14 DAY TRIAL // Founded in 1991 as Grisoft, AVG Technologies is one of the European pioneers of the antivirus industry. Amongst other achievements, the Czech security vendor was one of the first antivirus companies to adopt the freeware business model as a method of promoting its commercial product line.
In today's crowded antivirus market, staying above the competition requires unprecedented levels of innovation and making significant efforts to offer best value for money. The AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition product is standing proof that AVG is not willing to cut corners short when it comes to protecting its huge user-base, which includes tens of millions of non-paying customers.
It's pretty clear that AVG is already providing people with one of the most complete, feature-wise, free antivirus solution. However, we wanted to get a more in-depth look at the technologies behind this great product and find out what the company has in store for us next.
With that in mind, we contacted Tony Anscombe, AVG's ambassador of free products, and he was kind enough to accept an interview with Softpedia's editorial team. Enjoy reading Mr. Anscombe's answers to our questions below.
Softpedia: AVG is one of the most popular antivirus products on the market today, mostly because it has been wrapped as an offer few can refuse: a combination of powerful detection and innovating tools to increase protection, all for free. What is the direction the next release will take?
Tony Anscombe: The next release will continue to provide users additional security features for free. We are committed to protecting our users from the latest threats and techniques hackers are using to steal their valuable assets.
Softpedia: Behavioral analysis and cloud-based computing are technologies currently reserved for the paid version of AVG. Avast provides behavioral analysis in the free version of its product, while in-the-cloud scanning has also been adopted in free products. Will these components be added to the next release of AVG Free Anti-Virus?
Tony Anscombe: Although users will need to wait for our next release to explore the great stuff we have for them, AVG’s products currently utilize security technologies that are even more innovative than just behavior analysis and cloud-based scanning. It is worth waiting for our next release!
Softpedia: In a press release on April 15, it is stated that AVG is the fourth largest supplier of antivirus solutions in the world. Which are the competitors occupying the first three positions?
Tony Anscombe: Symantec, McAfee, TrendMicro.
Softpedia: Avira boasts a 145 million user base. You are advertising a user base of 110 million. Does this mean Avira holds one of the first three positions?
Tony Anscombe: AVG counts its user base very conservatively to ensure that it accurately reflects current, active users.
Softpedia: Immunet is currently offering their product with the promise that it won't conflict with other antivirus products installed on the machine. What is your opinion on the matter? Is the market heading towards a scenario where users can be protected by different signature-based security brands at once?
Tony Anscombe: Having more than one signature-based protection solution can potentially improve the detection of known malware, we have not seen that happen much in the market (neither in the consumer or the enterprise market). In the enterprise, companies typically have one product at the gateway and one at the endpoint. We feel that because of the availability of the new proactive security technologies that are not using signatures, the value of an additional signature-based security is questionable.
Softpedia: AVG Free comes with basic Anti-Rootkit protection, while paid products benefit from a more advanced component. Is this true for other components, like antivirus and anti-spyware, email scanner, etc.?
Tony Anscombe: AVG Free and Paid products use the same definitions for anti-virus and anti-spyware. AVG Free provides solid, basic protection for the typical user. Users who require more protection choose our paid offerings.
Softpedia:The security market has developed at an amazing rate lately, with plenty of new, free solutions emerging almost overnight. Others have been active for a longer period of time and recently gained in popularity. Are they competing on the same level as Avast, Avira and AVG, or is there a different category of users they address?
Tony Anscombe: The anti-virus market is the largest segment in the overall security market. Not surprisingly, many vendors would like to join it. Gaining a critical mass of users in a competitive market requires major disruptors; the second challenge is how to monetize such a user base. Many of the new comers are focusing on the first and missing the second. AVG has been in business since 1991 and fully understands both of these challenges and continues to grow.
Softpedia: How is AVG keeping up with complex pieces of malware like the ZeuS trojan, which has repeatedly proven capable of infecting computers with up-to-date AV products installed? Is there any special technology your company is working on to more efficiently detect such constantly evolving threats? And if yes, will it be included in future versions of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition?
Tony Anscombe: Zeus and similar malware have been well known to AVG for several years. We have developed innovative technologies to detect and remove such threats from our customers’ computers. As we believe there is no single security technology that can protect the user from all threats, AVG combines multiple technologies in different protection layers to provide the best protection for our customers.
Softpedia: Is the basic Anti-Rootkit component available in AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition enough to stop threats like the new SpyEye crimeware, which employs rootkit techniques to hide from security products? What are the benefits of the advanced anti-rootkit protection found in the commercial version of AVG Anti-Virus?
Tony Anscombe: As we believe there is no single security technology that can protect the user from all threats, our main focus is to prevent the infection in the first place. AVG technologies like LinkScanner and Online Shield stop the malware before it infects the computer. The anti-root kit technology available in our product scans and detects malware on infected computers using various levels of inspections. We are continuing to improve, we feel it will really be worth waiting for our next release to find out what we will have for our users against the modern threats.
Softpedia: Can you explain to our readers how is the LinkScanner component checking Web pages in real-time? Does it analyze the code of the page or does it employ behavior monitoring by opening the page in a browser-simulating sandbox?
Tony Anscombe: AVG LinkScanner inspects the web page code in transit, before it displays in a browser. Using various code inspection technologies, LinkScanner reads the web code (html, javascript, vbscript etc.) and determines if the code is legitimate or malicious in real-time. On an average day, LinkScanner detects and blocks millions of malicious URLs BEFORE users visit them. In addition to LinkScanner technology and as a second layer of protection, AVG product utilizes sandbox emulation as well for various content types.
Softpedia: Black hat search engine optimization (BHSEO) campaigns that poison search results with malicious links pointing to fake antivirus (scareware) scams are among the most common threats on the Web today. Unfortunately, blacklist-based approaches, such as Google's SafeBrowsing, are hardly keeping up the flurry of rogue pages. From your experience and statistics, how efficient is the LinkScanner technology against such scams?
Tony Anscombe: AVG LinkScanner is all about detecting and blocking malicious code in real-time, without using blacklists of any kind. As a result, our backend systems show that almost 70% of the malicious code LinkScanner finds on an average day is associated with fake antivirus and other rogue software. Blacklisting like Google’s SafeBrowsing cannot keep-up with the dynamic nature of the web today. We believe as the web is changing in real-time, so the security technologies need to operate in real-time. This is why we provide LinkScanner free to our users as well.
