I was honored recently to be one of the recipients of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC) 2017 Champions of Freedom award. Tech and privacy giant Bruce Schneier was among the presenters, and my fellow recipients—attorney Carrie Goldberg, Ron Rivest, and Judge Patricia Wald—are all doing important work in protecting privacy online and off in an age where it feels like we are always being watched. EPIC president and executive director Marc Rotenberg made a powerful statement about the vital, and often unsung, role that transparency has in a healthy democracy.
It’s a nightmare situation, no doubt about it: a virus has taken over your computer and locked up your most valuable files. A ransom note filling your screen says you have a certain amount of time to pay the hacker, or the amount doubles. After it doubles, you again have a certain amount of time to pay before the criminal behind the ransomware attack destroys your files forever.
Earlier this week, a Petya-based ransomware virus targeted the Ukraine in the largest cyberattack the nation has ever experienced, taking down the central bank, postal services, and commercial enterprises such as the Antonov aircraft manufacturer. Whil…
Earlier this week, we saw another mass ransomware attack happen, less than two months after the WannaCry outbreak. In the hours and days after the attack, this strain was given many different names, including Petya, Petna, NotPetya, EternalPetya, Nyetya, and many more. We originally referred to it as Petya-based, but for simplicity, let’s call it Petna.
Further to reports of a massive cyber attack hitting a number of companies in Ukraine, including banks, energy companies and transport services as well as the government, we believe this is another example of the Petya-based ransomware, which was first…
One of the many reasons Avast acquired AVG last year was our mutual confidence that we’d be better together, with improved security quality, reliability, and performance. The combination of Avast’s CyberCapture and our artificial&nb…
Selecting the right security solution to protect your devices isn’t always an easy decision to make – whether you’re a consumer or a larger organization. Luckily, there are many independent testing laboratories who do their job at testing security products well, so end customers have a way to compare and select a solution that suits their needs best. It’s not often we see a new kid (tester) on the block.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the hottest new trend that’s been around for years. While that may sound like an oxymoron, there’s a reason the buzz around AI and its subset, machine learning, hasn’t quieted down and is likely to continue for a long time. It’s uniquely critical in our fight against the ever-growing number and variety of cyberthreats and vital to our ability to scan for and remove malware.
A little less than a year ago, we started providing free decryption tools for victims of ransomware attacks. Today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve just released our 20th free ransomware decryption tool: a free decryption tool for the En…
I rediscovered gaming a few years ago and am now totally immersed in the worlds of Witcher 3, GTA V, and, among the latest PC games, Resident Evil 7. These games are gripping, but they also have a few things in common: