Avira Premium Security Suite is "Software of the Year 2010"

Visitors from softwareload.de chose Avira as the winner in the "Security" category

Tettnang, October 22, 2010 – Over 800,000 Internet users took part in the Softwareload.de online poll, which ran between September 1 - 30, 2010, to select the "Software of the Year 2010." Voters picked their favorites from 18 software categories. Avira Premium Security Suite won first place in the "Security" category leaving nine competitors in its wake.

Prior to the online vote, a jury made up of 12 well-known IT and business journalists as well as company representatives selected ten software programs for each category.

"We are pleased to win this award and are honored to have the support of so many fans," explains Travis Witteveen, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Avira GmbH. "More than 100 million private users worldwide have shown their great trust in Avira virus protection. To be voted "Software of the Year 2010" by the Softwareload.de community is very reassuring for us."

Avira's anti-virus programs offer Internet users the right protection for all their online activities. Avira AntiVir Personal offers users free basic protection and can be downloaded from www.free-av.de. It protects against viruses, key loggers, and other threats on the Internet. The Avira AntiVir Premium solution offers users expanded security functions such as Avira WebGuard and MailGuard. These filter out viruses from the Internet data flow, thus preventing them from ever reaching your computer. The Avira Premium Security Suite offers additional protection featuring a firewall and parental controls as well as a backup function.

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Avira survey shows 1 in 3 people think all websites pose security threat

Tettnang, 31 August 2010 – IT security expert Avira conducted a survey of computer users worldwide in July which shows that more than 1 in 3 people admit that "when it comes to security, all websites are equally dangerous, all over the Internet."

In the survey, which was posed to Avira’s 100 million customers worldwide, a random sampling of users were asked “Where do you suspect is the greatest danger of malware infection on the Internet?” There were 3,325 responses which broke down in the following manner:

12.59% - Browser games (Poker, etc.) are really popular – the danger here is very high22% - Visitors are exposed to such dangers especially on websites with pornographic content26.69% - So-called Warez sites, which offer illegal software, are extremely dangerous4.14% - Big portals are particularly vulnerable, due to their popularity34.5% - When it comes to security, all websites are equally dangerous, all over the Internet

“On one hand, it’s encouraging to see that over 33 percent of our user base has learned that security threats can come from any website, but it’s also a statement on our society at large when 1 out of every 3 people can’t trust any of the websites they visit,” said Sorin Mustaca, data security expert of Avira GmbH. “Our survey shows that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers they can be exposed to while browsing, and we at Avira are very happy to be able to help our users to stay safe while surfing the Internet.”

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Avira improves email security with its managed cloud service

Tettnang, 4 October 2010 – As part of its Avira Managed Security Service product line, IT security company Avira presents a new "in-the-cloud" service package for small and medium-sized businesses called Avira Managed Email Security (AMES). This new packages offers users safety from the cloud by filtering emails and scanning for viruses long before they reach the company server or local network. Corrupted emails and spam are immediately quarantined, which helps to keep companies safe from harm.

AMES works off of Avira-owned data processing centers, which means that users don’t have to invest in new software or additional hardware. Because Avira offers a complete hosting and maintenance service for the AMES solution, companies do not have to deal with spam nor waste valuable time on administrative activities. In addition, they can also benefit from a reliable security solution that is always up to speed because Avira constantly updates the AMES cloud to ensure comprehensive protection against malware.

"On average, over 90 percent of all emails are spam! In addition to the security threat posed by viruses, spam also affects companies in many other ways. For example, spam unnecessarily limits bandwidth and server capacities, it creates additional costs, and also reduces productivity due to the time staff have to spend dealing with it," says Patrick van der Valk, Avira Chief Strategic Operations Officer.
"AMES completes the Avira portfolio of server, desktop and gateway solutions with a fully managed cloud service and brings small and medium sized businesses one step closer to an integrated security concept. But that’s not all, it also improves performance and cuts costs because it reduces the burden on staff and infrastructure Managed solutions from the data cloud offer companies a higher level of security, which Avira plans to constantly improve with the help of additional managed security services. For example, we are planning to launch our archiving component at the beginning of 2011."

By redirecting the company domain name as a cloud solution, Avira Managed Email Security acts as a veritable security buffer for the company network. Avira Managed Email Security scans all incoming, and – depending on the settings – outgoing emails for spam and viruses, it then forwards safe messages to the company’s mail server. If the mail server is offline, messages are kept in the cloud and forwarded as soon as possible. Blocked emails are kept away from the company and saved in the AMES cloud’s quarantine area. Users receive email notification about the blocked content.

Thanks to its intuitive user platform MyAccount.avira.com, Avira provides access to isolated messages and full control over the system (including detailed filter rules). It allows user rights and settings, which range from administrator rights to group and individual settings, to be defined. This enables certain categories of emails, contents or attachments to be blocked or unblocked manually. Also, Avira MyAccount platform can modify stringent filter and scanner settings. Support is available from the German-speaking Avira support center.

In order to provide reliable protection against spam, viruses and other threats, AMES relies on internally developed technologies, such as the heuristic ProTAG scanner and the HICAR module used to scan images. Combined with traditional Avira Antivirus technology, these are reliable tools for malware detection. The heuristic ProTAG scanner, in particular, identifies new viruses faster than conventional methods. ProTAG scans the email traffic for patterns and behaviors that may indicate malware. That’s how AMES is able to detect infected emails long before a new virus update is available for locally installed antivirus software.

Avira Managed Email Security is already available from authorized Avira Channel Partners. Licensing depends on the number of users and is provided for 5 users or more. Available contract terms are 12, 24 and 36 months.
As an example, the cost for 250 users is € 21 per license for one year or roughly € 50 for a three year contract. This helps small businesses with 50 or less users to benefit from comprehensive AMES protection with an annual investment of only € 1,100.
There are no installation fees. All prices are net prices and do not include VAT.

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Avira survey shows 1 in 3 people think all websites pose security threat

Tettnang, 31 August 2010 – IT security expert Avira conducted a survey of computer users worldwide in July which shows that more than 1 in 3 people admit that "when it comes to security, all websites are equally dangerous, all over the Internet."
In the survey, which was posed to Avira’s 100 million customers worldwide, a random sampling of users were asked “Where do you suspect is the greatest danger of malware infection on the Internet?” There were 3,325 responses which broke down in the following manner:
12.59% - Browser games (Poker, etc.) are really popular – the danger here is very high22% - Visitors are exposed to such dangers especially on websites with pornographic content26.69% - So-called Warez sites, which offer illegal software, are extremely dangerous4.14% - Big portals are particularly vulnerable, due to their popularity34.5% - When it comes to security, all websites are equally dangerous, all over the Internet
“On one hand, it’s encouraging to see that over 33 percent of our user base has learned that security threats can come from any website, but it’s also a statement on our society at large when 1 out of every 3 people can’t trust any of the websites they visit,” said Sorin Mustaca, data security expert of Avira GmbH. “Our survey shows that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers they can be exposed to while browsing, and we at Avira are very happy to be able to help our users to stay safe while surfing the Internet.”

View the original article here