Author Archives: Avast Blog

avast! Antivirus gets cameo role in Movies vs. Life viral video

A YouTube video called Movies vs. Life compares scenes embellished with movie magic to their real-life equivalents. We like to think that an avast! Antivirus cameo during a computer hacking scene (pay attention around 0:22 seconds) is one of the reasons that this hilarious video has gone viral. A round of applause from avast! to […]

High profile site scares users

      No Comments on High profile site scares users

We come across a plenty of malware reports every day. Sometimes we have to deal with some special cases, where a respected vendor is involved. This time it was the Dell driver download site. The “Download file” link leads to this unexpected screen (our user complained about a false positive): Well, being an average user, […]

Recommend avast! and earn premium protection for free

Once you start using avast! Free Antivirus, you quickly realize what a quality product it is and want to share it with your family members and friends. We have created an easy way for you to recommend avast!, and at the same time earn points toward a free 1-year license of avast! Internet Security. The […]

Auschwitz survivor seeks twin brother by “going viral”

Seventy-three year old Menachem Bodner lost his twin brother Jeno (Jolli) 68 years ago when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated.  He knows only one thing about his brother:  The Auschwitz ID number tattoed on his arm –  A 7734. With the help of his grandchildren and genealogist Ayana KimRon, Mr. Bodner is now using […]

Is one search engine safer than another?

Question of the week: Since I have been using avast! I have been conscious of staying secure online. Does it matter which search engine I use? Is one safer than the other? Thanks for using avast! to protect your computer. Yours is a great question, but maybe not one that people consider when thinking about the […]

Is antivirus protection for a smartphone really necessary?

Question of the week: I have avast! Free Antivirus on my computer and I love it, but isn’t antivirus for a smartphone overkill?  I mean, there are not so many threats to a phone, are there? This is a question being asked by lots of security firms lately, and the answer is a resounding, YES. […]

Make money fast via torrents

      No Comments on Make money fast via torrents

Several months ago I wrote a blog post about an adware downloader which after execution downloaded a few adware programs and installed them on the computer, giving no chance for the user to skip or bypass their installation. This time, we will analyze an application, which installs similar types of adware programs on user computers. […]

WordPress sites hacked

      No Comments on WordPress sites hacked

There is a nasty botnet trolling WordPress sites trying to log in with the default admin user name and using “brute-force” methods to crack the passwords. Our advice to save your wordpress blog from being hacked is to change admin as the login name to something else and use strong passwords. Matt Mullenweg, the founder […]

Avast and Android Police host International Mega Giveaway

You could win 1 of 9 Nexus devices! All you have to do is visit the Android Police contest page and answer this question: What feature (or features) would you like to see added to avast! Mobile Security? Visit the Android Police contest page now, read through the description of the contest, and add your […]

Why we love specifications (not)! Part II

Dealing with file formats is not really enjoyed by us. Usually the format designers haven’t had the security and parsing by foreign applications in mind, sometimes the specifications are hard to get, but, what is worst is the specification which claims something and then the major implementation does not follow it, allowing the bad guys […]