14 DAY TRIAL // Avast plans to start offering backup and password management solutions to its customers in a few months and has partnered with Mozy and Roboform to do it.
The Czech-based software developer is already a big player on the security market thanks to its Avast! Free Antivirus product which is installed on an estimated 130 million computers worldwide.
However, staying secure online is not limited to simply running a good antivirus product. Users know this and are looking for companies that can provide them with all they need.
For example, users are expected to create complex passwords that contain special characters and use unique ones for each of their online accounts, in order to avoid creating a single point of compromise.
It would be clearly very hard for users to remember many complicated passwords, so a password management solution that integrates with all types of devices, desktops, laptops, smartphones, and all browsers, is clearly the way to go.
Avast Software's CTO Ondrej Vlcek told us back in March that the company is working on a password management product, but couldn't share any other details at the time.
However, in a more recent statement to CNET he revealed that the company decided to partner-up with Roboform, one of the two top players on the password management market.
The other one is LastPass, but according to Vlcek, it wasn't flexible enough to work with partners. CNET reports that Avast's Roboform-based password management solution is expected to cost around $10 per year.
Another service that can be valuable in a security context is online backup, as some pieces of malware can destroy data. There have been viruses known to corrupt music files and ransomware programs that encrypted documents with uncrackable algorithms.
To provide this type of service Avast has teamed up with online backup vendor Mozy. However, except for the new Avast branding, the options and prices will pretty much stay the same.