antivirus

Detect and prevent today's sophisticated malware threats

Today's malware purveyor bears little resemblance to the outcast-teenage-loner caricature popular in days past.

Last November the FBI's Operation Ghost Click led to the arrest of six Estonians charged with promulgating the DNSChanger malware, which the FBI claims allowed the gang to steal $14 million by manipulating the servers of online advertisers. Unfortunately, DNSChanger is estimated to have infected 100 million computers worldwide and 500,000 in the U.S., many of which haven't yet been disinfected.

CNET blogger Topher Kessler describes in the MacFixIt blog how the Trojan horse works. Yes, Macs are as susceptible to … Read more

Microsoft's Essentials bet pays off

While Avast dominates worldwide security suite usage, and Symantec leads in North America, Microsoft Security Essentials is rising fast, says a new study by OPSWAT, a software development tool and data service company in San Francisco.

OPSWAT's numbers confirm that free suites drive personal computer security, not surprising given the non-existent cost. From March 2011 to February 2012, Avast, AVG, Avira, and Microsoft combined for nearly half of the worldwide security suite market. While it's true that Avast, AVG, and Avira all have paid upgrades, and those companies won't reveal how many people use their free versus … Read more

Android antivirus apps improve their grades--just not very much

A redo of an AV-Test.org report that originally found fewer than 50 percent of Android antivirus apps effective at stopping mobile threats now grades six apps higher than before. Unfortunately, that's not much of an improvement.

In an update published earlier this week, AV-Test.org CEO Andreas Marx explained that "certain parts in our initial report and the testing methodology [were] considered imprecise and/or flawed by third parties." The revised rankings now list 23 effective apps in 41 tested, or 56 percent. That's up from 17 of 41 in the previous rankings.

Because of … Read more

Editors' Choice awards for 2012 security suites

After long deliberation, CNET has awarded the top two 2012 security suites Editors' Choice awards.

In the paid suite category, we decided on Bitdefender Total Security 2012 (download) for its top-rated security, its low impact on your computer's performance, and its excellent range of features. Bitdefender started strong out of the gate, and although some came close, notably Norton and F-Secure, Bitdefender posted an impressive set of benchmarks that kept it ahead.

Choosing a top free suite for the 2012 release cycle was even more challenging. After a few years of lackluster updates, popular Avira returned to the fold, … Read more

Don't get faked by Android antivirus apps

Updated Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 5:05 p.m. PDT: After complaints from some security app makers, AV-Test.org has published an updated report that raised scores for some apps.

If you're worried about Android malware, choose wisely. There's a good chance that your trusted security app does little to protect you, says a new report from independent testing organization AV-Test.

In a preview of the study e-mailed yesterday, AV-Test's CEO Andreas Marx revealed that desktop antivirus vendors that have migrated to Android performed the best. Avast, Lookout, Dr. Web, Zoner, F-Secure, Ikarus, and Kaspersky detected … Read more

Get VIPRE AV for free with UnThreat Free AntiVirus 2012

UnThreat Free AntiVirus 2012 is a free antivirus software solution from AVSoftware. It uses the popular, well-received VIPRE antivirus engine, and offers basic protection from viruses, Trojans, rootkits, malware, adware, and other threats, including e-mail protection and antispyware protection. UnThreat Free is based on a premium tool that includes a firewall and other extra features. The freeware omits those and other bells and whistles, and it doesn't need them. Its chief recommendation is the VIPRE engine, which has tested well against a variety of threats and has generally been available only in premium AV software, until now.

When our … Read more

Avast 2012 examines your file booty

Avast continues to stay on top of the feature game by introducing bombastic top-shelf features to its security suites, while more subtly debuting an alternative source of revenue to the paid upgrade.

Available exclusively from Download.com today, Avast Free Antivirus 2012 (download), Avast Pro Antivirus (download), and Avast Internet Security (download), the Czech security company gives its free users a useful batch of improvements, while keeping the paid upgrades competitive for those who an extra zing. Also worth noting is that Avast has modularized several new security components in an Avast Market.

Avast did not update its Mac or … Read more

Get software for free when you send flowers to your Valentine

We all like getting more bang for your buck and this Valentine's day should be no exception. As a special treat, we've partnered with some of our most popular software developers, so you can get a software for free when you send your loved ones flowers for this Valentine's Day.

Choose from one of the four products below to fulfill your offer and get a software for free:

AVG Anti-Virus 2012 (orig.$39.99):

AVG Anti-Virus 2012 comes with a protective cloud technology that blocks the latest threats while you are surfing, searching and social networking. AVG'… Read more

Hackers release source code for Symantec's PCAnywhere

A group of hackers has released the source code for Symantec's PCAnywhere product.

The public release of the code yesterday came as no surprise as the hackers had been threatening such an action in a series of e-mail negotiations with what they thought were representatives of Symantec. The group, known as Yamatough but operating under the umbrella of Anonymous, had been demanding a $50,000 payoff from Symantec to keep the source code private.

Yamatough was actually negotiating with law enforcement officials posing as Symantec representatives in an attempt to draw out the group. But a "spokesperson" … Read more

Hackers threaten to release Symantec source code Tuesday

Hackers thought to have stolen source code from the Symantec's extended network have threatened to release the source code for Norton Antivirus on Tuesday, but the company says such a release poses no threat.

The hackers, who call themselves "Yama Tough" and employ the "Anonymous" mask in its Twitter avatar, said in a tweet Saturday that they would release the 1.7GB source code on Tuesday. "The rest will follow...," they added.

Several reports surfaced earlier this month that hackers had managed to access the source code for certain Symantec products. Symantec identified … Read more