Security Fixes and Improvements

AVG Makes Changes to Its Software

Modifications made in response to industry criticism

By George Craciun, Security News Editor

8th of July 2008, 09:31 GMT

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Security software producer AVG has recently announced that it will modify the antivirus solution currently on the market. The changes are not major, just that the safe searching feature needs to be deactivated. Although this feature is constantly on the lookout for virus or malware spreading sites, it is also generating false traffic readings and putting unnecessary strain on Internet bandwidth.

Numerous site administrators have noticed an unusual increase in the number of people visiting the site. More people coming to your site and having a look at the content within is usually something to be glad about, except that the increase in traffic was not generated by actual people, but by AVG's LinkScanner.

This is how LinkScanner works: when an AVG 8 user accesses a search engine like Google and types in a query, the software will automatically scan all the results, not just the ones you actually click on. Furthermore, the AVG software tries to mimic an actual web surfer, so that even the most elusive malware exploits will be fooled. The thing is that it also fools regular sites into thinking that someone using Internet Explorer has accessed the respective content. AVG has about 70 million users worldwide and it is estimated that 20 million are using AVG 8 with the LinkScanner feature.

Heise Online reports that this problem will be fixed when the company updates AVG 8 on the 9th of July 2008.

Barry Parshall, director of product management with WebTrends: "A situation like this where there is in effect false traffic, where something is generating what is bogus data, leads to wrong budget decisions and marketing activities completely get the value proposition [of LinkScanner], but it would be responsible of them to identify themselves, with agent code or whatever it might be, so legitimate businesses can serve their customers properly."

If the name AVG Technologies does not ring a bell, then perhaps Grisoft does. Grisoft was founded in 1991 in Czechoslovakia, but the name was officially changed to AVG Technologies in February this year.

On the 5th of December, 2007 AVG purchased Exploit Prevention Labs, the company responsible for creating LinkScanner, a software tool meant to prevent users from accessing a malware spreading site and getting infected. This year, in February, AVG decided to make LinkScanner a part of its latest antivirus software solution, AVG 8.

TAGS:

AVG 8 | LinkScanner | security software

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