Category Archives: Consumer Alerts

5 tips for ultimate online security and privacy | Avast Infographic

avast-ultimate-security-privacy-infographic-finalCybersecurity encompasses multiple defenses. It’s not just an antivirus, it’s not just a VPN, it’s not just a password manager, internet security, and anti-track software. It’s all these things and more, working together to ensure every vulnerability is protected, whether the threats are coming from a phishing email, a malicious website, a botnet, public Wi-Fi, or other avenue. Cybercriminals are trying every angle to crack into our data, and they won’t rest until they do. 

Click to view a larger version of the infographic here.

We need to defend our digital lives comprehensively. Here are 5 ways to protect yourself online:

  1. Get Antivirus Protection: Every month, our network protects hundreds of millions of users from 2 billion malware attacks. Avast Premier is our top-of-the-line antivirus that stops emerging threats, ransomware, spyware, and then some.

  2. Use a VPN to encrypt your internet connection: A VPN protects your privacy online by masking your IP address and providing an encrypted connection between you and the internet. Access streaming shows when you travel, safely use a public Wi-Fi, and remain anonymous online.
     
  3. Use a fast, secure, and private browser: Get state-of-the-art protection for all your online activities—plus ad-blocking, anti-tracking, and anti-fingerprinting. This makes it impossible for others to create an online profile of you. Avast Secure Browser includes all this and it’s up to 4x faster than your standard browser.

  4. Make your passwords unique and strong: Ever-changing, complex passwords are key to data protection. Use a password manager to securely sync your passwords across all your computers, smartphones, and tablet               
    devices. Avast Passwords Premium is a great option for
    managing your passwords and it also has the added benefit of detecting when sites have been compromised and prompts you to change your password.

  5. While you’re at it, speed up and clean up your PC: Along with all this protection, apply a full optimization suite like Avast Cleanup Premium which includes over 10 features to improve your PC’s reliability and speed. Our patented technologies provide next-gen tuning and cleaning which frees up disk space, removes bloatware, fixes problems, and increases speed.

3 fresh tips to book your vacation securely

1. Do this to make sure you’re on the right booking website, and not an evil twin

Every year, millions are lost — and countless vacations ruined — by fake booking sites crafted to look just like the real ones. Imagine handing your payment over an airline or hotel, and showing up the day of the trip to find out they’ve never heard of you.

Suspicious group of adware apps removed from the Google Play Store

We recently came across a number of different types of apps on Google Play, ranging from cryptocurrency related apps to lifestyle apps like weather, fitness and recipe apps, that turned out to be adware. They all aggressively pushed ads, redirected users to other apps on the Play Store, collected basic information about users’ devices and were capable of receiving code to execute on the infected device.

The essential guide to shopping online | Avast

According to statistics database Statista, 2017 saw an estimated 1.66 billion shoppers purchase goods online, grossing an incredible 2.3 trillion US dollars. This means online shopping is certainly here to stay. Moreover, it’s projected to grow more popular and more prevalent as time goes on. With that in mind, let’s do a deep dive into the evolution of online shopping, discussing the best practices we should all adopt and why.

Why and how to set up a VPN on your iPhone or Android | Avast Essential Guide

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, routes all of your internet activity through a secure, encrypted connection, which prevents others from seeing what you’re doing online and from where you’re doing it. Basically a VPN provides an extra layer of security and privacy for all of your online activities. Want to learn more about VPNs in general? Check out our Essential Guide.

The fight for net neutrality and the might of cryptojacking malware | Avast

Cryptojacking like an animal: the Drupal vulnerability
The San Diego Zoo is just one of almost 400 websites that has been compromised by a bug called Drupalgeddon 2.0. This vulnerability in the Drupal content management system was discovered and patch…