Author Archives: Avast Blog

Surviving my 25 day Offline Holiday

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If you’re reading this, you probably read Part I of my social experiment, 25 Day Offline Holiday: Can a techie do it? I’m trying to live without the Internet for 25 days while I’m on vacation in Chile. Well, not absolutely without. It’s available, but I’ve banned myself from receiving or answering emails or messages, playing with the apps on my phone… that sort of thing.

I am on an Offline Holiday. Can I survive it?

I discovered that I can run without a fitness app tracking my progress I discovered that I can run without a fitness app tracking my progress

Day 8. Today, while running under the sun and watching the fields, I wondered what Bob would think about my 25-day experiment? Bob is my fellow Avast evangelist and like me, he’s extremely active on the Avast Forum. He makes presentations all over the United States about security, anti-malware, and how to be safe while connected. I guess he’s never recommended Avast to anyone offline. All he must be doing, while I’m on my offline vacation, is teaching people to be protected, have their antivirus fully updated, and so forth.

And what about David, another Avast evangelist? I wonder if he is solving all the issues on the Avast Forum? Would he survive in England without being connected? What about Asyn? Has he recommended that you read any Avast Blog articles yet? And Polonus? Is he fighting off online malware?

I’m not sure what my friends are doing, as I’ve been offline for over a week now.

Look for yourself: Join the Avast Community Forum and meet real people that can guide you through online security. Tell them I said hello.

Day 9. Nothing new. I’m bored because I can only read the local newspaper. I have a lot of time to watch movies. My health is very good: I lost some weight. But I don’t know for sure. Maybe it’s wishful thinking since I’m not following my app.

In search of the perfect instruction

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Knowing the language of common microprocessors is essential for the work of virus analysts across the AV industry. Each program you run – clean, malicious, no matter – is actually a set of commands (called instructions) specific for particular processors. These instructions can be very simple, e.g. addition of two numbers, but we can see […]

25 Day Offline Holiday: Can a techie do it?

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To get away from it all, I decided to take an unplugged vacation. But can I survive it? The day before I left Brazil for my vacation, a young lady who works with me said, “My vacation concept is different than yours.” She said that her vacation is time to take a break, to disconnect. […]

5 questions with Timmy Forson: Business Support Hall-of-Famer

Timothy “Timmy” Forson is one of Avast’s business products finest Support Specialists. He began working at Avast on June 1st, 2015. We sat down to learn more about one of our support Hall-of-Famers. This is 5 questions with Timmy! 1. What is your role at Avast Software? Senior Support Specialist. Basically I support all our […]

Online dating scams target divorced, middle-aged women

  Lonely hearts still waiting for their soulmate are easy prey for online dating scams. Many people search for love through online dating sites, dating apps, or social media. Unfortunately, before you find your prince (or princess), you have to eliminate the frogs. “Romance” scammers, sometimes referred to as “sweetheart” scammers take advantage of vulnerable […]

Find reliable, secure Wi-Fi hotspots with new Wi-Fi Finder app

Avast Wi-Fi Finder for Android finds secure Wi-Fi connections, wherever you are. Everyone loves saving their data by using free Wi-Fi hotspots, but that can be risky if the hotspot is unsecure. Hackers can eavesdrop on what you’re doing, see your messages, watch the sites you navigate to, and even steal usernames and passwords. How […]

Freely shared personal information plays part in Neiman Marcus hack

Data that you share on social media could end up for sale on the Dark Web. The luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is the latest victim of a data breach. At the end of January, Neiman Marcus notified their online customers that unauthorized individuals attempted to access customer’s online accounts by trying various login and password […]

A nova sede da Avast em Praga está pensada para atrair talentos

A nova sede da Avast está localizada no Enterprise Office Center de Praga. A abertura da linda sede da Avast, no Enterprise Office Center de Praga é uma boa ocasião para celebrar. Há alguns dias, no evento de inauguração, alguns dos nossos executivos mostraram as razões da mudança, bem como detalhes específicos sobre o novo […]

How to create strong, unique passwords for all your accounts (and remember them!)

One of the best ways to protect yourself online is by using strong passwords. Yeah, right. You’ve seen the rules before 1. Use long, strong passwords that mix letters, numbers, special characters, and capital letters 2. Avoid using the same password on different websites. But since we have so many to remember, the average is 19 per […]

Facebook user accounts hacked by Ramnit worm

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Facebook users, especially those in the United Kingdom and France, have been hit by the Ramnit worm recently. It’s estimated that more than 800,000 machines were infected with Ramnit since September 2011, though not all had been hit by the Facebook attack. A worm is a self-replicating program that multiplies without needing to attach itself […]