Kaspersky is making headway with the development of its latest iteration of antivirus products. Both Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Kaspersky Internet Security have reached Release Candidate stage, which means that the RTM is on the horizon. While KAV and KIS 8.0 are still in testing, the Russian-based security developer is offering both as free downloads. The same was valid for their predecessors, KAV and KIS 7.0 made available in 2007, which after finalization offered users an additional trial period of 30 days. Kaspersky failed to reveal the deadline planned for the delivery of KIS and KAV 8.0, both now at Build 8.0.0.310 RC1.

According to Kaspersky, testers will need codes for activating the beta builds of the new products. The Russian antivirus maker said that NNQGV-SASTS-7SY72-13TZ7 should be used with KAV 8.0, while
for KIS 8.0 there is AXFRG-JW6EC-47MP1-HV4EE. Kaspersky has been hammering away at KIS and KAV 8.0 and in this context has introduced a number of enhancements. First off, the users will notice that the graphical user interface has been updated. But at the same time, the changes are not limited on the surface.

The new antivirus products bring to the table new heuristic analyzer technology designed to complement the signature-based detection by confronting zero-day threats. But Kaspersky 8.0 also delivers a new mechanism for registering events, as well as a host intrusion prevention system and proactive defense. The two security solutions will protect users from traditional viruses but also from phishing, network attacks, spam and malicious banners. At this point in time, Kaspersky is still looking for feedback from testers in order to fine tune both KAV and KIS 8.0.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.0.0.310 RC1 is available for download here.
Kaspersky Internet Security 8.0.0.310 RC1 can be grabbed via this link.