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Avast Acquires AVG For $1.3 Billion To Create Security Software Giant (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Security software giant Avast Software has acquired rival AVG Technologies. Avast will pay $25 in cash for each of AVG's outstanding ordinary shares, in a deal amounting to around $1.3 billion. Avast said that it's acquiring AVG to "gain scale, technological depth and geographical breadth" and so it can "take advantage of emerging growth opportunities in internet security as well as organizational efficiencies." The combined company will have access to "400 million endpoints" -- that is, devices that have some form of Avast or AVG application installed. Almost half of those are mobile too, which is key in a world that is increasingly shifting away from the desktop. With access to more devices, this will serve the joint company a bigger pool of data on malware, meaning it should be better positioned to offer better security products. "We are in a rapidly changing industry, and this acquisition gives us the breadth and technological depth to be the security provider of choice for our current and future customers," said Vince Steckler, CEO of Avast. "Combining the strengths of two great tech companies, both founded in the Czech Republic and with a common culture and mission, will put us in a great position to take advantage of the new opportunities ahead, such as security for the enormous growth in IoT." The boards of both companies have approved the acquisition. However, AVG's shareholders still need to approve the deal, which Avast expects to happen between September and October 2016.
is called "Avavg"
Why would you pay for it?
It's rather appalling that there even exists a multibillion dollar anti-virus industry for Windows. Although I'm not entirely blaming Microsoft here, since almost every single one of these shite companies are snake-oil salesmen that poach upon Windows' reputation for being insecure (it still is, but avast or AVG aren't going to fix it).
This will not solve any real world problem. We are all still completely fucked. AV software is just a placebo.
Install BSD and don't panic.
I have used AVG for many years but switched to Avira now (still don't know if that was good or bad ;) but AVG has gone down the drain, they popup shit ad's all the time and ask the same thing over and over and over, typical is "How about a little upgrade to blablabla...." and you press decline and after a few hours the same shitty ad popup again.
Avast is not much fun either these days.
Avira also popup ad's but not in anyway as annoying as the AVG rubbish.
And if anyone tried to complain about this on the AVG forum.... well..... no very funny.
Not surprising, but AVG free version constantly asks you to try option features like phone locking on Android or others on Windows. It's a little annoying. I actually removed AVG from my Galaxy S5 after having it on for a few weeks, it was so annoying. Was thinking to try Avast but now I wonder if Avast will be as annoying as AVG is?
Avast and AVG's free products are both dedicated to the notion that they can harass and annoy you into giving them money. Does that work on people?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I got to find a new free AV solution, fuck.
I'm an AVAST user. For years, AVG has been well-known to bring good computers to their knees. I specifically remember an entire classroom of computers slowing to a near stand-still because AVG initiated a scan. Presentations had to be halted, etc... For years afterward, every computer that had AVG was very slow and when switched to AVAST, speed up immensely. If Avast even hints at becoming slower after this buyout, I'm finding a new antivirus. I have no loyalty.
That's why the big players are babbling "end to end encryption": they're set on incrusting themselves in the end devices!
It used to be Just Microsoft (TM). Now it's Apple, Google (Chrome plus uncountable little javascript spies) Avast, and then, hardware (Intel Management Engine and others).
Plus, they are finding ways to coopt law makers to leave us no choice, because DRM (e.g. Intel AMT, no shit!), because radio emissions regulation (wlan stuff), because terrorists, just because. Actually, this kind of collusion is the more scary part.
What's all this end-to-end encryption good for if "they" are in my device? If my client was compiled with Visual C++, which sends telemetry to Microsoft (again, no shit)?
I'm pretty disgusted at this point.
I assume this is so they can replace the heating coils with a cpu running antivirus software.
AVG has sucked for years, both in resource utilization and questionable behavior. Avast likes to spam for paid subs, even though the last I looked they had a decent catch rate.
I don't see myself using or recommending them ever unless something changes. My current recommendation to customers is BitDefender free. Lightweight, quiet, and works. That is if they don't want to spring for our managed product (which uses a customized version of bitdefender for the AV portion of the service).
Silence is a state of mime.
I think it was a race between uninstalled Norton junk and AVG antivirus(which missed Nimda) which finally got me to remove MSFT from my computers and go all Linux.
If half are mobile, does that means those run on windows phone?
This is great news. Now when I'm comparing AV test suites, I now only have to skip past one column of wasted space rather than 2. That will leave more room for AV software that isn't substandard.
Goodbye AVG. Nice knowin' ya.
First off, all virus come from the internet nowadays. Yeah there's USB stick, but, in most case, you plug them between stuff at your house.
Add a good browser paired with ad-block kinda remove all threat from your usual website. Now even Chrome block you from entering website with reported attack. Even sending virus through email seems like a challenge with build-in antivirus check scanning the crap out of every byte in your attached file.
And, as a final layer of security, there's the new Microsoft antivirus (Defender, ex. Microsoft Security defender) that seem to give a decent security. And it's got the most importing feature that all others antivirus seem to lack, it's not a virus itself.
How many time I have checked a slow laptop only to uninstall Norton and see it running fine again? And what about the other free antivirus? When they don't put adware and trick you into giving them money, they just simply sell your data : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...
So, back to my initial question, are antiviruses still relevant today?
Elok
I don't think they've been relevant for about 10 years.
Of course I prefer proper hygiene on a computer than raw dogging hookers in Thailand and then hoping penicillin works.
And proper hygiene isn't even AV or condoms - just don't be stupid with what you connect to. pine for email, don't visit random sites, ad-block things, etc.
Does anybody know how to push out a config for Avast for Business that turns off all the goddamn sounds? It looks like I have to touch each client because the settings don't appear to be in the config that gets generated server-side.
It's like they've merged two crap commercial scanners into one, hoping you'll pay for the privilege.
I had the same thought, and I assumed someone in here would say it before I did.
In an enterprise environment running Windows desktops and servers, etc, I feel that unfortunately a third party AV is still relevant, even with all the resource usage issues as you mentioned.
With that being said however we see that as more and more users are primarily on mobile or tablet platforms, the question there is more of a concern with people like AVG/Avast.
The Windows desktop/server AV market appears to be shrinking and I would assume less and less crumbs are falling off the table.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
You assume the average computer user in a corporate environment has the forethought to be "hygienic" on their windows desktop computer.
That's asking a lot.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Two craptastic dinosaurs merge to form a larger, even more craptastic dinosaur.
Stand back so ya don't git splattered by the "innovation".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
If 2 crappy companies merge you just have a bigger pile of crap. Nothing of value will come of this.
If half are mobile, does that means those run on windows phone?
Yep, all 237 of them.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
seriously, just get F-Secure or Kaspersky and stop wasting time and money on the merger of two average products.
"We are in a rapidly changing industry, and this acquisition gives us the breadth and technological depth to be the security provider of choice for our
current and future customers," said Vince Steckler, CEO of Avast. "Combining the strengths of two great tech companies, both founded in the Czech Republic and with a common culture and mission, will put us in a great position to take advantage of the new opportunities ahead, such as security for the enormous growth in IoT."
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Definitions-based antivirus is on its way out for a simple reason: The viruses that make it to your endpoint do so because there is no definition for them yet. They aren't new or clever, they're simply re-hashed versions of the same viruses you saw five years ago.
Cylance is an algorithmic (definitions-free) agent that is apparently quite effective. I suspect however that if they ever gain a dominant market share, malware authors will adapt and find ways to evade their "math power." And even worse, their product does no remediation. Once something gets through the gates, it could be months before there is an update that detects it.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Far below industry average. So yes AV is still relevant. For more data, try here: http://www.av-comparatives.org...
Silence is a state of mime.
Windows defender sucks ass. See here: https://www.av-test.org/en/ant...
Far below industry average. So yes AV is still relevant. For more data, try here: http://www.av-comparatives.org...
And other website are saying defender is getting quite decent, especially for a free/no installation AV : http://www.pcworld.com/article...
Furthermore, the core of my point is that no virus are supposed to reach that last layer of defence. Unless you are dependant on animal porn?
Elok
User training and good web and spam filtering should always be the first line of defense, but when determining security, there are much better free options than Defender.
Also, you are more likely to get a virus from a religious site than a porn site, my proclivities for donkey sex be dammed. http://irregulartimes.com/2013...
Furthermore, you know where most of our infections come from? For businesses it is targeted spam, and occasional drive-by malware. For home users it is free streaming sites (download this updated flash player to watch GoT), or kids trying to get the newest free mod/cheat for minecraft (sometimes other games, but mostly 9-12 year olds and minecraft).
Silence is a state of mime.
I uninstalled AVG about 2 months ago after it once again rebooted my system during an "upgrade", crashing my VMs and losing my work for the last hour. I had it for years, even used to recommend it, but the fact that I had to "temporarily" disable AVG (typically until reboot) just to get anything done (performance and resource issues), combined with the daily nag messages, were already getting on my last nerve. Now I'm on MalwareBytes and getting my job done without interruption.
Avast can eat AVG and poop out little money balls to its heart's content. I'll be over here not caring because AVG sucked so bad I already moved on.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
I'm not sure I follow; just because a piece of malware comes from the internet doesn't mean your only diligence must be in your web browser (... and email client, torrent client, ...). Nowadays, we're more plagued than ever when it comes to zero-day malware, meaning that A/V misses it the first time around. You need a local A/V scanner that regularly evaluates potential threats, ideally upon each execution.
Ad blockers only protect you from malvertising, not straight-up malicious web sites. These days, they're as important as A/V (and often more effective), but you really want both. Microsoft has in the past caught fewer viruses than even ClamAV (Windows Defender is lauded as "better than nothing, but it’s not a whole lot better. Most of the popular antivirus [solutions] can do better." I'd happily take the free solutions from Avira, Avast, AVG, or Panda over it. I currently suggest Avira to my friends and family, though I don't run Windows.
See also this security question on Stack Exchange, which shows how a similar misconception (protecting only filesystem edits) is similarly risky.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
That PC World report (which uses data from av-test.org) shows that Microsoft is no longer dead last, but is in the middle of the pack for Windows 8.1 and at the bottom for WIndows 10. Looking just at protection, it's tied for last place in Windows 10 and only Comodo and ThreatTrack (no name entrants w.r.t. A/V) are worse for WIndows 8.1. AVG and Avast (and Panda and Avira) are all free solutions that catch more malware in this report.
I have been using Windows defender on all of my machines, 4 total, for number of years. I have not got any viruses yet. Even my kid can be thought no to click on links and not to run arbitrary things.
Yet the Windows defender is one of the lighter weight AV programs and works well even on older machines. If one is an idiot no AV will help them. You can simply disable AV and run whatever program you want to run.
In fact running ad blocking software in your browser probably does more for your protection than any AV program ever would.
Maybe not, but the giant shit he just dropped on your argument certainly will.
Getting rid of your av is just asking for trouble. It's like banging a truck stop hooker in the south without a condom and you're the 26th customer of the night.
Seriously.. two of the worst AV programs I've ever used.. next to Panda which keeps false positiving on .NET apps.
Not to forget all the jobs that will be lost after the merger. There is absolutely no good that will come from this from an end user, employee and competition stand point.
AVG used to have a good product until it became a resource hog so one can only hope Avast will remain Avast.
Personally I care about my hardware since wiping the OS after a malware infection is no guarantee that it has been removed. Not all AV is bloated and ineffective, and so it is worth it to pay next to nothing for a decent solution if it lessens the odds that I have to deal with malware at some point. Also, you might not have noticed that MS has turned completely user hostile anyway and has been turning their OS into an adware platform that also spies on you, so I don't even want my machine to be connected to MS if I can help it let alone rely on their 'free' av solution.
If I must browse the web with windows, I use ad-blocked chromium in linux in a virtual machine on top of EMET and antivirus in a non-privileged user session. Some would say even that isn't good enough.
How would you know if you're infected by malware that Windows Defender misses? User education is more valuable than A/V, and one can argue that ad blockers are as well, but you really want all three. Ad blockers only deal with malvertising, not straight-up malware sites, and they obviously don't do anything for other delivery mechanisms (email, network, USB, etc).
Also, you should never disable A/V unless you're in very safe conditions (no network connectivity, freshly booted without much running, ideally in safe mode), and even then it's a horrible idea.
I've always stuck to the free anti-virus engines: Not because I'm a cheap bastard, although that is a factor. But mostly because I don't want 200 MB of bloat just to ensure I'm saved from my own stupidity and greed. Keeping my computer quick and bloat-free is the first step into ensuring it doesn't have a virus. Installing a CPU-crushing anti-virus is choosing a cure worse than the disease. I'm willing to format my HDD, pain that it is, if I'm stupid enough to get a virus.
But this year AVG has been shoving 3 pop-ups per day in my face, demanding I buy a bloated, pointless, I mean, commercial product. Most other anti-virus products demand personal details, so there's little choice available.
Avast is a respectable, capable antivirus and AVG is a malware toolbar-making, slow, ineffective, spammy piece of shit. Wow, what a great merger.
I worked in a Windows-based organization for more than 20 years. Also in a Mac shop, and of course DOS before that. The Windows shops insisted that the client computers have no firewall enabled (I found a way to enable it when on the road - IT didn't help with that) so they could push updates overnight. I pointed out to them that it wasn't necessary to disable the firewall; all they needed were some strategic exceptions. But no ... had to have no firewall even after some people got phished and spread garbage all over the place. I did not get infected then because I am always suspicious so I didn't open any of the bad emails; it was a simplistic attack. The only systematic attacks that causes problems were with the Macs (pre-OSX) and DOS (floppy-disk boot-sector viruses), though again I somehow avoided them. Luck? Maybe.
AV software isn't very useful for catching new attacks. Signature-based stuff is always fighting the last war, which is better than nothing given the tendency for old attacks to still work but not really good enough. Avast & AVG both appear to be mostly signature-based, so again they're good for the known stuff but not the zero-days.
Enjoy the constant barrage of in-app advertising folks! Also, security software is largely just facade - deal with it.
semi related:I believe the 'Czech Republic' is now called simply 'Czechia'
Gee willickers who modded this -1 ?!