asked if the file is already known
If unknown:
- An upload is requested
- The file is uploaded to the server
- There we have several detection modules that cannot be deployed on the customers PCs (an AI with a large database, sandboxes for behavior classification, etc. ). They scan and classify the file
- The database is updated
- The results are sent back, you are protected
We built incredible databases covering malicious files during the last years. We should have something similar for the browser and use our large knowledge base and server side classification tools for web threats as well.
It should look something like that:
- The browser detects something strange (“behavior detection”), this is called pre-selection
- It asks the backend database if this is already known
- If not: relevant data (URL, file, …) is uploaded for inspection
- Our server based tool (and our analysts) will classify the upload and update our databases
- The result is sent back directly (within milliseconds. Yes, the tools are that fast. We will try to improve our analysts
) - You are protected
- We are improving our “evil parts of the internet” map.
To get there we will have to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. We are only interested in malicious pages. If the pre-selection in the browser is too aggressive and sends non-malicious pages to us, it‘s a waste of CPU cycles and bandwidth. With millions of users as a factor, even minor slips will be expensive and annoying for everyone involved.
We will also remove private data before sending it (we are not interested in user data. We are spying on malware). Personal data is actually toxic for us. Servers get hacked, databases stolen, companies gag-ordered. Not having that kind of data on our servers protects us as well as you. I mean just think of it: Some web pages have the user name in the URL (*/facepalm*). I do not think we can automatically detect and remove that trace of data though. But maybe we could shame the web pages into fixing it …*/think*
The parts in the source that collect the data and prepare them for sending are Open Source. Here I am asking you to NOT trust us and review the code! 
I hope we find a simple solution to display the data being sent to us before sending. The only problem is that it could have a negative impact on your browsing experience. Having a modal dialog when you expect a page to load …
One option could be to at least offer a global configuration to switch cloud requests off (always, in incognito mode only, never) and show you in logs what got sent.
Advertising
We are selling libraries and databases covering malicious files and web pages.
You want your own AV? Or protection technology in your Tetris game to make it unique? Just contact our SI department and make a deal.
Other companies have thousands of web-crawlers simulating user behavior to identify malware.
Millions of real Avira users are our scouts and sensors.
Some branding
We need some branding. That would include Avira specific changes in the browser (names, logos, some other texts). But also links. This is not only relevant for brand-awareness but also to keep our users away from Chrome/Chromium support to avoid confusion (“Which Chrome version do you have ?” … listens … “we never released that, can you please click on “about and tell me the version number” … listen … “WTF?!?” => Confusion) and direct them to our support – who actually CAN help.
Hardening
We will always improve the build process. There are compiler switches for features called Position Independent Executable (PIE), Fortify Source, etc. that we should enable on compilation (many are already enabled). Most time here will be spent on ensuring that they do not get disabled by accident, are enabled on all platforms, and do not slow down the browser. This task can start simple and suddenly spawn nasty side effects. This is why we need TestingTestingTesting.
TestingTestingTesting
Google added the Hotwords feature to Chromium and Chrome. It’s a nice feature. But it switches on the microphone and “spies” on the user (this is a convenience feature many users want). For our secure and privacy respecting browser this crossed a line though. This is the reason why we will have to verify that no “surprise !!!”-Extensions get installed by default. One more task for our testers that add verification tasks to the browser to handle our specific requirements. Keep in mind: Chrome and Chromium already have very good unit-tests and other automated test cases. We just need some extra paranoia. That’s the job for our testers in the team.
More transparency
We will write blog posts covering all the features. The attacks they block, their weaknesses, what we did and will be doing to improve them. We will offer you a guided tour Down the Rabbit Hole. Go with us as far as you dare.
TL;DR:
There is so much we can do to improve the browser; without touching the core.
We reached the bottom of this specific Rabbit Hole.
Thorsten Sick
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The post Avira’s Secure Browser: Plans and Tactics (Part 2) appeared first on Avira Blog.
A Workshop with Avira Beta Community Members
We were excited to welcome in Tettnang Beta testers from USA, Italy, Germany, Greece, China & Malaysia.
The members we invited to this workshop are the most active beta testers in our Antivirus for Windows Beta project and they were chosen based on the quality of their feedback and the number of forum posts or bug reports they provided.
Although they contribute to the Avira Beta Community out of their own interest, most of them are also our customers, making the information exchange even more interesting.
What happened during the 2 days?
We offered the participants a detailed tour of the Avira Protection Lab, giving them the opportunity to meet the people behind our products. In order to provide them with a technical overview as well, our experts showed them how we are visualizing the digital threats in real time. They even had the chance to hear everything about our vision as company directly from our CEO, Travis Witteveen, and meet the company founder, Tjark Auerbach.
Throughout the workshop, most of the discussions were carried around the Avira products, the current threat landscape, but we also focused on global privacy and security topics.
We collected feedback from our guests and placed them under several categories of which Features, Usability, Product ideas and also Problems resolution were the most discussed ones.
While we were happy to discover that all participants agreed that the anti-malware technology used by Avira is one of the best in the world, they seem to think we still have some work to do to improve the product usability.
Considerin
g the number of photos shared on social media, our guests seem to have enjoyed the Avira experience. As for us, we have our To Do list before the next Beta Testing Community Workshop we are looking forward to organize next year.
Thinking about joining the Avira Beta Testing Community? Click here to register now.
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Avira’s Secure Browser: Plans and Tactics (Part 1)
The Gordian knot
In order to have a secure browser, security issues have to be fixed in a certain time frame. This sounds logically, right? For us that’s only a few days after we get to know about them. Chrome fixes vulnerabilities with every release, so we are also forced to release in sync with the Chrome releases. But every change we make in the Chromium source code causes merge conflicts. When changes made by us (and which are Avira specific) and changes made by Chromium developers overlap our tools cannot combine them together. After about 150 changes we had one conflict per week. This meant spending hours untangling code.
The sword to slice through the knot: We will not introduce differences to the Chromium code.
Let’s see the browser more like a Linux distribution (Ubuntu, for example). We select the best tools. Combine them. Maintain them. Optimize them.
Open Source Extensions
There are awesome security extensions for browsers out there. Let’s just invest some man-years, copying their features. We can make closed source versions of those extensions which are almost as good as the original – but OURS!
… just kidding …
We decided to say ‘hello’ to the communities and explained our plans to them. We already started to contribute and will contribute even more (we struggled with the foundation for the browser longer than expected, so we are a bit behind the original time frame – but more about that in another post). The first extensions are integrated, more are upcoming and planned. Efficient engineering. A win-win situation.
Contributing to Chromium
Only code differences between our browser and Chromium cause issues. If we want a security feature and contribute the code to Chromium we do not have differences nor merge conflicts. We accidentally protect more people than we have to, but nobody is perfect.
We already did contribute a stash of changes that allow simpler branding (see below). But the HTTPS-Everywhere guys alone have a wish list of 2-3 large Chromium code changes. Our next steps will be to extend the extension programming interface (API) because we want more information available in the extensions. For example right now the encryption details (used cypher suite, Certificates) cannot be seen from an extension. That means that something like Calomel cannot be written for Chrome so far.
Contributing to 3rd party code
Chromium contains more than 100 third party libraries. They can contain vulnerabilities, bugs and flaws. When we find something we fix it and send the patches upstream (= to the authors). We are currently experimenting with the best way to release as many fixes per week as possible. As soon as we have figured out a good solution, we will inform you via another blog post.
Our own extensions
Of course we already integrated ABS (Avira Browser Safety) and our Safe Search. This is a no brainer. So let’s just move on.
Our external tools
Right now we plan on integrating our AV scanner into the browser. We already scan with the WebGuard, but the future of the internet is encryption (more HTTPS, o/). Webguard is a proxy, and scanning encrypted traffic with a proxy causes lots of crypto-headache. Luckily the browser does decrypt the data (it has to) as soon as it gets there: Scanning the content of the decrypted data packages directly inside the browser solves said crypto-headaches.
As of now WebGuard is fine. But of course we already plan for the future. When the future is here we will be ready – with scanning abilities in the browser.
This above are only about 50 % of what we plan on doing. Stay tuned for two more and rather advanced tactics that we plan on using and which will be described in the next blog post!
TL;DR:
There is so much we can do to improve the browser. Without touching the core.
Halfway down the Rabbit Hole. Time for a break.
Thorsten Sick
The post Avira’s Secure Browser: Plans and Tactics (Part 1) appeared first on Avira Blog.
Avira’s Secure Browser
Now we are about to stretch even further and integrate a browser into our eco system. And in case you are wondering: There are very good reasons for that.
Nowadays the top use-case for a computer is to access the internet using a browser. The infrastructure of the internet is run by different entities (routers, DNS, servers). The homepages contain executable code that is run in the browser. Manifold data formats are used in the net (HTML, JS, CSS, PNG, SVG, video formats, …). All in all it’s a well connected and extremely complex system. And it is used to access valuable data (online banking, shopping, medical research, looking for a new job, …) – a disaster waiting to happen.
The browser developers (Mozilla and community, Google and community and Microsoft) are putting lots of resources into securing those browsers. And they are doing a very impressive job.
But the threats online are not getting less. There are a lot of them: Phising, insecure Wifis, malware drive-by, trackers, … you name them!
This needs fixing.
Basically there are three points to secure:
- The client (your PC and browser): Detect attacks and block them
- The Internet infrastructure (like Wifis): End-to-End encryption fixes that
- The server (like the site that is trying to phish you): Identify and block
This is our opportunity to improve the situation.
- For the first time ever we can go beyond add-on and have more of an add-in. This means: More options to secure the system
- While the browser vendors have to produce a one-size-fits-all we can center on a more security aware customer base
- We have lots of backend databases knowing the dangerous places in the internet
- While high-end security extensions (Noscript) focus on the skilled user, we will build a system with an auto-pilot, basing the security decissions on our backend databases and our experience
- This auto pilot will also automate repetitive tasks away
- Before you ask: Skilled users can take over the wheel and override it
- You can install additional extensions. It is your browser after all
The whole project is based on extensions and chromium. Both are Open Source. We will pay for our ride: We contribute to them to guarantee a perfect browsing experience. Of course we will also integrate our Avira technology.
If you want to test it, the just head for the Avira Beta Center !
- There you can get the debian package that runs very well on my Ubuntu 15.4
- Or the Mac packages that runs on my boss’s Mac
- Or the Windows installation files requested by management – because some of you run Windows
We will also be happy to listen to your ideas and experience, so feel free to share yout thoughts with us. We would really appreciate it.
Upcoming will be a separate article describing our development process and tactics, so stay tuned.
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Big Giveaway: Share Your Internet Security Story!
Everyone who has ever been online most likely had some kind of encounter with online security. Perhaps you’ve lost some (or even worse all) of your data or your device was invaded by an especially persistent virus. There are more than enough dangers out there! But fear no more: Sticky Password partnered with us and other companies to offer anyone who shares one of their true stories about encountering a danger like that the opportunity to win a cool security bundle – which by the way includes Avira Antivirus Pro!
The best thing: participating in the giveaway is rather easy: Send your story to [email protected]. That’s it. Now you only need to hope that you’ll be one of the lucky winners. The best thing about? Even if you don’t win you can help others by anonymously sharing your experiences and learning moments.
Are you not sure whether your story qualifies? Take a look at an example:
One winner of the giveaway shared some tips he has used when helping resolve “hundreds (maybe thousands) of computer problems for friends, family, and a host of clients. What can absolutely help is learning and following a set of behaviors with your PC, and knowing what a scam looks like.” His tips include: “Have a place [or someone who you can trust] to get questions answered: the dumbest question is the one you never ask.” and “Install some sort of ad-blocking software, or learn how to tell whether or not a popup is a legitimate message.”
Good luck everyone!
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Avira vs. Freemium(dot)com – We Will Protect You Against PUA
The court order sets a legal precedent for how Internet security companies like Avira can protect their consumers from potential ad-ware injection, malware, and unintended downloads introduced by installer companies like Freemium.
One of Freemium’s major investors, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, hosts a suite of gaming sites and download sites, as well as Axel Springer’s Computerbild.de download portal, which all use Freemium’s installer software to earn money on the downloads of products they offer. Our antivirus software detects and flags unintended downloads with a safety warning, so Freemium filed a cease-and-desist letter against Avira GmbH claiming anti-competitive practices, and demanding that we should not be allowed to block the downloads.
The courts disagreed.
According to the terms of the legal judgment, our antivirus software is allowed to continue to provide a safety notice flagging these downloads as ‘potentially unwanted applications’ (PUA), in keeping with our recently published security policies. Freemium was denied its request for a cease-and-desist and, as the losing party, was ordered to pay all court costs.
“This ruling establishes a major legal milestone in the fight against misleading consumers into unintentionally installing unwanted software onto their computers,” said Travis Witteveen, CEO of Avira GmbH. “Earlier this year we established clear guidelines defining unethical software behaviour, and defining what our security software will block. We believe in ‘freemium’ and advertising-supported business models, however they must remain transparent and ethical in their implementation.”
The post Avira vs. Freemium(dot)com – We Will Protect You Against PUA appeared first on Avira Blog.
We Focus on Customers, Others Play Dirty Tricks
Our blogpost from a few days ago, NSA and GCHQ Have Been Spying on Antivirus Companies, contained our response to recent revelations that the NSA and GCHQ had been targeting antivirus vendors located outside the US and UK. The original story was published by The Intercept, and contained an image from a PowerPoint presentation listing all the potential targets which included Avira, AVAST, and AVG, among others.
We then issued our blog post indicating that our role as a security company is to keep intruders out – even if they might be governments. So far, so good.
Yesterday though, it was brought to our attention that a German website had published an article telling readers that Avira has been attacked by the NSA and that they should instead download AVAST, AVG, or G-Data, because they are more secure. This in itself is not an uncommon tactic and definitely no reason to go ahead and write a blog post – if it would have ended here. Which it didn’t: both AVAST and AVG have been removed from the list of targets (we’re not sure why, but perhaps to give the article more gravitas …)
Can you spot the difference?
Original from The Intercept (left) / Falsified image from freeware.de (right)
As you can see in the version reported by freeware.de, only Avira has been carefully encircled, while both AVG and AVAST have been removed.
Who is behind this? We are not sure, but we want our customers to be aware that this information presented is false.
The post We Focus on Customers, Others Play Dirty Tricks appeared first on Avira Blog.
NSA and GCHQ Have Been Spying on Antivirus Companies
While not the main target of the operation, Avira was nonetheless mentioned together with several other antivirus and security firms as being at least a target of interest (It’s noteworthy that none of the targets were US or UK companies). Since the revelation we have received various requests vis-à-vis our position and capabilities regarding this affair. We are of course more than happy to share our thoughts with you.
“Avira has frequently seen efforts by governments to write malicious software that attempts to prevent, circumvent, or disable our software from protecting our users. The goal is always the same: installing their programs on the computer users’ systems without detection. These tactics are used by malware authors of all kinds, not just governments.
We at Avira are constantly improving our defense and detection mechanisms to avoid such manipulation. We also use various other systems and utilities to detect such efforts, outside of our own products. Whether a government-funded malware writer, mafia, friend or enemy, the exploitation of applications is something that we are determined to prevent from happening,” says Travis Witteveen, Chief Executive Officer of Avira.
Let’s also not forget that Avira is a founding member of IT Security made in Germany and we pride ourselves in committing, among other things, to:
- Exclusively provide IT security solutions no other third party can access (no backdoors!).
- Offer products that do not cause the transmission of crypto keys, parts of keys or access recognition.
- Eliminate vulnerabilities or avoidance methods for access control systems as fast as possible once detected.
Avira will always strive to keep those commitments, be it against your run-of-the-mill malware or attempts by governments to obtain information.
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