Kaspersky Lab Clinches Strategic Partnership Deal with AOL

AOL Premium Services will offer its online-users a new product Active Virus Shield, a free anti-virus solution with core, entry level, antivirus functionality and access to antivirus database updates.

"Recently, we have seen a sharp rise in threats to computers. Unprotected computers are frequently infected by a variety of spyware programs, malware aimed at committing fraud and spam, which can go completely unnoticed by the user. For this reason, we maintain that it is better to have even basic antivirus protection than no antivirus protection at all," commented Kaspersky Lab's CEO, Natalya Kaspersky. "We hope that by offering Active Virus Shield in a joint initiative with AOL we will provide basic security to users who do not already have antivirus protection installed on their computers and make the Internet a safer place overall."

Kaspersky Lab's antivirus technologies provide users of Active Virus Shield with protection from a wide range of malicious programs for their file systems and email, delivering a high level of security for home computers.
However, Active Virus Shield does not provide all the functionality of the Kaspersky Lab solution, Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0, which it is based on. In particular, it does not include scanning for HTTP traffic, an in-built proactive defense, advanced new generation protection from rootkits, or tools for creating a rescue disk for restoring the system after malicious activity. There are significant differences in the configuration options of the two products. Moreover, Active Virus Shield is available only in English and there will be technical limitations on its distribution to ensure that it is not localized into other languages without authorization.

"Concluding a partnership deal with a major international Internet provider is an important milestone for Kaspersky Lab in raising the profile of our brand in North America. AOL has around 18 million subscribers to its services across the world, and 80% of them are located in the USA. A collaborative project with AOL will be very beneficial for our US business. Since the project was launched, just over a week ago, we have already received a number of proposals from American companies, offering to distribute our software in the region," said Natalya Kaspersky.