Be Safer Online with New, Faster AVG 9.0

MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Auckland, 6 October 2009 – AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd, New Zealand, Australia and South Pacific distributor of the world’s most popular free anti-virus software, today announced the availability of a new family of paid internet security products, AVG 9.0. Boosted by significant enhancements in speed and levels of protection, AVG 9.0 is also easier to use and improves end user experience. AVG’s new technology products ensure that users are safe in whatever activities they undertake in today’s cyber criminal infested online world.

“AVG 9.0 will provide home computer users with a more powerful and more streamlined solution that adds protection without impacting user experience, taking us back to our core strength of low impact, high performance security,” said Lloyd Borrett, Marketing Manager at AVG (AU/NZ).

“We’ve always believed that everyone has the right to a safe online experience. With AVG 9.0, we are ensuring that our users are safe from all of the threats posed by cyber criminals and identity thieves, whether they’re working, playing, banking or shopping on the web.”

AVG 9.0 — Faster. Safer. Easier to Use.

Because AVG knows scanning time is critical to its customers, scan optimisation is a top priority for AVG 9.0’s combined anti-virus/anti-spyware scanner. It employs new technology which marks files as safe or potentially unsafe during the initial scan and skips the safe files in future scans, unless the file structure changes. As a result, users experience dramatically reduced scan times — by up to 50 percent depending on system configuration — as well as improvements of 10 to 15 percent for boot times and memory usage.

In order to face the increasing threats of today’s online world, AVG 9.0 combines all modern technologies to optimise real time protection. Starting with the foundation of signature-based protection to deal with known threats, AVG 9.0 builds on top of that behavioural, in-the-cloud and white listing technologies to address the tens of thousands of new threats daily.

Revolutionary in AVG 9.0 is the integration between the Resident Shield, Firewall and Identity Protection modules. This enables the modules to share malware information with each other, increasing AVG’s ability to detect and remove most malicious types of malware, rootkits and ID Theft threats, for which signatures have not yet been issued.

The firewall enhancements include a complete redesign to reduce intrusive questions from the firewall module by 50 percent. This makes the firewall module significantly quieter and less intrusive for users. Its new trusted database of known applications and application certificates allows the firewall, without user intervention, to decide whether it’s safe to allow the application to communicate via the Internet, or if such communication should be blocked. Additionally, because the new firewall works behind the scenes with the behavioural detection technology in the AVG Identity Protection module, it can deliver one of the most accurate detection levels for new and unknown threats.

AVG 9.0 also delivers improved anti-phishing detection through enhancements to its LinkScanner® module. LinkScanner can now more quickly and accurately determine whether or not a web page is hosting a phishing attack. This is accomplished by allowing the software to apply more than 100 different potential threat indicators to a page. If the result is inconclusive, LinkScanner then makes a call to the cloud to check a multitude of phishing feeds plugged into the AVG research network, to make a final determination regarding threat potential.

AVG 9.0 delivers a solution that is laser focused on user concerns and protection. It’s marked by a new look and feel designed to significantly improve user experience and ease of use. Responding to customer feedback, the AVG installation process has been shortened by 50 percent and the user protection process is dramatically simplified. Finally, it is also significantly easier for users to detect and remove any third-party security product that could cause conflicts with AVG 9.0 and interfere with the user’s level of protection.

Expanded Reputation-Based Technology

“Some other security vendors have recently been announcing how they’ve introduced ‘new’ reputation-based security technology,” said Borrett. “AVG already had this technology in its AVG 8.x product range. Indeed, West Coast Labs honoured AVG as the first vendor with a product to receive its Checkmark Anti-Malware Dynamic Certification.

“By expanding the use of reputation-based security technology in AVG9.0, we’re able to provide an even better, worry-free experience for users,” Borrett continued. “The combination of improved traditional detection methods with enhanced dynamic detection, white-listing, behavioural analysis and reputation-based technologies in AVG 9.0 enables users to get on with their online lives, safe in the knowledge that they’re protected against new and unknown threats.”

Availability, Compatibility and Pricing

The complete AVG 9.0 paid family of consumer products is available now. Pricing for a one-year, one PC licence for AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 is NZ$54.99, while a two-year, one PC licence for AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 is NZ$81.99.

A one-year, three PC licence for AVG Internet Security 9.0 is NZ$115.99, while a two-year, three PC licence for AVG Internet Security 9.0 is NZ$173.99.

The above prices include free telephone support during Auckland business hours, backed up by free 24/7 technical support by e-mail and online. Also included is access to all protection updates and software upgrades for the term of the licence.

AVG 9.0 supports Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of the operating system.

The AVG 9.0 security product range for consumers and small business is available for purchase and download from http://http://www.avg.com.au plus through a network of more than 2400 independent software resellers throughout Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. AVG 9.0 consumer products are available singly and in multi-license packs for 3, 5 and 10 PCs, with a licence period of 1 or 2 years.

AVG Anti-Virus Free 9.0 will be available mid-October from http://http://www.avgfree.com.au.

All existing users of AVG consumer products will be automatically upgraded to AVG 9.0 for free in due course. This is AVG delivering on its commitment to keeping users up-to-date with the latest protection for the term of their licence.

For up-to-the-minute news on the latest cyber threats:

* Subscribe to AVG Chief Research Officer Roger Thompson’s blog at http://thompson.blog.avg.com/

For general AVG updates:

* Join our Facebook community at http://http://www.facebook.com/avgfree

* Follow AVG on Twitter http://http://www.twitter.com/officialavgnews

ENDS

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