Symantec and Disaster Preparedness

Small and medium sized businesses are not taking disaster preparedness for their computers and networks as seriously as they should, according to survey results released by Symantec.

The Symantec 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey found that that most SMBs don't take action to prepare for disasters until after they have experienced loss from downtime, and that this lack of preparation has a significant impact on their customers and their business.
Disaster Plans
Only half (50 percent) of the respondents to the global survey said they already have a plan in place to deal with an outage or disruption to their computer or technology resources. That's up slightly from 47 percent in the 2010 survey, but 14 percent do not have a plan, nor do they have any intention to create one.

Fifty-seven percent of small businesses don't have a plan, compared to 47 percent of medium businesses. Of the respondents who plan to implement a plan in the future, 16 percent plan to do so within 30 days, 34 percent plan to do so between one and three months and 25 percent plan to do so between three and six months. Even though only half of respondents have a plan, 81 percent of all respondents are somewhat/very satisfied with their plans to deal with outages or disruptions, whether formal or informal; indeed, 84 percent state that their computer systems are somewhat/completely protected.

When those who do not have a plan were asked why not, roughly half (52 percent) don't think computer systems are critical to the business. Forty-one percent said that it never occurred to them to put together a plan, and 40 percent said that disaster preparedness is not a priority.

It is alarming that more SMBs do not have plans to help them deal with disasters and keep their computer systems up and running, especially when one considers that 65 percent of SMBs reside in regions that they consider susceptible to natural disasters.

In fact, SMBs experienced a median of six outages in the past year. The top three reasons for downtime include cyber attacks, power outages, employee errors and upgrades, with each occurring a median of once per company in the last year.

Of SMBs with a disaster preparedness plan, half (50 percent) implemented the plan due to either an outage or data loss. Fifty-two percent put together their plans within the last six months. Again, there were some differences according to company size. Thirty-six percent of small businesses with a disaster preparedness plan implemented their plan within the last six months, compared to 58 percent of medium businesses.
Advice from Symantec: Don't Wait Until It's Too Late
It is critical for SMBs to not wait until after a disaster to think about what they should have done to protect their data. Not only is downtime costly from a financial perspective, but it could mean the complete demise of the business. SMBs can't wait until it is too late, and they need to begin mapping out a disaster preparedness plan today. A plan should include identification of key systems and data that is intrinsic to the running of the business. Basically, identify your critical resources.

Symantec also advises SMBs to test their disaster plan frequently. (Only 28 percent of respondents have actually tested their recovery plans.) If frequent testing is not feasible due to resources and bandwidth, SMBs should at least review their disaster preparedness plan on a quarterly basis.

After a disaster hits is the worst time to learn that critical files were not backed up as planned. Regular disaster recovery testing is invaluable. Test your plan anytime anything changes in your environment.
Information Protection
The survey also found that SMB information is not protected. Only half of companies surveyed back up at least 60 percent of their data, and less than half back up their data weekly or more frequently. Only 23 percent back up daily.

Of those surveyed, 31 percent do not back up email, 21 percent do not back up application data and 17 percent do not back up customer data. Respondents also reported that a disaster would cause information loss. Forty-four percent of SMBs said they would lose at least 40 percent of their data in the event of a disaster.
Advice from Symantec: Protect Information Completely
To reduce the risk of losing critical business information, SMBs must implement the appropriate security and backup solutions to archive important files, such as customer records and financial information for the long term. Natural disasters, theft and cyberattacks can all result in data and financial loss, so SMBs need to make sure important files are saved not only on an external hard drive and/or company network, but in a safe, off-site location.
The Consequences of Being Unprepared
Disasters can have a significant financial impact on SMBs. Downtime costs SMBs a median of $12,500 per day. It costs small businesses a median of $3,000 per day and medium businesses a median of $23,000 per day.

Outages also have a considerable effect on SMB customers. SMB customers reported that SMB outages cost them $10,000 per day, and 29 percent said they lost "some" or "a lot of" data as a result of disasters impacting their SMB vendors.

Downtime also causes customers to leave with 54 percent of SMB customer respondents reporting they have switched SMB vendors due to unreliable computing systems, a 12 percent increase compared with last year's survey.

For many SMBs, disasters could also put them out of business. Forty-four percent of SMB customers stated that their SMB vendors have temporarily shut down due to a disaster.
Advice from Symantec: Get Employees Invested in Protection
SMB employees play a key role in helping to prevent downtime and should be educated on computer security best practices and what to do if information is accidentally deleted or cannot easily be found in their files. Since SMBs have few resources, all employees should know how to retrieve the businesses' information in times of disaster.

Scareware Scam

Scammers are apparently using Google's URL shortening service, goo.gl, to distribute bogus links. The links take users to a scareware sight that purports to find malicious software on the user's computer, then offers to sell the user an AV product to solve the supposed problem. URL shorteners are commonly used in Twitter, but they can disguise a malicious link's true nature.Twitter has been hit by fast-spreading spam using Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) goo.gl URL shortening service.

The attack sends malicious links that take recipients clicking on them to a website hosting the "Security Shield" antivirus software program.

When users land on that site, they are essentially tricked into downloading and paying for the Security Shield application.

Twitter is resetting the passwords of accounts that are spreading the malicious link.
The Anatomy of the Fake AV Attack

The attackers send out tweets containing a link from the goo.gl shortened link service. This service and others like it compress long URLs into shorter ones, making them easier to fit into services like Twitter, which places a strict limit on the number of characters each tweet may contain. However, the services can also disguise the true nature of a link by hiding its actual URL.

Anyone clicking on the link is taken through two bounces to a website hosting the "Security Shield" fake antivirus program. Visitors are told they have suspicious applications running on their PCs and are urged to run a scan.

The scan shows the victim's PC is infected, and the website then asks the user to download and pay for the Security Shield application.

There's some uncertainty as to how the attacks were launched in the first place.

"It probably began by phishing of some sort," Adam Wosotowsky, principal engineer at McAfee Labs, told TechNewsWorld. "Possibly a social media worm like Koobface."

Variants of the Koobface worm have been used to attack Twitter for some time. This worm was initially targeted at Facebook, which it has attacked repeatedly over the years.

"It's not a worm," Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, told TechNewsWorld. "It's a spam campaign that points to malicious software."

The attack could have occurred because users were using the same passwords on another website that was compromised, Cluley said.
Dynamite Comes in Small Packages

This fake AV attack is the latest in a series of attacks hitting Twitter in which shortened URLs were used.

In December, a Twitter worm using the goo.gl URL shortening service hit Twitter. In that attack, victims were reportedly first redirected to the compromised website of a French furniture company before being redirected to other domains.

In February of 2010, Twitter users were flooded with short URLs prefaced with the message "This you???" that led them to a fake Twitter login page, according to Andrew Brandt, a member of Webroot's threat research team.

"Twitter almost always involves shortened URLs -- whether they be good or bad," Sophos' Cluley said. "Shortened URLs can, of course, obscure from the unwary user the eventual destination that they will be taken to."

In November, a Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) blog post warned that hackers were substituting legitimate shortened URLs included in tweets with different ones pointing to malicious websites after scanning the Twitter homepage to pick the most trendy topics.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

It's not as if people are oblivious to the danger posed by shortened URLs.

At least as early as 2009, security Enterprise Payment Security 2.0 Whitepaper from CyberSource experts were warning about the danger of URL shortening.

In September, McAfee launched a secure short URL service.

In December, University of Tulsa computer science student Ben Schmidt created his own URL shortening service, d0z.me, which he dubbed "The Evil URL Shortener," that doubles as a weapon for issuing distributed denial-of-service attacks as a proof-of-concept project.

McAfee Labs warned in its threat predictions for 2011 that social media sites with URL-shortening services will lead all other such sites in terms of cybercriminal activity.

"Shortened URLs can be a danger sign," David Harley, an ESET senior research fellow, told TechNewsWorld. "Black hats do use them to hide the real destination in a number of contexts."

Black hats are malicious hackers.

However, it's not feasible to ban shortened URLs outright.

"Shortened URL sites are not 100 percent malicious, so blocking the domain outright can cause false positives, which researchers generally try to avoid," McAfee's Wosotowsky pointed out. "Goo.gl is an example of a site that's associated with Google, which might frown upon blocking the domain. This allows spammers to continually abuse the site."

Malware Is on the Move

Mobile operating systems are the new favorite target of malware, and social engineering remains the favorite old standby for launching attacks. Tried-and-true preventive care works best. "Never give information via email, smartphone or on the Web, and verify independently before you click on any unknown text or email message, game, application or security update," advises UVa security expert Karen McDowell.Cybercriminals are following innocent consumers away from email Increase sales with VerticalResponse. Free trial. and toward more popular, smartphone-style platforms, McAfee reported Tuesday.

"New mobile malware in 2010 increased by 46 percent compared with 2009," noted McAfee spokesperson Joris Evers.

Among the likeliest targets in 2010, Symbian and Android platforms were splattered by Trojans and bots with names like "SymbOS/Zitmo.A" and "Android/Geinimi."

"Consumers need to realize that mobiles, whether smartphone or tablet, are mini computers," said David Gorodyansky, CEO of AnchorFree. "This means all the vulnerabilities of a computer exist, often with a less-protected OS."

"From a hacker's point of view, the large user base created by wide scale adoption of iOS (iPhone) and Android will increasingly make these platforms a target, and I definitely expect to see some high-profile mobile attacks in the coming year," Cenzic CMO Mandeep Khera told TechNewsWorld.

"Smartphone access should be a concern to corporations that don't want employees accessing company secrets via unsecured mobile networks," Khera told TechNewsWorld. "For consumers, as banks and e-commerce sites deploy apps that give customers unprecedented access to their bank accounts, security Enterprise Payment Security 2.0 Whitepaper from CyberSource becomes more important than ever."

Unlike their mobile partners in crime, spam bots -- including Bredolab, Lethic, Xarvester, and parts of the Zeus botnet -- have gone dormant in droves this year,.

"Concurrently, spam accounted for 80 percent of total email traffic in Q4 2010, the lowest point since the first quarter of 2007," McAfee's Evers told TechNewsWorld.
The Bot Pack

Like a flu pandemic, botnet infections were particularly acute in Q4 2010, with Rustock, Cutwail and Bobax leading the bot pack. Social media sites, like mosquitoes, often acted as disease vectors.

"Whether we are using smartphones or computers, social engineering attacks are still the primary attack vector, and a major vector in the spread of botnet infections," University of Virginia information security analyst Karen McDowell, PhD, GCIH, told TechNewsWorld.

McAfee advises tablet and smartphone users to watch out for Zeus-Murofet, Conficker, and Koobface botnets specifically, and more generally, phishing URLs from the IRS, gift cards, rewards accounts, and social networking accounts.

Phishing vectors spread bot diseases when users click on phishing emails, answer phishing phone calls, or click on text messages that "appear to come from your carrier," McDowell explained, adding that tried-and-true preventive care works best. "Never give information via email, smartphone or on the Web, and verify independently before you click on any unknown text or email message, game, application or security update."

More preventive options: "Don't log onto unprotected WiFi, and use a VPN to encrypt and secure your browsing, which acts as a secure, encrypted tunnel for your communications," AnchorFree's Gorodyansky told TechNewsWorld.
Malware's Mantra

Twenty million new pieces of malware -- nearly 55,000 new malware threats every day -- plastered the cybersphere in 2010, migrating toward smartphones because "cybercriminals are keeping tabs on what's popular and what will have the biggest impact from the smallest effort," said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs.

"Think globally, act locally" might be malware's new mantra, with threats that "now tend to match the types of users, habits and events that are specific to a region," McAfee's Evers added. Global criminal favorites include AutoRun malware such as Generic!atr; banking Trojans and downloaders such as PWS or Generic.dx; and Web-based exploits such as StartPage and Exploit-MS04-028, the McAfee report claims.

To avoid malware, treat search terms and Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) products with extra care, McAfee advises. Of the top 100 search results, 51 percent led to malicious sites. And throughout 2010, malware developers exploited weaknesses in Flash and PDF, a trend McAfee sees continuing.

Despite the advice, pests will persist, driven to infect by "a general lack of awareness towards the need for security," Gorodyansky explained.

"This is the same as it was for computers, when most people thought they were completely safe once they installed an antivirus program," he recalled.

"It really doesn't matter what type of device is used -- the steps to secure a Web application haven't changed," Sam Shelby, e-government coordinator for the City of Columbia, Missouri, told TechNewsWorld. "You can never trust input: always authenticate, validate and sanitize input data."

Anti Malware

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a surprisingly effective freeware antimalware tool. It's a relatively speedy malware remover, with the quick scan taking about 8 minutes even with other high-resource programs running. The heuristics engine proved on multiple computers during empirical testing that it was capable of determining the difference between false positives and dangerous apps.

The app has some nice features rolled in, too. It supports multiple drive scanning including networked drives, context menu options including a scan-on-demand for individual files, and the FileAssassin option under the More Tools section for removing locked files. The interface is simple, but pleasant-looking and well-organized. Tabs live just below the oversized logo, with few options per tab to keep down the clutter. The installation process was fast enough, but interestingly offered up the well-kept changelog and an instant definition file update.


Do note that the real-time protection is restricted to the paid version, as is the scheduler for updates and scans. Overall, though, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a responsive malware remover that does what it should with a minimum of fuss.

Publisher's description

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a high performance anti-malware application that thoroughly removes even the most advanced malware and spyware. With one of the fastest, most effective quick scans and malware removal capabilities on the market, this program is the perfect addition to your PC's defenses. The full version of the product includes a number of key features, including the ability to schedule updates and scans and most importantly, a real-time malware protection module that blocks malicious processes before they even start.

AVIRA Free Edition 10

Avira's AntiVir has been a player in the security world for some time; however, in 2008 its status boomed because of its remarkably strong detection rates. It still remains near the top of independent antivirus efficacy tests, but while the 2009 version more or less kept pace with the competition, the 2010 edition isn't quite as good as it could be.

Both longtime and new users alike will note the pop-up ad that appears whenever a program update is downloading; it has been the unaddressed focus of critical and user dislike for several years. While the occasional ad that interferes with a user's work flow used to be considered tolerable for effective free security, that's no longer the case. Avira's lack of a silent-running entertainment-gaming mode is also noticeable, since so many free and paid competitors now offer the mode.


Except for the most cosmetic of changes, the app's interface is unchanged from version 8. There are new icons on the program's toolbar, a new static image background, and that's about it. The main window offers a left-side navigation menu with drop-down menus and a central pane to see more detailed information. AntiVir opens to the Status menu, informing you of your last scan, your last definition file update, whether the real-time guard is active; however, Avira removed the premium upgrade link in this version. The Events screen logs changes to the program and the Reports tab keeps a history of threats--information from both sections can be exported.

New features are a bit thin in the free version of Avira 10, too. A new generic-repair mode really just takes the choice out of how Avira tells you about the threats it has discovered. In version 9, you could be informed about them in the middle of a scan or at the end; however, now only the latter is available. Windows 7 users now have the capability to run a scan as an administrator directly from the interface, which is a smart, but minor improvement. Avira's installation sequence has been revamped, and now only takes users through five windows. Theoretically, this means it's a five-click installation, but new users will have to complete the registration form. However, its installation file unpacking process appears faster, and you no longer have to reboot after the install.

This isn't to say that AntiVir Free 10 isn't stuffed with robust features. The program offers a wide selection of scan customization, letting users fully scan both internal and external hard drives, run a preloaded scan--for rootkits, for example--or customize a scan. On a real-world computer, the full scan took about 1 hour and 12 minutes, which is average. Avira includes antispyware protections, scanning tech that can crack open "locked" files, improved internal security to prevent AntiVir's files from being maliciously altered, and one-click threat removal--baby-sitting was taken out in the last version.

The Local Protection and Administration navigation options reveal the Scanner, Guard, Quarantine, and Scheduler features. Combined with the Configuration button located at the top of the central pane, users can customize scans as necessary. When Avira quarantines a file, its information is on display along with options to scan it again, restore, delete, and e-mail the file to Avira. The apps rebuilt heuristic engine retains the same choices from the previous version had, and it can be turned on or off in part or in full and offers three intensity levels. Not counting the lively user forums, Avira's included help features are good for a free antivirus app, with mouse-over information on each feature. The scheduler, once a major Avira selling point because it was light-years ahead of other free security suites, has now been caught up to by its competitors.

AntiVir 10 doesn't require a special uninstallation tool, unlike many competitors do. In the end, Avira's free suite makes for an excellent backup suite, but its competitors have since caught up with or surpassed what it can do.

Publisher's description

If you don't have virus protection, your PC will be infected with malware in a matter of minutes. Avira AntiVir Personal offers basic protection against viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, adware, and spyware that has been tried and tested over 100 million times worldwide. What's more, it is available free-of-charge. It not only protects against these types of malware, but offers as well, in case of an infection, the possibility of removing viruses very easily and repair the system automatically.

Functions: AntiVir stops all kinds of viruses; AntiAd/Spyware protects against adware and spyware; AntiRootkit detects hidden rootkits; QuickRemoval removes viruses at the push of a button; NetbookSupport support for computers with low resolution; AHeADTechnology detects even unknown viruses by their profiles; AviraSupport there for you in person when questions arise.

AVAST Free Anti Virus 5

Avast Free 5, an A-list freeware antivirus app, provides the same steadfast protection of well-known, pricier antivirus programs. Avast is remarkable for both its effectiveness and arguably providing the most complete free antivirus on the market.

Avast Free 5, formerly known as the Home Edition, protects you with multiple guards. The antivirus, antispyware, and heuristics engines form a security core that also includes multiple real-time shields. The adjustable mail and file system shields join the pre-existing behavior, network, instant messaging, peer-to-peer, and Web shields. The behavioral shield is a common-sense feature, as security software publishers leverage their large user bases to detect threats early and warn others. Other new features include a silent-gaming mode and an "intelligent scanner" that only looks at changed files after establishing a baseline. The biggest change in Avast 5, though, is the interface. Gone is the music player default look, which was skinnable but confusing. In its place is a sleek UI that new users should find far more manageable. It's also Aero-friendly, with Explorer-style navigation buttons in case you can't remember where you tweaked a particular setting.

Avast's recent independent third-party testing has been notably solid, able to hold its own against better-known programs from Symantec and Microsoft. Avast 5 Free lacks features in the paid upgrade including antispam measures, a testing sandbox, a Script shield, and a firewall. Even without those, Avast Free 5 is probably the strongest, free antivirus currently available.
Publisher's description

Publisher's description

Avast Free Antivirus is based on multiple protective layers that work together to provide security. The product is designed for the average consumer who wants easy-to-use protection for basic email and web surfing. It is limited to home and non-commercial users. New features match top detection with increased efficiency. Computer memory requirements for the new antivirus and antispyware engine have been cut in half. Scanning is 40 percent faster, saving both time and computer resources. Complete rootkit protection includes real-time detection to ward off initial installation, on-demand scanning and boot-time scans.

AVG Free Edition

The bottom line: Although AVG has flagged a little in the past few years, AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 breathes some new life into one of the most popular security programs around with a shorter install, better usability, and faster scans.

Review:
The never-ending mantra chanted by security suite vendors sounds a lot like "faster scans, easier to use, better performance," and AVG has released a new version that it says accomplishes all three. Certainly, the scans are faster, it does install more quickly, and some tweaks to the interface have made it easier to use. However, changes to the engine that powers the detection and removal of threats has made it hard to come to a conclusion until independent labs return their efficacy results later this year.
Installation
The new AVG Free has sped up its installation process, although it's not as zippy as the minute-long installations that some of AVG's paid competitors offer. We found that the program can go from completed download to ready to use in about 5 minutes. Gains might have been made elsewhere, but a big contributing factor to that is that AVG has cut down the number of install screens users see, from 13 in the previous version to 5 in the 2011 version.

AVG's toolbar is still an opt-out feature. It also will commandeer your default search engine for Yahoo, so if you don't want it to do that, you'll want to uncheck the box that changes your search engine, too. Also unchanged is registration, which is a free process and can be completed from within the AVG interface.

Users who opt out of installing the toolbar but want it later will need to rerun the installer to get that component.

Interface
The changes to AVG's interface in the 2011 version are minor but actually improve usability quite a bit. The top and left navigation sections have been redecorated with light text on a dark background, although the main controls in the center of the window retain their standard black text on a white background. The safety status icon at the top of the interface has been simplified and made larger.
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AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 10.0.1153
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* Quick specs
* Price: Free
* Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7
* Date added: October 27, 2010
* Total Downloads: 324,296,582
* Downloads last week: 1,825,773
* Product Ranking: #1 in Antivirus Software
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* CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars
* Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 21579 votes
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CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on September 30, 2010

The bottom line: Although AVG has flagged a little in the past few years, AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 breathes some new life into one of the most popular security programs around with a shorter install, better usability, and faster scans.

Review:
The never-ending mantra chanted by security suite vendors sounds a lot like "faster scans, easier to use, better performance," and AVG has released a new version that it says accomplishes all three. Certainly, the scans are faster, it does install more quickly, and some tweaks to the interface have made it easier to use. However, changes to the engine that powers the detection and removal of threats has made it hard to come to a conclusion until independent labs return their efficacy results later this year.

Installation
The new AVG Free has sped up its installation process, although it's not as zippy as the minute-long installations that some of AVG's paid competitors offer. We found that the program can go from completed download to ready to use in about 5 minutes. Gains might have been made elsewhere, but a big contributing factor to that is that AVG has cut down the number of install screens users see, from 13 in the previous version to 5 in the 2011 version.

AVG's toolbar is still an opt-out feature. It also will commandeer your default search engine for Yahoo, so if you don't want it to do that, you'll want to uncheck the box that changes your search engine, too. Also unchanged is registration, which is a free process and can be completed from within the AVG interface.

Users who opt out of installing the toolbar but want it later will need to rerun the installer to get that component.

Interface
The changes to AVG's interface in the 2011 version are minor but actually improve usability quite a bit. The top and left navigation sections have been redecorated with light text on a dark background, although the main controls in the center of the window retain their standard black text on a white background. The safety status icon at the top of the interface has been simplified and made larger.
AVG Anti-Virus Free: Faster in 2011 (screenshots)

A new one-click Fix button for automatically repairing security breaches appears at the top along with the old red X when your system safety has been compromised. It disappears when your system gets a clean bill of health.

Joining the one-click Update button on the side nav this year is a one-click Scan Now button. There's a cleaner look to the nav, as well, with bigger fonts and timestamps for the most recent scan and most recent update.

For those not familiar with the interface, AVG has placed icons for its security components in a central pane. Double-click on one to access more information and basic configuration settings for each specific tool. Advanced settings are available under Tools on the menu bar at the top of the window.

The new interface changes are small, no doubt, but they do make AVG easier to use.

Features and support
AVG Free has some new protective features this year, too. The software offers what it calls "smart scanning," which leverages AVG's behavioral detection network to scan known safe files once, and only rescan them if it detects changes. As with its competitors, AVG's network is made up of its user base anonymously contributing data up to the cloud. You can choose to opt out of contributing your data when you install, or from the options menu. AVG says opting out won't negatively affect your security.
The never-ending mantra chanted by security suite vendors sounds a lot like "faster scans, easier to use, better performance," and AVG has released a new version of AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 that it says accomplishes all three. Certainly, the scans are faster, it does install more quickly, and some tweaks to the interface have made it easier to use.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The smart scanning tech also gives you a built-in system resource manager that prioritizes scans. If a scan is scheduled to begin while the computer is in use, it will automatically restrict the scan so that it runs slower but doesn't interfere with the computer's other tasks. When it detects the computer idling, it will then allocate more power to the scan. The feature comes with a slider so you can customize how sensitive it is.

Another big improvement has been to AVG LinkScanner. LinkScanner, which comes with AVG Free but is also available as a separate download, now scans links posted on Facebook and MySpace. It adds a green check next to safe links, a red X next to unsafe ones, and adds a notice below the link stating that it's been evaluated by AVG.

Concurrent with this new release, AVG has opened a new Web site called Threat Labs. The site is designed as a click-through landing page for people who want to learn more about the LinkScanner's ratings, but it's also available directly so that non-LinkScanner users can evaluate links on the fly.
There's a new desktop gadget for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users that lets them initiate scans and updates with one click, without having to open the full interface. It also contains links to AVG's Twitter and Facebook pages, which the company uses to bolster its support for the free version.

It's potentially big news that AVG Free has made the threat detection engines in the free version identical to its premium-upgrade siblings. This means that AVG Free users won't have to worry about getting a lesser standard of basic security, if it winds up improving the level of security. Independent benchmarks of last year's AVG versions were strong but mixed, scoring highly but not always consistently.

The PC Analyzer option is new this year, and scans your system for Registry and disk errors. It includes a disk defragmenter and a broken-shortcut cleaner, as well. Although the feature is restricted in full to paid users, if you have the free version, the PC Analyzer comes with a one-time offer to clean all errors it finds. It provides a link to download the separate PC Analyzer tool, once the scan is completed. This is an interesting twist on the idea of letting users detect but not repair errors, and it provides more functionality while not affecting the basic security of your computer. However, it's likely that some users will shy away from the extra download.

Although toolbars have long since fallen out of favor with the browser cognoscenti because they decrease stability and slow down browser performance, AVG has said that the toolbar remains a popular feature. Along with the standard option of adding buttons to the toolbar that access your most visited sites, such as Facebook or your banking site, this year's AVG toolbar introduces a button that ties directly into the LinkScanner tech. It lets you know if the page you're on is safe, unsafe, potentially unsafe, or unknown using LinkScanner's color-coded scheme of green, red, yellow, and gray, respectively. Fortunately, the toolbar is not required to get access to the benefits of LinkScanner.
Other features are restricted to users of AVG's paid upgrades. The paid upgrade version of AVG Anti-Virus 2011 distinguishes itself by offering chat link shield, a download scan for files sent via instant message that looks at all ports, not just port 80, and telephone support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The PC Analyzer option mentioned earlier is also included, and comes without restrictions. AVG Internet Security 2011 includes all that AVG Anti-Virus 2011 offers, and adds in a firewall and antispam protections.

Performance
AVG claims the scans in the new version of AVG Free are three times faster than last year's, and its system performance impact turned out to be about average, once the computer had finished booting. CNET Labs' benchmarks found that AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 had the greatest impact on computer boot time of any security suite we've looked at so far this year, slowing our test computer's start-up by more than 13 seconds. However, it also had the smallest impact on computer shutdown time, adding barely one-third of a second. AVG Free has one of the fastest scan times we've seen yet for 2011 suites, completing its first scan in 548 seconds.
In our other tests, it was a bit slower than the median. MS Office performance, Cinebench, and media multitasking were slightly below average, whereas iTunes decoding was right at the average speed. Overall, you're looking at a much slower start-up, fast scans, a minimal impact on shutdown, and a midrange hit to general system performance with AVG Free.

It's harder to judge the efficacy of AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 because independent tests are only available for the previous years' editions, and the security engine has substantially changed to pull it in line with the engine in the paid upgrades, according to the company. Looking at benchmarks only for the 2010 versions of AVG's paid suites, we can see that they scored higher depending on the test.

In the AV-Test.org test on Windows 7 from the second quarter of 2010, AVG Internet Security 9 (version 2010) scored 14.5 out of 18 overall. Other competitors scored higher, although AVG did earn a 5.5 rating out of 6 in Protection. (It scored a 4 in Repair and a 5 in Usability.) Norton, G-Data Internet Security 2010, and Panda Internet Security 2010 were the only suites to score that high in the Protection category.

With AVG Anti-Virus 9 (version 2010), AV-Comparatives.org found that it could have performed better. In the August 2010 On-demand Detection of Malicious Software test, AVG only earned the rank of Advanced, not Advanced+, with many false positives found, an average scanning speed, and a detection rate of 98.3 percent. The same test from February 2010 saw AVG earn the same rank, with few false positives, an average scanning speed, and a detection rate of 94.2 percent.

For what it's worth, Dennis Technology Labs, a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation (AMTSO), found in August 2010 that AVG Anti-Virus Free 9 (version 2010) earned an overall protection score of 45 (PDF), below average.

It is AVG's hope that changes to the detection engine in AVG Free will improve its scores, but for right now it's hard to give it the highest rating possible. Still, the efficacy scores are similar to AVG Free's benchmarks: strong in some tests, weaker in others, but with indications that there have been big gains made this year.

Conclusion
Besides the feature limitations of AVG Anti-Virus Free when compared with AVG's paid upgrades, the suite continues to offer an excellent if not perfect level of security as it faces more intense competition from other free and paid security suite makers. Fans of AVG will definitely want to upgrade, and new users should consider it if they're looking for an effective freeware solution with solid link-evaluating features.

Publisher's description

Surf, search, and keep up with friends on Facebook with security software used by 110 million people around the world. You'll also enjoy worry-free gaming and one of the fastest scanning speeds on the market. AVG's Community Protection Network shares the latest threat information with the online community to ensure everyone receives the highest form of protection possible, and AVG's Protective Cloud Technology serves as an early warning system to block new threats and reduce false positives. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011--remarkable protection, absolutely free.

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Ad-Aware 2008 includes an improved threat detection, enhanced rootkit removal system, faster updates, Lavasoft ThreatWork to submit suspicious files for analysis, and is now compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista. Version 7.1.0.11 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

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Download Ad-Aware 2008 7.1.0.11

With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware 2008 can clean your system easily, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.

Ad-Aware 2008 includes an improved threat detection, enhanced rootkit removal system, faster updates, Lavasoft ThreatWork to submit suspicious files for analysis, and is now compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista. Version 7.1.0.11 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

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Version 8.0.176 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.