- Avira
-
Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG 
Industry Antivirus software Founded 1986 Founder(s) Tjark Auerbach Headquarters Tettnang, Germany Key people Tjark Auerbach – CEO
Sascha Beyer – Technical DirectorProducts Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus
Avira AntiVir Premium
Avira Premium Security SuiteEmployees 410 worldwide Website www.avira.com 
The previous Avira logo
Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG is a German antivirus software company. When founded, the company was called "H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH". Its antivirus applications are based on the AntiVir scan engine also known as "Luke Filewalker" (referring to Luke Skywalker), first launched in 1988. For aesthetic reasons, the name was changed to Avira. Avira's engine has been licensed to Ashampoo, Ad-Aware, and Webroot WebWasher.[citation needed] Avira is one of the most widely used antivirus programs in the world, with 100 million users worldwide as of September 2009[update].[1] The company supports the Auerbach Stiftung, a foundation created by the company's founder and CEO, Tjark Auerbach. It supports charitable, social, cultural, and science projects.[citation needed]
"Avira security software" refers to a range of antivirus and Internet security software for the Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris computing platforms by Avira.
On October 17, 2008, a major update to the search engine was released, which increased scanning speed by 20%.[2]
Avira Operations periodically "cleans out" the virus definition files, by replacing specific signatures with generic ones, which results in a general increase in performance and scanning speed. The last database clean-out was made on October 27, 2008, which caused problems to AntiVir Personal users when updating because of its large size (15 MB) and because of AntiVir Personal's slow servers. For that reason Avira added an additional 6 GB of bandwidth to the AntiVir Personal Servers[3] and changed the updating process: Nowadays there are 32 smaller definition files which are updated regularly to avoid peaks in the download of updates.
Contents
Products
Avira AntiVir Personal is for personal use only and free of charge. Like most antivirus software, it scans disks for malware and also runs as a background process, checking each opened and closed file. It can detect and possibly remove rootkits.[4] It also performs Internet updates (daily by default) in which it opens a window, with an advertisement suggesting that the user purchase Avira AntiVir Premium or Avira Premium Security Suite. Avira updated all its products to version 10.0 in March 2010.
Avira offers a bootable rescue CD to users who have installed paid versions of Avira products, irrespective of the machine's operating system.[5] This CD contains its own bootable Linux-based operating system and the AntiVir program with its latest virus database. If a computer cannot be booted, the CD may be used to boot the machine into the AntiVir program, then to scan for and remove detectable viruses and other malware, thereby possibly restoring normal boot and operation.[6]
Avira AntiVir Premium has several improvements over the free version, including:
Avira AntiVir Premium Security Suite has some more improvements over both versions, including:
- Anti Spam for E-mail
- Firewall blocks hackers
- Backup System to protect and secure important data[4]
- AntiBot prevents dangerous botnets from taking over your system[4]
- Parental Controls blocks unsuitable websites for Children and Teens[4]
Product feature summary
Avira AntiVir Personal 10
(with pop-up ad during update)Avira AntiVir Premium Avira Premium Security Suite AntiVir Yes Yes Yes AntiDialer Yes Yes Yes AntiRootkit Yes Yes Yes AntiSpyware + AntiAdware Yes (since version 9) Yes Yes WebGuard Yes (since version 10 SP2) Yes Yes AntiPhishing Yes (since version 10 SP2) Yes Yes AntiVirProActiv No Yes Yes AntiDrive-by Yes (since version 10 SP2) Yes Yes RescueSystem No Yes Yes MailGuard No Yes Yes Fast Premium update server No Yes Yes AntiSpam No No Yes FireWall No No Yes GameMode No No Yes Backup-System No No Yes AntiBot No No Yes Parental Control No No Yes Cost Freeware €19.95, £16.66, ¥2,255 €39.95, £33.37, ¥4,515 Reviews
AV-Comparatives awarded Avira AntiVir Premium with the highest score, the "Advanced+" distinction, in February, May, and August 2008, earning it the 2008 "AV Product of the Year" award. This large-scale comparative test saw Avira achieve an "excellent" score for its proactive detection performance. In the "Speed" category, Avira made it to the winner’s podium. In the "Summary Report 2010" it received the Silver award for 99.5% detection rate.[7]
In January 2008, Avira AntiVir was given a rating of 6.5 out of 8 in tests for detection and removal of rootkits and 71% for proactive virus detection by Anti-Malware Test Lab; both scores qualified for "gold" status, the highest award.[8] Avira achieved the highest Malware Detection rate, along with G-DATA Antivirus, 98%, and was one of five products that achieved a 90% or higher spyware detection rate in the latest AV-Test performed in February 2010.[9] AV-Comparatives also awarded Avira with an Advanced+ rating (the highest) in their latest test.[10] Avira had the highest signature and proactive detection rates in all major independent antivirus tests.[when?] In April 2009, PC Pro awarded Avira Premium Security Suite 9 six out of six stars and a place on its A-list for Internet security software.[11] In August 2009, Avira AntiVir Personal Antivirus achieved a 98.9% percent overall malware detection rate, and was the fastest for both on-demand scans and on-access scans conducted by PC World, who ranked it first on its website.[12] Neil J. Rubenking from PC Magazine gave the latest version of Avira (version 10) 3.5 out of 5 stars.[13]
Avira was among the first companies to receive OESIS OK Gold Certification.[14] This shows that both the antispyware and antivirus components of several of their products have achieved the maximum compatibility score with widespread network technologies (like SSL/TLS VPN and Network Access Control) from Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems, SonicWALL and others.
Avira has also received VB100 awards,[15] the most recent in April 2011 (Avira AntiVir Personal).
Rogue software (with similar name)
In July 2010, a rogue security program called "Antivir Solution Pro" was reported as a threat; it is probably from the family known as AV Security Suite. This software had nothing to do with nor had any affiliation with Avira, but used a similar name to Avira's software.[16]
Ask.com toolbar controversy
During summer 2011, Avira added to an update of their freeware AntiVir Personal the ask.com toolbar.[17]
References
- ^ "In the Internet the world is just a village. Ours has a population of 100 million.". Avira.com. http://www.avira.com/en/company/100_million_avira_users.html. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
- ^ http://www.avira.com/en/press-details/nid/372/news/avira+speeds+up+its+virus+scanner
- ^ http://www.avira.com/en/press-details/nid/439/news/nvdf+update
- ^ a b c d e f "Avira Products". Avira GmbH. http://www.avira.com/en/for-home. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
- ^ http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus
- ^ "Avira AntiVir Rescue System". http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-avira-antivir-rescue-system. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
- ^ "Summary Report 2010". av-comparatives.org. http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/summary/summary2010.pdf.
- ^ "Anti-Malware Test Lab". Anti-malware-test.com. http://www.anti-malware-test.com/. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
- ^ "AV-Test release latest results" (2 September 2008)
- ^ "AntiVirus Programs Test". Av-comparatives.org. http://www.av-comparatives.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=152/. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
- ^ "Avira Premium Security Suite 9 review" at PC Pro (27 July 2010)
- ^ "Avira AntiVir Personal" by Erik Larkin, PC World (24 August 2009)
- ^ "Avira AntiVir Personal 10" by Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine (26 March 2010)
- ^ "Awards for Avira products". Avira.com. http://www.avira.com/en/company/awards.html. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
- ^ "Virus Bulletin: VB100 results – Avira". Virusbtn.com. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/results?vendor=VE37. Retrieved 17 April 2011. (free registration required)
- ^ "Antivir Solution Pro Information and Removal" (September 5, 2010)
- ^ [1] (August 31, 2011)
External links
Categories:- Computer security software companies
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- Computer security software
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