Slashdot Mirror

Avast is Czech, as is its subsidiary AVG, Avira is German, BitDefender is Romanian, ESET is Slovak, F-Secure is Finnish and Panda Security is Spanish. Sophos is British, so it is probably more likely to be tampered with.

"Avast just announced that the company has acquired the software company Piriform, best known for the software program CCleaner for Windows.

Piriform's flagship product is CCleaner, a temporary file cleaner and traces remover for Windows. The company has created other respectable programs such as Speccy, a hardware inventory software, Defraggler, a file defragmentation program, and Recuva, a file recovery application." - via Ghacks!

"Avast just announced that the company has acquired the software company Piriform, best known for the software program CCleaner for Windows.

Piriform's flagship product is CCleaner, a temporary file cleaner and traces remover for Windows. The company has created other respectable programs such as Speccy, a hardware inventory software, Defraggler, a file defragmentation program, and Recuva, a file recovery application." - via Ghacks!

Avast acquires Piriform, makers of CCleaner

"Avast just announced that the company has acquired the software company Piriform, best known for the software program CCleaner for Windows.

Piriform's flagship product is CCleaner, a temporary file cleaner and traces remover for Windows. The company has created other respectable programs such as Speccy, a hardware inventory software, Defraggler, a file defragmentation program, and Recuva, a file recovery application." - via Ghacks

Avast acquires Piriform, makers of CCleaner

"Avast just announced that the company has acquired the software company Piriform, best known for the software program CCleaner for Windows.

Piriform's flagship product is CCleaner, a temporary file cleaner and traces remover for Windows. The company has created other respectable programs such as Speccy, a hardware inventory software, Defraggler, a file defragmentation program, and Recuva, a file recovery application." - via Ghacks

Download some AV like Avast.
Run the Home network security
https://www.avast.com/f-home-n...
If you need your CCTV network sending out images use cell networks to send the alert images.

I can text a kill code from a trusted sender, e.g. my wife's cell. They turn on a siren, wipe, etc... https://www.avast.com/en-us/an...

Get more OS brands and AV firms to offer something like Avast 2015 new feature: Home Network Security scanning (4 November 2014)
https://blog.avast.com/2014/11...
Find any device that responds to a list of well understood admin/passwords settings.
That won't help with all device issues but it might help a bit.

1. Secure your router or other network device with a new strong password thats not the default password or admin or user.
2. Run something like Avast Home Network Security https://www.avast.com/f-home-n... to see if any device still has issues.
Get OS makers in the US to scan the networks they are on to test if networked devices have default password and warn users to change them.
Most users will click past such warnings but its a simple step given the AV work the larger US OS brands now ship with their OS.
3. If you have some CCTV like device that has a network alert, use a dedicated cell network to send that image out to your cell phone.
Lots of cheap devices don't need to be internet facing and have the ability to connect.
4. Don't connect your "tv" display, refrigerator, dishwasher, lights, heater, AC to the internet. Use a cell phone network or think back to a next gen pager that only has one secure link to that user for devices that have to alert a user.
5. Use ethernet if possible so other users cant try and access your wifi network.
6. Empower the FCC to secure US networked communications consumer products. Not just interference but basic password security as sold too.
You buy a router in the USA, it ships with its own random strong password and username unique to that device not "password" for entire generations of devices...

Make sure the passwords are not on some support forum or default pass, user, password.
Buy CCTV or some other vital IoT that will talk to your cell phone without needing the internet when altered.
Remove all the things from the network that need the "internet" when not at home. Be able to chart, log, respond to changing network conditions when at home.
Get away from wifi and upgrade to ethernet to connect only important devices.
Get some AV to test your network. Something like https://www.avast.com/f-home-n... to see if any issues need fixing.
Get a good secure router. Don't keep it internet connected when it is unattended. If a very important device needs to call out e.g. CCTV, try a cell network.
The router attacks are looking for a device thats got default login name/password for now.
Until device makers care about security, do users really need an IoT thats junk and can swarm the net to always be connected?

See subject & "EFast" (they took Chrome's "OpenSORES" & f'd it up to serve ads + malware etc.) https://blog.avast.com/2015/10/21/fake-chrome-browser-replaces-real-thing-and-serves-up-unwanted-ads/

* Do you THINK I'm as stupid as that (& you "opensores" fools + Google on that account)?

No way...

(Why do you think the next smartphone OS from Google's NOT gonna be open source? THIS is WHY!)

LASTLY I see you TRIED TO "DOWNMOD HIDE" THIS EVIDENCE LAST TIME I POSTED IT https://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9963399&cid=53444003/ LOL!

("Gosh, I wonder why?" - NOT - it shuts your "OpenSORES" bullshit down easily IS why!)

APK

P.S.=> Stop using your "OpenSORES" bullshit on me - you can see the results of what happens IF/WHEN you do what you stupidly suggest, idiot (plus I don't just give away my work so some other FOOL can 'call it his' either (which is PRETTY MUCH what you fake coders do in 'opensores'))... apk

See subject & "EFast" (they took Chrome's "OpenSORES" & f'd it up to serve ads + malware etc.) https://blog.avast.com/2015/10/21/fake-chrome-browser-replaces-real-thing-and-serves-up-unwanted-ads/

* Do you THINK I'm as stupid as that (& you "opensores" fools + Google on that account)?

No way...

(Why do you think the next smartphone OS from Google's NOT gonna be open source? THIS is WHY!)

APK

P.S.=> Stop using your "OpenSORES" bullshit on me - you can see the results of what happens IF/WHEN you do what you stupidly suggest, idiot (plus I don't just give away my work so some other FOOL can 'call it his' either (which is PRETTY MUCH what you fake coders do in 'opensores'))... apk

This is a known issue and is being worked on by the actual Avast! support : https://forum.avast.com/index....
I don't know how the OP submitted the ticket, but it went to a "retention specialist" who probably thought he was trying to use it on Ubuntu (at least that's what I understand from the first email reply). And it is not just Avast!, see for example similar problems with Kaspersky: https://github.com/Microsoft/B... and more: https://github.com/Microsoft/B...

Yup: "...people should utilize a VPN service that anonymizes their data while connecting to public hotspots to ensure that their connection is secure. Avast SecureLine VPN for Android and iOS devices encrypts connections on unsecured public Wi-Fi and allows users to browse anonymously. " https://press.avast.com/en-us/...

Here's the actual announcement from Avast:
https://press.avast.com/en-us/...

That has all you might need. No need to hitch off this softpedia site. They're not adding any value over reading the press release and they don't even include a link (or I didn't see it in their layout) to the original press report. It's the internet, linking is kind of important. Maybe they want to pretend it's exclusive content or real journalism? I dunno... Screw it, avoid entering the unknown and go to a verified source - like the message of the article.

Yes, in fact you can't even buy one for linux.

Avast Anti-Virus for Linux. Purchasable for $199 per server per server.

lmao, windows is wide open to abuse

There’s more than one RAT (November 5th, 2015)
https://blog.avast.com/2015/11...
" OmniRat can also give you remote control of any Windows, Linux or Mac device."

Perhaps "OmniRAT Lets Hackers Control Android Phones, Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs" really means "OmniRAT Lets Hackers Control Android Phones *from* Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs". A screen grab in the Avast blog post speaks of a "Multi-OS Server - Android Client", which may mean that the server that controls the remote phone can run on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

now offering Multi-OS Server / Multi-OS Client

Perhaps "OmniRAT Lets Hackers Control Android Phones, Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs" really means "OmniRAT Lets Hackers Control Android Phones *from* Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs". A screen grab in the Avast blog post speaks of a "Multi-OS Server - Android Client", which may mean that the server that controls the remote phone can run on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

From the post on Avast's blog, the ones who started this whole thing, the scam is evidently to put out software with the same name as 50 different major companies, wait for people to mistakenly download, and pay $1.99 for the app. That's not much of a major criminal scheme, it's pretty pathetic and it is well within the powers of a major corporation like Microsoft to shut this down.

The really eye-opening part is when one of the "malicious" apps is defined as the following:

"Claiming to âoeprotect your phone from malware and theftâ, this malicious app runs in the background of victimsâ(TM) devices once downloaded and collects their data and location."

This is what Windows 10 does by design. I think we need to redefine what "malicious" means. In both softwares you clicked "I agree" to the T&C before continuing.

Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender has been falling behind for years now. It used to be pretty good. But now, it unfortunately doesn't catch a lot newer malware. Microsoft dropped the ball and stopped putting the proper R&D into their product.

Bitdefender Free is my new favorite these days:
http://www.bitdefender.com/sol...

Fast, effective, and low impact. Bitdefender Free is not free for commercial use, however. And they don't have a free version that support Windows 10 yet. Bitdefender scores at or near the top in most AV comparison tests for malware detection.

Best free commercial AV is Avast for Business:
https://www.avast.com/avast-fo...

Not quite as low-impact as Bitdefender, and not quite as effective, but it's OK. I've used Avast for years as well. (It used to be my standard free AV, and I still use it on some systems.) Their free business AV is basically their paid AV business product stripped down to just AV, not firewalls, and anti-spam, and other cruft. The Windows firewall is just fine these days, and is you have a decent mail server spam isn't a problem. (And there are other decent free anti-spam products, like Cloudmark Desktop One.) So a plain-old just-AV product is fine with me. Includes a cloud-based console system as well, so you can centrally keep track of your AV clients -- which is GREAT for a free product.

Good luck!

Or it could be that their competition is the most used advertising/search engine in the entire world, Google.

Every time you go to Google it suggests that you should switch to chrome. Maybe that eventually gets to people and they click willingly. Maybe one day they accidentally click somewhere on the page and get it. Maybe they download adobe acrobat or flash and get it installed by drive-by. Maybe a malware site does the drive-by.

A DIVX codec pack causes IE to use Chrome inside IE
Avast antivirus installs chrome if you miss the tiny checkbox Adobe installs chrome with if you miss the checkbox while installing flash player or reader. Maybe you just wanted to install Google Earth and play with maps. Boom. You've now got chrome If you install any well known popular application, chances are it bundles a chrome install.

Hey that's a great idea! what if we just make everyone run chrome if they decide to click yes to a popup box IChrome evangelists are taking a cue from malware writers.

It should be noted that Google is now ceasing this drive-by install method of chrome

Clearly, Firefox needs to invent a superior search engine to regain market share, then push people people to install Firefox. Or just convince everyone of their devoted followers to script "install firefox" into applications and web pages where it is completely unnecessary. That's how Google got their market-share.

Bank of America
Associated Bank
America’s Credit Unions
Etrade Financial Corporation
US bank
Banco de Sabadell
Farmers & Merchants Bank
HSBC
TD Bank
For anyone wondering....

BancorpSouth
Chase
Fifth third bank
Wells Fargo
StateFarm
Regions
ING Direct
M&T Bank
PNC
UBS
RBC Royal Bank
RBS
CityBank
Bank BGZ
Westpack
Scotiabank
United Services Automobile Association


Source: http://blog.avast.com/2014/09/...

To go along with using what I wrote originally in regards to hosts files efficacy vs. FastFlux + DynDNS botnets (& a lot more in the way of malicious threats online + bandwidth sapping advertisements & FAR more) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

APK

P.S.=> May not be "absolutely current" (as to the Domain Generating Algorithm used), but THOSE come out from the security community eventually, ala GarWarner of Malcovery helping us out here on /. the other day in fact, vs. GameOver (a ZBot/Zeus variant) & even CryptoLocker's many, Many, MANY 1,000s of nodes/endpoints + C&C Servers, here:

http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

However - the FINE AVAST ARTICLE from 2013 lists the KEY C&C servers it uses (200++ approximately) here:

http://blog.avast.com/2013/06/...

Thus, you use that data for "chopping it off @ the roots" for commands/instructions to infested enslaved systems, (effectively NULLIFYING it via host-domain name usage which FastFlux &/or Dynamic DNS using botnets ARE dependent on...)

... apk

To go along with using what I wrote originally in regards to hosts files efficacy vs. FastFlux + DynDNS botnets (& a lot more in the way of malicious threats online + bandwidth sapping advertisements & FAR more) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

APK

P.S.=> May not be "absolutely current" (as to the Domain Generating Algorithm used), but THOSE come out from the security community eventually, ala GarWarner of Malcovery helping us out here on /. the other day in fact, vs. GameOver (a ZBot/Zeus variant) & even CryptoLocker's many, Many, MANY 1,000s of nodes/endpoints + C&C Servers, here:

http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

However - the FINE AVAST ARTICLE from 2013 lists the KEY C&C servers it uses (200++ approximately) here:

http://blog.avast.com/2013/06/...

Thus, you use that data for "chopping it off @ the roots" for commands/instructions to infested enslaved systems, (effectively NULLIFYING it via host-domain name usage which FastFlux &/or Dynamic DNS using botnets ARE dependent on...)

... apk

To go along with using what I wrote originally in regards to hosts files efficacy vs. FastFlux + DynDNS botnets (& a lot more in the way of malicious threats online + bandwidth sapping advertisements & FAR more) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

APK

P.S.=> May not be "absolutely current" (as to the Domain Generating Algorithm used), but THOSE come out from the security community eventually, ala GarWarner of Malcovery helping us out here on /. the other day in fact, vs. GameOver (a ZBot/Zeus variant) & even CryptoLocker's many, Many, MANY 1,000s of nodes/endpoints + C&C Servers, here:

http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

However - the FINE AVAST ARTICLE from 2013 lists the KEY C&C servers it uses (200++ approximately) here:

http://blog.avast.com/2013/06/...

Thus, you use that data for "chopping it off @ the roots" for commands/instructions to infested enslaved systems, (effectively NULLIFYING it via host-domain name usage which FastFlux &/or Dynamic DNS using botnets ARE dependent on...)

... apk

That would indeed be a bit more exotic, but from what I can tell it's just doing a simple http get to the Russian server with the encoded credentials. From the Avast report:
https://blog.avast.com/wp-cont...

The DNS lookup to the Russian server and the http get are there as plain as day.

...because avast! has been offering this for a while now. Plus, I'm not sure I want allow more Google access into my life.

OP doesn't link to Avast. http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

avast hosts the download off their site too but you have to know where to look....
http://www.avast.com/en-us/free-antivirus-download#tab4

avg is the same way.. their offline installer is here...
http://free.avg.com/ww-en/download.prd-afh

(these are links for en-us)

There is also an easy way to solve it, that is the combo of Comodo Dragon and Avast Free. you simply use the Dragon's built in secure DNS, which is constantly updated and will block any site that has malware (you can of course choose to go to the site anyway but Comodo tells you what malware is on the site so if you continue its your own stupidity) and if there happens to be a site Comodo doesn't catch (haven't seen one yet, but possible) then Avast, which scans the page BEFORE it loads will catch it and put a screeching halt to the page load and throw up a warning, again listing the malware that was detected.

Using this combo my users, some of which would get more viruses than a Bangkok whore, went down to nothing. Zip, zero nada, squat. I even loaded it on an XP test box (because XP security sucks compared to Win 7, which is what most of my users are now on) and just started clicking every link in my spam folder, just to see if I could infect the thing. I got a bazillion stop loads by Comodo along with Avast saying I shouldn't go to that site, but as long as I didn't click ignore, which should be called the "yes I'm a moron please infect me' button, all was golden. I ran three different offline scanners, two boot CD scanners, and two online scanners, and nothing. Zip zero nada squat. Then add in Win 7 with ASLR and DEP and you have a box that I can hand to my worst users and not have to worry about it coming back except for hardware upgrades.

So you CAN lock Windows down nicely, it just takes a little thought, that's all. I tried the same experiment with MSE and 3 got through, AVG let 2 past, Adaware Free also caught everything though, so if you prefer it over Avast its good. I've simply found my customers like Avast, especially that nice little female voice that Avast uses. But with the above you too can let your worst users loose on the net and go have a beer, confidant you won't be dealing with a zombie when you get back.

Haven't used it myself but: Avast uninstall utility

As has been pointed out already, the article deals with MS servers. MSSE is not available for servers, and I don't think that Avast free version is available for servers. ClamAV is free, for servers, for desktops, for workstations, for home use, for enterprise. No restrictions.

What is the cost for Avast on an enterprise server, anyway? Hmmm - looks like $175 for the bargain basement deal, and $250 for the more robust business version. http://www.avast.com/business

That's not a lot of money - unless your business runs on a financial shoestring. In today's economy, a lot of businesses are run on shoestrings!

Oh I should have read the article. It's a genuine exploit for Apple computers. It's also the Black Hat conference and not a media release. Apologies Slashdot crowd.

Just goes to show that all software has bugs and it is highly likely that those bugs include security bugs. Nobody is immune from making mistakes.

One thing I find amusing is that Apple deploys malware detection called XProtect based on string matching. It is irresponsible to say that Macs are completely immune from malware. Security on Macs can only go downhill as it becomes less obscure.

I'm not even going to bother linking all of these...

http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/virusscan-enterprise-for-linux.aspx
http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/enterprise/serverprotect-for-linux/
http://www.kaspersky.com/linux
http://www.eset.eu/products/nod32-for-linux
http://www.centralcommand.com/Products/VexiraforLinux/VexiraforLinuxFileserver.aspx http://www.centralcommand.com/Products/VexiraforLinux/VexiraforLinuxSambaServer.aspx
http://www.centralcommand.com/Products/VexiraforMailServers.aspx
http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/download_fplinux.html
http://www.avast.com/linux-home-edition
http://www.avast.com/linux-unix-edition
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/endpoint/endpoint-security-and-data-protection/components/anti-virus-protection/linux.aspx?utm_source=Non-campaign&utm_medium=AdWords&utm_campaign=NA-AW-Linux
http://www.ca.com/us/Support/gsa/Virus-Info/Virus-Signature-Updates/eTrust-Antivirus-7x-for-UNIX-and-Linux.aspx
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads/desktopsecure/
http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/
http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/commandline/
http://free.avg.com/us-en/download.prd-alf
http://download.bitdefender.com/repos/

I'm not even going to bother linking all of these...

http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/virusscan-enterprise-for-linux.aspx
http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/enterprise/serverprotect-for-linux/
http://www.kaspersky.com/linux
http://www.eset.eu/products/nod32-for-linux
http://www.centralcommand.com/Products/VexiraforLinux/VexiraforLinuxFileserver.aspx http://www.centralcommand.com/Products/VexiraforLinux/VexiraforLinuxSambaServer.aspx
http://www.centralcommand.com/Products/VexiraforMailServers.aspx
http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/download_fplinux.html
http://www.avast.com/linux-home-edition
http://www.avast.com/linux-unix-edition
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/endpoint/endpoint-security-and-data-protection/components/anti-virus-protection/linux.aspx?utm_source=Non-campaign&utm_medium=AdWords&utm_campaign=NA-AW-Linux
http://www.ca.com/us/Support/gsa/Virus-Info/Virus-Signature-Updates/eTrust-Antivirus-7x-for-UNIX-and-Linux.aspx
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads/desktopsecure/
http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/
http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/commandline/
http://free.avg.com/us-en/download.prd-alf
http://download.bitdefender.com/repos/

This is the same story as spam (though we'd be happy eliminating spam); it started out as a novelty ("look what I can do!") and slowly migrated into an extremely profitable (and largely criminal) business. The fact that it's so poorly policed (I'm not talking filters here) makes it a perfect vehicle for all sorts of criminal ventures that vastly pre-date email, the internet, and even the fax machine (though most of these scams were seen as faxes 40+ years ago). Specifically, drug peddling, advance-fee fraud (Nigerian 419 scams), fake charities, crap merchandise, and the list goes on.

Congratulations, BitTorrent pirate networks, you are now "mature" because the criminals have you in their cross-hairs.

As to whether this is "the end of" anything ... I strongly disagree. People forget that BitTorrent is a protocol. Piracy may be one of its more visible applications, but there is so very much more. Criminal spam destroyed joke spam and most bulk email, but email has remained (well, it might eventually be obsoleted by Facebook Messages, SMS, IM, etc, but that's not really spam's fault ... and is an entirely different debate).

This is really about the use of BitTorrent to transfer copyrighted material and not about the protocol itself. Malware will persist in pirated software and media and people will get better at detecting and eliminating it. There are invite-only BitTorrent communities that closely monitor their userbase and content library for this sort of thing. These will only get more popular. There in an increased volume of free anti-virus applications out there (Avira, AVG, and Avast, ClamAV, and more), and there is also an increased variety of platforms people use (Mac OS is on the rise, as are the various smartphones, not to mention the less-notable increases in F/OSS OSs). There is also the legal fight against the MPAA/RIAA (MAFIAA) conglomerates, which seems to be heading in a good (albeit slow) direction for fair use.

We're seeing legitimate software and media increasing its adoption of free distribution; upcoming artists are embracing Creative Commons licenses, Free Software is immensely popular and will get a major bump once China, Russia, and other governments start to make good on their promises to dump Windows, and mobile phones are entering the arena.

Phones' 4G technology symbolizes the marriage of high bandwidth with high computational power, which trivializes things like streaming TV over your phone. 4G also represents an IP telephony model (VoIP), which means any cellular carrier that offers TV (currently all of the major players) must offer it as IPTV. Even my cable connection is IPTV (I can see my router's downstream byte count add up while watching TV). Couple this with Netflix and its competitors having quickly adopted their paradigms to allow streaming their content to any computer connected to your TV (video game consoles, smarter TVs and DVD/BluRay players, specialty boxes) as well as other vendors like Boxee and Hulu and you have a streaming-TV revolution.

How will this play out with respect to "piracy" remains to be seen, but I think we can see hints of its hopeful outcome in looking at the past battle of music, won by iTunes and Grooveshark; why get a questionable copy when a legitimate one is so much easier to obtain?

Actually, since a license is free for non-commercial use, it's most likely to show how many people are too lazy to fill out an online form or register an account (possibly giving their email up to spammers--I mean marketing). Kinda like using bugmenot to get into free-to-register websites.

Note really. Avast Pro has extra features compared to Avast Free. It's just a matter of what can still be pirated (that is with automatic updates, you phone home all the time). First 'everyone' was using Kaspersky, then 'everyone' was using NOD32, and then... I guess it's Avast Pro for some... (drumroll) Microsoft Security Essentials for others.

You can see it near the bottom of this page.

I was mildly disappointed at how scary they made it look, but meh. It’s not like they were telling the users anything they probably didn’t already know, and I’d say that the music industry has successfully waged a shock&awe campaign to inform people of what, exactly, they can do to you if they catch you making unauthorized copies. I’d have been much more impressed if they had tried to present a more friendly and informative message. Something along the lines of:

We have detected that this copy of avast! Pro is using an unauthorized license code (in other words, you didn’t pay for it).

Perhaps you didn’t realize it, but avast! also offers a free edition for personal and non-commercial use. Please select from one of the options below:

[ Downgrade this copy to avast! Free Edition ]
[ Learn more about pricing plans for avast! Pro Edition ]

Simple, to the point, and non-scary.

No, that would be if we linked to the official press release.

Avast. Ive been using it for years on my gaming rig, it works great. And yes, they have a free version: http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Exactly. 99 regular sites infected to 1 porn site infected is rather telling if there are 1000 times more regular sites, which would mean that you have a ten-fold increase in risk on porn sites.

Way to miss the point, which is that avoiding porn sites doesn't mean you won't get infected. This proves that there are many regular sites out there that are infected, ratio of anything be damned.

They're making a claim involving a ratio. I'm pointing out a flaw in their claim. If the ratio is unimportant, they shouldn't have mentioned it. And they've "proven" something that was already widely known in the security community and re-packaged it as news.

As usual, this is a non-story that boils down to nothing more than a press release for Avast: "You're at risk! Buy our crap which will slow down your computer and probably won't detect much anyways!"

Avast is free. It even says so in the summary.

And we all know the summary is heavily fact checked by the Slashdot editors, right? From http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download : "Enjoy worry-free web surfing - Innovative Sandbox technology protects you from dangerous websites" -- not available in the free edition. And their free edition is only available for personal and non-commercial use only. Their business offerings start at $39.95 for a 1 computer, 1 year subscription.

My point still stands that this is a press release designed to drum up more sales by spinning a problem as news while painting Avast as having the solution to this problem. Classic PR material.

If you must use XP, I suggest you use a free anti-virus such as Avast, and use the free software I suggest above.

Unfortunately, Avast! Antivirus is only free for personal use, not commercial. Educational pricing seems to be available, but you will need to contact them for more details.

On a side note, using some form of Linux/Unix or OS X will result in fewer virus/exploit issues... which may or may not be an actual issue, if you're deploying with disk/OS images on a daily basis, or per-login (LTSP, anyone?)

http://www.avast.com/fr-fr/distributed-network-manager

http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/enterprise/solutions/adminsecure/

I cron this every day, have fun!

fog@fog:/usr/local/bin$ cat getantivirus.sh
wget -N -i /antivirus/filestoget.txt -P /antivirus

fog@fog:/antivirus$ cat filestoget.txt
http://www.superantispyware.com/downloads/SASDEFINITIONS.EXE
http://downloads.superantispyware.com/downloads/SUPERAntiSpyware.exe
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe
http://www.spybotupdates.com/files/spybotsd162.exe
http://www.spybotupdates.biz/updates/files/spybotsd_includes.exe
http://download.avgfree.com/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_85_420a1708.exe
http://go.trendmicro.com/free-tools/hijackthis/HijackThisInstaller.exe
http://dlce.antivir.com/package/wks_avira/win32/en/pecl/avira_antivir_personal_en.exe
http://dl.antivir.de/down/vdf/ivdf_fusebundle_nt_en.zip
http://mbam.malwarebytes.org/database/mbam-rules.exe
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/vpsupd.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

I cron this every day, have fun!

fog@fog:/usr/local/bin$ cat getantivirus.sh
wget -N -i /antivirus/filestoget.txt -P /antivirus

fog@fog:/antivirus$ cat filestoget.txt
http://www.superantispyware.com/downloads/SASDEFINITIONS.EXE
http://downloads.superantispyware.com/downloads/SUPERAntiSpyware.exe
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe
http://www.spybotupdates.com/files/spybotsd162.exe
http://www.spybotupdates.biz/updates/files/spybotsd_includes.exe
http://download.avgfree.com/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_85_420a1708.exe
http://go.trendmicro.com/free-tools/hijackthis/HijackThisInstaller.exe
http://dlce.antivir.com/package/wks_avira/win32/en/pecl/avira_antivir_personal_en.exe
http://dl.antivir.de/down/vdf/ivdf_fusebundle_nt_en.zip
http://mbam.malwarebytes.org/database/mbam-rules.exe
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/vpsupd.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

Check again.... it's one year.

because all antivirus software is made by people who are governed by the laws of the united states...

I have been using a program called avast! I have found it to be thorough, and non invasive. on top of all that it is free, only requires you to register a new code once a year. http://www.avast.com/