More than 1.5 million people download AVG anti-virus software every week around the world.The company has been pushing hard for consumers to download its starter package software in order to encourage them to buy enhanced security measures for their PCs.A
More than 1.5 million people download AVG anti-virus software every week around the world.
The company has been pushing hard for consumers to download its starter package software in order to encourage them to buy enhanced security measures for their PCs.
AVG marketing manager Lloyd Borrett said more than 250 million people had downloaded its software since the company started offering free starter packages a decade ago.
Mr Borrett said the software offered a “basic level of protection” and an entry into the security market place. Mr Borrett added that AVG anti-virus software was the most downloaded free software in the world with more than three million people using it in New Zealand and Australia alone.
“We have done a lot of marketing to encourage more people to download the software. If offers protection against viruses and poisoned web pages.”
Mr Borrett said businesses, as well as home PC users, were downloading the software; “We expect our workplace computers and data to be protected to the highest level but people are failing to fully protect their personal information. With cyber criminals becoming ever more sophisticated, it is crucial to be protected at home.
“Each line of code in your PC could include bugs that are easily infiltrated by hackers. A virus in your computer may only be an inconvenience but identity theft is a very real concern,” he said.
Mr Borrett highlighed the following categories as key threats for online users in 2010.
Automatically generated malware:
Today malicious code is written with more variants. Hackers can now automatically create hundreds of thousands of unique pieces of malware per day, much of which has no unique signature and can bypass old fashioned signature-based virus detection software.
Identity theft:
For many years now most malicious code and poisoned websites have been directly or indirectly about stealing money, identity and computer resources. In simple terms, cyber criminals trick you via social engineering and phishing scams into handing over your money.
They trick you into providing (or steal off of your computer) enough of your personal details to build up a dossier of information about you that is sufficient to trick someone else into providing them with money, goods or services.
Mr Borrett said; "Expect to see even more legitimate-looking and personalised phishing attacks impersonating banks or other businesses you have accounts with.
"They can make your computer into a part of their botnet. Then they can use your computer resources and internet bandwidth to send out spam, host poisoned web pages, host downloads of illegal software, movies, music, adult images and child pornography," he said.
