Avast Introduces Avast 6 Product Line

Internet Security provider Avast! released version 6 of their latest internet security offerings during the last week of February. This includes on the consumer side, their free consumer product, Avast Free Antivirus 6, Avast Pro Antivirus, and Avast Internet Security. Avast is now promoting 149 million product registrations for their solutions (each company seems to define "registration" and "registered user" differently).

What’s New with Avast 6?

• avast! WebRep - Provides website reliability and reputation ratings according to community-provided feedback.
• avast! SafeZone - Opens a new (clean) desktop so that other applications don’t see what’s happening – perfect for banking or secure ordering/shopping – and leaves no traces once it’s closed.
• AutoSandbox - Prompts users to run suspicious applications in the virtual Sandbox environment.

Utilizing virtual desktops has been growing in corporate environments as a means to protect users and the network. This technology appears to be migrating to the consumer marketplace now, as well.

What Avast is promoting in Avast Free Antivirus 6?

• AutoSandbox – Avast says that this is the first automatic virtualization feature in a major antivirus package. AutoSandbox identifies suspicious applications and automatically prompts users to run them in a safe virtual environment
• WebRep – Avast claims that this is first reputation guide for malware and website content incorporated into a free antivirus application.
• The product also includes Web and Script shields, protecting users at the http and browser level, and site blocking

Why Upgrade to Avast Pro Antivirus or Avast Internet Security?

Avast introduces SafeZone, their version of virtual machine technology with their Avast Pro Antivirus and Avast Internet Security Suite 6 solutions. As mentioned above, SafeZone creates a virtual desktop within the computer. According to Avast, it prevents private data from going outside via malware and blocks out applications such as malware.

For safety while shopping or banking online, Avast pushes the upgrade to Avast Pro Antivirus. Safely shop or bank online. Upgrading to Avast Internet Security adds identity and data protection, an advanced firewall and spam protection to the mix.

For a detailed comparison between what is in the paid two consumer products, go to http://www.avast.com/internet-security#tab4

What are reviewers saying about Avast Free Antivirus 6?

CNET gave Avast Free Antivirus 6 4.5 stars out of 5. Rosenblatt’s conclusion:
“When it comes to your security, Avast Free Antivirus 6 gets a lot right. It's got a usable, uncluttered interface, solid although not stellar benchmarks, and a set of features that keeps it at the forefront of Windows security. Using the Internet safely is no longer just about not getting phished and downloading only known-safe files, and the improvements in Avast 6 address modern security risks comprehensively. Although we'd like to see stronger efficacy benchmarks in the future, Avast remains one of the best free security options around and is well worth downloading.” http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html .

PC Magazine's Neil Rubenking gave Avast Free Antivirus 6 3.5 stars out of 5. His bottom line comment - "Avast! Free has some dandy new features, and it's a great-looking program. However, the new features didn't shine in my testing. It needs to do a better job cleaning up the threats it detects. Since its' free, you can give it a try and make your own decision."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381362,00.asp

PC World rated Avast Free Antivirus 5 their top free solution in a December article with 4.5 stars out of 5.0. They rated Avast Pro Antivirus 5 3rd to Norton and BitDefender with a score of 4.0 out of 5.0 (tied with G Data). http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-vs-fee-free-and-paid-antivirus.html

What are the test organizations saying about Avast 6?

As of March 1, nothing. Interested parties should go to the respective websites, for details on any testing that has been performed. Available test results are using version 5.

Virus Bulletin (www.virusbtn.org) – Archived results for Avast are available at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/results?vendor=VE9 Pay attention to exactly which product was tested. Avast has received VB100 awards for the last 12 tests they've entered.

Avira's free solution was the best performing "free" product in Virus Bulletin's latest RAP test, followed by Avast and AVG Technologies, respectively.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index

AV-comparatives (www.av-comparatives.org) - Any test results performed on prior versions of Avast! products can be viewed at www.av-comparatives.org . Pay attention to exactly which product was tested.

AV-test.org (www.av-test.org) - Any test results performed on prior versions of Avast! can be viewed at http://www.av-test.org/ . Pay attention to exactly which product was tested.

ICSA Labs (www.icsalabs.org) - Results can be viewed at https://www.icsalabs.com . Pay attention to exactly which product was tested. ICSA Labs tested Avast's free product (earlier release)

https://www.icsalabs.com/products?tid[]=4216&tid_1[]=4259&x=34&y=8&=Apply

SC Awards Europe 2011 - Finalists Announced

The SC Awards Europe 2011 finalists were announced February 23. The awards gala will take place at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Tuesday April 19. Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, Websense, and Webroot are finalists in multiple product categories (McAfee was a finalist in about 14 categories in the SC Awards US 2011). Below is a detailed listing of finalists for the product awards.

Best Anti-Malware Solution
• Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky Open Space Security (KOSS) 2010
• M86 Security M86 Secure Web Gateway 10.0
• McAfee McAfee Endpoint Protection Suite
• Sophos Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition
• Symantec Symantec Endpoint Protection

Best Content Security
• Clearswift Clearswift Secure Web and Email Gateway
• LANDesk LANDesk Security Suite
• McAfee McAfee Web Gateway
• Symantec Symantec Web Gateway
• Websense TRITON
• Webroot Webroot Web Security Service

Best Network Security
• GFI Software GFI LANguard 9.6
• McAfee McAfee Network Security Platform
• Sourcefire Sourcefire IPS

Best Integrated Security Solution
• ArcSight ArcSight Logger 5
• LogRhythm LogRhythm

Best IAM Solution
• Aveksa Aveksa 4.0
• CA Technologies CA Identity Manager
• Courion Courion Access Assurance Suite
• Lieberman Software Enterprise Random Password Manager (ERPM)
• Symantec (VeriSign) VeriSign Identity Protection Access for Mobile

Best Remote Access
• Becrypt Becrypt Trusted Client
• Check Point Software Technologies Check Point Abra
• Tectia Tectia MobileID
• Websense TRITON

Best Security Management
• McAfee McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO)
• Symantec Symantec Control Compliance Suite
• Venafi Venafi Encryption Director

Best SME Security Solution
• ArcSight ArcSight Express
• Egress Software Technologies Egress Switch
• Qualys QualysGuard Express
• SafeNet SafeWord 2008
• Secunia Secunia Corporate Software Inspector
• WatchGuard WatchGuard XTM 5 Series

Best Enterprise Security Solution
• Absolute Software Absolute Manage
• Good Technology Good for Enterprise
• nCircle nCircle Suite360
• Qualys QualysGuard IT Security and Compliance Suite
• Sourcefire Sourcefire IPS
• Trustwave Trustwave SIEM OE

Best Security Solution, Financial Services
• ArcSight ArcSight FraudView
• Egress Software Technologies Egress Switch
• nCircle nCircle Configuration Compliance Manager
• Skybox Security Skybox View 5.0
• Actiance Vantage

Innovation Award
• ActiveBase Security ActiveBase
• ArcSight ArcSight Logger 5
• SunFive (represented by SecureGrade) Boole Server
• M86 Security M86 Secure Web Gateway 10.0
• Oval Oval Data Loss Protection Risk and Insurance Solutions
• Cyber Security Technologies P2P Marshal

Best Secure Virtualisation Solution
• Check Point Software Technologies Check Point Security Gateway Virtual Edition
• AEP Networks CloudProtect
• Sourcefire Sourcefire IPS
• Symantec Symantec Protection Suite for Servers

Best Encryption Solution
• Becrypt Becrypt DISK Protect
• Symantec PGP Remote Disable and Destroy (RDD)

Best DLP Solution
• Lumension Lumension Device Control
• McAfee McAfee Data Loss Prevention
• Safend Safend Data Protection Suite
• Symantec Symantec DLP v11
• Trustwave Trustwave Data Loss Prevention

Best Secure Transaction Solution
• SafeNet Luna SA
• Thales payShield 9000
• Symantec (VeriSign) SSL Certificates
• Voltage Security Voltage SecureData Payments

Information Security Product of the Year
• SunFive (represented by SecureGrade) Boole Server
• Cyber-Ark Software Cyber-Ark PIM Suite
• Qualys QualysGuard IT Security and Compliance Suite
• Actiance Unified Security Gateway
• Varonis Systems Varonis Data Governance Suite
• Veracode Veracode SecurityReview

Information Security Vendor of the Year
• Absolute Software
• Kaspersky Lab
• Qualys
• Sophos
• Webroot

Professional Awards To Be Given Out At SC Awards 2011


• Information Security Person of the Year
• Information Security Project of the Year
• Information Security Team of the Year
• The Rising Star Award
• Information Security Consultancy of the Year
• IT Security VAR of the Year
• MSSP of the Year
• CEO of the Year

Finalists in these categories as well as the product categories can be viewed at
http://www.scmagazineuk.com/awards-shortlist/section/348/

The judges for the Technology and Industry Awards are drawn from the senior ranks of the information security profession. The Professional Awards are judged by a separate panel drawn from the SC editorial team

What the SC Magazine Awards 2011 Mean for the Vendors

• Third party validation by a leading dedicated security publication
• Third party validation by peers
• Marketing/promotional rights for a year, subject to licensing
• A number of potential marketing/branding/lead generation opportunities for the recipients

A listing of the SC Awards 2011 US winners is at http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/sc-awards-2011-us-announced.html

For more information and to book tickets for the event, go to www.scawardseurope.com

2011 Global Product Excellence Awards Announced by Info Security Products Guide

Info Security Products Guide announced their 2011 Global Product Excellence Awards at a ceremony in San Francisco on February 16. The awards function took place during RSA 2011 (not part of RSA 2011).

Product Categories – 2011 Global Product Excellence Awards

Access
• Bomgar Corporation for Bomgar Box

Anti-Malware, Anti-Spam or Anti-Virus
• Faronics for Faronics Anti-Executable

Auditing
• Secure Passage for FireMon

Authentication Solution (Multi, Single or Two-Factor)
• TeleSign for Real Time Telephone Verification

Best Security Hardware Product (New or Updated version)
• Juniper Networks for SRX1400 Services Gateway
• Solera Networks for Solera DS 5200 Network Forensics Appliance

Best Security Software Product (New or Updated version)
• Sentrigo, Inc. for Hedgehog Dbscanner

Best Security Service (New or Updated version)
• Oberthur Technologies for System-One™

Compliance
• Accellion, Inc. for Accellion Secure File Transfer
• Panoptic Security for ExpertPCI™

Content Security
• SonicWALL for SonicWALL CSM3200

Data Leakage-Protection/ Extrusion Prevention
• Black Box Corporation for Veri-NAC™

Encryption
• Safend Ltd. for Safend Data Protection Suite

Endpoint Security
• SonicWALL for SonicWALL NSA E8500

Identity Management
• Courion Corporation for Courion Access Assurance Suite solution version 8.0

Intergated Security/ Unified Threat Management (UTM)
• Astaro for Astaro Security Gateway version 8

Intrusion Detection/Prevention
• Black Box Corporation for Intelli-Pass™

IPSec/SSL/VPN
• NCP Engineering, Inc. for NCP Secure Enterprise Solution

Network Management
• Vineyard Networks for Network Reporting Center

Network Security
• Wedge Networks Inc. for Wedge BeSecure Web Security Appliance Series

Managed Security Service
• Wipro Technologies for Wipro Global Security Operations Center (GSOC)

Policy Management
• nCircle for Configuration Compliance Manager

Risk Management
• Modulo for Modulo Risk Manager

SaaS/Cloud
• GlobalSCAPE, Inc. for GlobalSCAPE Managed Information Xchange (MIX)

Secured Archiving or Storage
• FileTek, Inc. for StorHouse

Security Information/ Event Management
• Trustwave for Trustwave SIEM

Security Solution for Enterprise (Large)
• Emulex Corporation for OneSecure Encryption Solution
• nuBridges for nuBridges Protect™

Security Solution for Enterprise (Medium)
• McAfee, Inc. for McAfee SaaS Endpoint and Email Protection

Security Solution for Small Businesses, SOHO, Consumers
• DigitalPersona, Inc. for DigitalPersona Pro

Social Media or Web/URL Filtering
• St. Bernard for iPrism Web Filter

Vulnerability Assessment/Remediation/Management
• Application Security, Inc. for DbProtect Vulnerability Management

Web Application Security
• Imperva Inc. for SecureSphere Web Application Firewall

Wireless/Mobile Security
• Sybase for Afaria 6.6

New Products and Upgrades, Innovative Products
• NetClarity, Inc. for NACwall 2G appliance family

To see the above, and winners in the categories below, and to learn more about the Info Security Products Guide, go to
http://www.infosecurityproductsguide.com/excellence/2011/index.html

Non Product Categories

• Company and Organization Categories
• PR, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Categories
• Product Management/Marketing Team of the Year
• Support and Customer Satisfaction Categories
• People Categories


What Product/Solution Winners Receive

Winners receive press, recognition, logos to use for sales and marketing purposes on their website, the web, and various lead generation campaigns. Colloquially - bragging rights and more!

About the Judging

Executives, PR and Corporate Marketing professionals, Industry Analysts and Experts, End-users, Editors and others applied to assist with the preliminary judging of products. Finalists were judged via online collaboration. Judges could not judge products they were affiliated with.
http://www.infosecurityproductsguide.com/excellence/judges/index.html

Observations From RSA Conference 2011 – Wednesday February 16

Much of the messaging at RSA Conference 2011 is around some combination of the words cloud, compliance, and VM. Presentations in the booths not working in those phrases are less well attended, except for the tchotchkes collectors.

IDC had a full room at their breakfast briefing on “Corporate & Consumer Security in the Next Decade: Peace, Love, & Happiness?” About a dozen of their analysts took part in a panel discussion with the attendees.

It was a (personal) day attending booth presentations from web security, firewall, and endpoint security vendors. Some bullet point observations:

• Trend Micro - Filled the theatre room within the exhibition hall with their talk on what they were doing with VM, among other topics.

• Symantec - Presentations, sneak peeks of Version 12 of the consumer internet security product. Talking about “Insight” as part of the product, and recruiting beta customers. They also have protection for Droid now. Double winner on Tuesday night from SC Awards 2011.

• Kaspersky – Has protection for Droid.

• Sophos – Interesting presentation on deconstructing a virus.

• McAfee - Naming names. One of their slides showed how their endpoint product has tested against a dozen of the usual suspects. Also prominently displayed their 12 Finalist and 2 Winner awards from SC Magazine 2011, awarded the previous night.

• ESET - Spoke about their performance, history of testing well with Virus Bulletin, and had a naming names slide showing how they perform versus some of their competitors.

Other endpoint companies with a presence on the exhibition floor included BitDefender, Bit9, Comodo, and GFI. If you don't have a presence on the floor...

A “What were they thinking?” question has to go to Barracuda for having an evening reception at the Gold Club, near Moscone Center and RSA. No dancers during the reception, but still. Supposedly, Barracuda's 2011 Tour Bus was owned by or leased from the Dave Mathews band.

Thursday on the exhibition floor is usually relatively quiet. Thursday evening is the Conference Codebreakers Bash at San Francisco City Hall. Bill Clinton will be giving the Friday keynote.

SC Awards 2011 US Winners

The SC Awards 2011 US Winners were announced at a ceremony on February 15 in San Francisco. These, the Excellence Awards, and the Professional Awards can also be viewed at http://www.scmagazineus.com/scawards2011-winners/section/2075/

For car racing fans, the best Security Team award went to Go Daddy.

SC Magazine Awards 2011, US Winners in the Reader Trust Category

Symantec was a winner in four categories. McAfee was nominated in fourteen categories and won in two of these.

Best Anti-Malware Gateway
• Winner: Cisco Systems for Cisco Web Security

Best AntiMalware Management
• Winner: McAfee for McAfee Endpoint Protection Suite

Best Computer Forensics Tool
• Winner: Guidance Software for EnCase Forensic

Best Data Leakage Prevention
• Winner: Symantec for Symantec Data Loss Prevention

Best Email Content Management
• Winner: Symantec for Symantec Brightmail Gateway

Best Email Security
• Winner: Sophos for Sophos Email Security Appliance

Best Endpoint/UTM Security
• Winner: Symantec for Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0

Best Enterprise Firewall
• Winner: Cisco Systems for Cisco ASA 5585-X

Best Identity Management Application
• Winner: IBM for IBM Tivoli Identity and Access Assurance

Best Integrated Security-UTM
• Winner: SonicWALL for SonicWALL NSA 2400MX

Best IDS/IPS
• Winner: Sourcefire for Sourcefire IPS (based on Snort)

Best IPsec/SSL VPN
• Winner: Cisco Systems for Cisco ASA Secure Remote Access solution

Best Managed Security Service
• Winner: SecureWorks Managed Security Services

Best Mobile/Portable Device Security
• Winner: Symantec for Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition

Best Multifactor
• Winner: RSA, the security division of EMC, for RSA SecurID Authentication

Best Policy Management
• Winner: Cisco Systems for Cisco Network Admission Control Appliance

Best Security Information/Event Management (SIEM)
• Winner: ArcSight for ArcSight ESM

Best Vulnerability Management Tool
• Winner: Qualys for QualysGuard Vulnerability Management (VM)

Best Web Application Firewall
• Winner: SonicWALL for SonicWALL Web Application Firewall Service

Best Web Content Management
• Winner: Websense for Websense Web Security Gateway

SC Awards Europe 2011 Finalists

Go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/sc-awards-europe-2011-finalists.html

Judging/Voting for the Reader Trust Awards

A panel of readers who represent the circulation of SC Magazine chooses winners. The Reader Trust Voting Panel is comprised of SC Magazine readers who have volunteered their time and experience to carefully consider each of the contenders in each category to cast votes

What These Awards Mean for the Recipients

• Third party validation by a leading dedicated security company
• Third party validation by peers
• Marketing/promotional rights for a year, subject to licensing
• A number of potential marketing/branding/lead generation opportunities for the recipients

RSA Conference 2011 – February 15th, a Light Look

Messaging, presentations et cetera to be discussed on another blog.

Booth traffic in general was okay. This was the first full day of the exhibition. Extravagance of the booths was definitely toned down as opposed to pre dot com bust.

Tchotchkes - Candy. T-shirts (including an 'IT happens' one), pens,light pens, one eyed plastic creatures, stress capital domes, blinking 'ice cubes', stress balls. Single chapter “IT Topic (fill in the blank) for Dummies”. Next level up, drawings for software for the people attending the presentation, some ear buds, gift cards. iPads are the end of the day giveaway du jour. Grand prize giveaways. A two-person car and a Harley.

Booth activities – the usual talks, magicians. Game show contests. Sliders while watching the preso. Watch a virus being constructed. Whack a something games. Small car racing.

For lack of a better term – “Trade show hostesses”. One booth had male and female pirates. Blue wigs. Spangled short dresses. Shoes that look way too high to wear. Bay Watch type hostesses. These were the “can we scan your badge?” for hire people.

RSA attendees. Pay a buck. Buy the twice-monthly Street Sheet from the street person who walks up with the paper. He/she gets to keep the money.

Parties – Put on by both larger and smaller companies. “W” is still the place to meet. Voltage Security event at Fang’s. Packed. Great food and martinis.

Palo Alto Network event at Jillian’s. Packed. Ronnie Lott, former 49er great there to take pictures with.

Ruby Skye event sponsored by CA. Lighter in attendance. Dancers with neon hula-hoops and on stilts were interesting. As was the juggler.

SC Magazine Awards 2011 (US) winners are being announced Tuesday night. The Info Security Products Guide 2011 Global Product Excellence awards will be given out the evening of February 16.

Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization Meeting In California

World. For a couple of days, San Mateo, California will be known for something more than the city where Boston Patriot quarterback Tom Brady played high school football and where the horse Seabiscuit raced during the 1930’s Depression. The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization is having one of their annual meetings in San Mateo the week of February 8th. Of course, next week is the RSA 2011 Conference in San Francisco http://www.rsaconference.com/2011/usa/

We’re talking about a bunch of really bright people. The smartest men and women in the room. People who get voted off the island for being too bright for the others. Much smarter than a 5th grader.

The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) is a three year old international non-profit association that focuses on the addressing the global need for improvement in the objectivity, quality and relevance of anti-malware testing methodologies. AMTSO membership is open to academics, reviewers, publications, testers and vendors, subject to guidelines determined by AMTSO.

The wisdom of crowds (unless it’s the right crowd) does not guarantee arriving at the best solution. Would you rather rely on the advice of a surgeon, team of surgeons, or 200k Facebook fans clicking or not clicking "like" and adding comments to provide the best course of action for a procedure? The third alternative is quite scary. I would go with the experts with respect to suggesting security test guidelines.

Close to 40 different organizations (the vast majority being global security and test organizations) are members. These include Trend Micro, ESET, AVG Technologies, AV-Comparatives, Virus Bulletin, Avast, Symantec, to name a few.

Many resources are available for free for anyone to download http://www.amtso.org/documents.html . Any organization or publication doing testing, at minimum, should at least be familiar with AMTSO’s (free) document “Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization. The Fundamental Principles of Testing”. These principles aren’t rocket science, but you see them being violated all the time. There are a number of other articles, doing various depths of technical deep dives. Statistically valid tests, anyone ;) ?

Individuals can rely on the proverbial “like” clicks on Fan Pages for testing advice. However, that’s probably a suboptimal solution.

The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization web site is at www.amtso.org For membership information, go to http://www.amtso.org/membership.html

March addendum - AVG Shelves IPO Plans, Eyes up to $300 mln Bond. Update to $235 mln Dividend Loan Story

March 9 update -

AVG Technologies Raises Rate on $235 Million Loan for Dividend

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet security software, raised the interest rate and increased the discount on a $235 million term loan it’s seeking to pay a shareholder dividend, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

The five-year loan will pay 6 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate, compared with 4.75 percentage points to 5 percentage points more than the lending benchmark initially proposed, said the person who declined to be identified because the terms are private. The floor on Libor is unchanged at 1.5 percent. For the complete release:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-09/avg-technologies-raises-rate-on-235-million-loan-for-dividend.html

There could be a variety of reasons why the yield was sweetened.

February 11 update -

AVG shelves Initial Public Offering (IPO) plans, eyes up to $300 mln bond

AVG Technologies has shelved plans for an initial public offering (IPO) and will instead seek to raise up to $300 million in a bond issue according to a story on February 9 in Reuters. Sources close to the discussions told Reuters the IPO was delayed because of disagreements among shareholders, who instead decided to sell bonds and later make a large dividend payout. Dariusz Pronczuk, managing director at Enterprise Investors (owns 34% of AVG) in quoted in the story.

There may be some interesting chats among vendors at RSA in San Francisco next week. AVG Technologies isn't one of the official participants, but then again, a lot of companies not on the exhibition floor are "around". WWGGD? What would Gordon Gecko do? It was slow in the IPO world in Europe last year, while it increased in Silicon Valley. It'll be interesting to see how this is interpreted on the east side of the pond, by those who follow IPO activity on the London Exchange and the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/AVG-shelves-IPO-plans-eyes-up-to-300-mln-bond-2011-02-09T110616Z

For additional details on the whole Initial Public Offering story, go to “September Addendum - AVG Technologies Prepares to Go Public”
http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/07/avg-technologies-prepares-to-go-public.html


Original Blog

According to a February 7th Bloomberg story -

AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet security software, set initial pricing on a $235 million term loan to pay a dividend to shareholders, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

The five-year debt will pay an interest rate of 4.75 percentage points to 5 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate, said the person, who declined to be identified because the terms are private. Libor, the rate banks charge to lend to each other, will have a 1.5 percent floor, the person said.

For the complete release:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-07/avg-technologies-sets-pricing-on-235-million-dividend-loan.html

Some questions:

• Typically, aren’t dividends paid out from cash earnings (as opposed to accounting earnings) instead of via a loan?
• Isn’t part of the purpose for AVG Technologies Initial Public Offering (IPO) to allow the investors to realize a real return on their investment?
• It’s common in Silicon Valley for firms to not pay cash dividends. The logic behind this is they can invest the retained cash to ultimately create increased shareholder value through an increase in stock price. Until a company has IPOed, there is no public stock price nor a way to immediately receive a return. Is the company not seeing investment opportunities or is this because of pressure from the investors?

Standard & Poor's Ratings

According to a February 3rd article, “Software Company AVG Technologies Assigned 'B+' Long-Term Rating; Proposed $235 Mil. Loan Rated 'B+'; Outlook Stable” Standard & Poor’s assigned a preliminary “B+” long-term corporate credit rating to AVG Technologies and their “B+” issue rating to the proposed loan.

Some of the figures used in the analysis, “in 2010, we understand that AVG generated about $216 million of revenues and $89.6 million of EBITDA--resulting in what we consider to be a solid EBITDA margin of 41%. In our view, AVG will generate meaningful free cash flows and maintain solid operating margins very close to or above 40% in the coming quarters.”

For the complete article - http://www.standardandpoors.com

About Standard & Poor’s Letter Ratings

The general meaning of the credit rating opinions is below.

‘AAA’—Extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. Highest Rating.
‘AA’—Very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.
‘A’—Strong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhat susceptible to adverse economic conditions and changes in circumstances.
‘BBB’—Adequate capacity to meet financial commitments, but more subject to adverse economic conditions.
‘BBB-‘—Considered lowest investment grade by market participants.
‘BB+’—Considered highest speculative grade by market participants.
‘BB’—Less vulnerable in the near-term but faces major ongoing uncertainties to adverse business, financial and economic conditions.
‘B’—More vulnerable to adverse business, financial and economic conditions but currently has the capacity to meet financial commitments.
‘CCC’—Cu
rrently vulnerable and dependent on favorable business, financial and economic conditions to meet financial commitments.
‘CC’—Currently highly vulnerable.
‘C’—Currently highly vulnerable obligations and other defined circumstances.
‘D’—Payment default on financial commitments.

http://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/definitions-and-faqs/en/us


A quote that has withstood the test of time – “Happiness is positive cash flow.”

February 2011 - Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, August 2010 through February 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing August 2010 through February 2011 data.

Those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky AV, AVG Technologies, Kaspersky IS, Avast, eScan, ESET Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G-DATA, TrustPort, Zeobit, Check Point, Avira Free, and Coranti. Coranti received the highest score for Proactive Detection and TrustPort for Reactive Detection at about 98% and 91% respectively. Ikarus didn’t clear the 90% hurdle on the most recent test, so that didn’t make the cut. .

Once again, internet security providers Symantec and McAfee will not be bragging about their results on this particular test. Kingsoft was the major laggard, however.

On the previous test, those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky, Avast!, Ikarus, eScan, AVG Technologies, Avira Pro, Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G DATA, MicroSafe, Avira Free, ZeoBit, Coranti, and TrustPort. TrustPort had the highest Reactive Detection rate and ZeoBit the highest Proactive Detection rate. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-virus-bulletin-rap-averages.html

This test measures products' detection rates across four distinct sets of malware samples. The first three test sets comprise malware first seen in each of the three weeks prior to product submission. These measure how quickly product developers and labs react to the steady flood of new malware emerging every day across the world. A fourth test set consists of malware samples first seen in the week after product submission.

This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques. A detailed description can be viewed at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/vb200902-RAP-tests

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant (August 2010 through February 2011) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index. Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989. The organization provides PC users with a regular source of intelligence about computer viruses, their prevention, detection and removal, and how to recover programs and data following an attack. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com . The site is a great source of information on malware and spam. They are a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, www.AMTSO.org.

PC World, PC Magazine, and About.com Internet Security Suite 2011 Results in One Table

The table below consolidates the summary scores of PC World’s “Battle of the Security Superpowers”, PC Magazine’s "Best Security Suites for 2011”, and about.com’s Best Internet Security suites round-ups into a single table.

This table should be looked at in conjunction with the round-ups by the three publications .The PC Magazine "Best Security Suites for 2011" reviews also contain links to comprehensive malware blocking, malware removal, antispam, antiphishing, and performance (boot time, browsing, file move/copy Windows Installer, zip/unzip) charts. One of the below links for PC World shows a comprehensive table summarizing the scores for all the tests in their round up. Within the about.com article, there are a number of links to reports by www.av-test.org.

The first column is the ranking that PC World gave the internet security products. In almost all cases, PC World was more generous in their scoring than PC Magazine. The largest differential was 1.50 with PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2011. This may be because the reviewer found that PC Tools missed a number of phishing sites, the suite's firewall, its antispam capabilities, and that malware interfered with the installation on one system. PCW = PC World, PCM = PC Magazine. The last three columns are the rankings and scores from about.com. The scores are out of 6. Where shown, the final average table is the average from all three publications. In these cases, a perfect score would be 5.33.

This table doesn't include Kaspersky Pure Total Security which received 4 stars in a February 2 PC Magazine review by Neil Rubenking. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2378961,00.asp



Webroot Internet Security Essentials was ranked 8 by about.com with a score of 4.25

Links to Full Articles

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/pc-world-battle-of-security-superpowers.html

PCW http://www.pcworld.com/article/21461/battle_of_the_security_superpowers.html

PCW http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=214618&page=1&zoomIdx=1

PCM http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,1639159,00.asp

About.com http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/tp/Best-Internet-Security-Suites-For-2011.htm?nl=1

Two More Internet Security Suite Reviews - Create Your Own Free Suite?

PC Magazine’s Neil Rubenking has published a couple more reviews of security suites to the dozen Internet Security Suite 2011 reviews he published during the last few months of 2010, Kaspersky Pure Total Security, and Outpost Security Suite Free 7.0

Kaspersky Pure Total Security –Rubenking gave 4 stars to Kaspersky Pure Total Security, writing that the product “has everything in a suite, plus much, much more.” The product scored poorly compared to its competitors against keyloggers. Given that it received four stars, people contemplating a purchase should check out the review of this product as well as some of his other to rated security suites. To view the complete review, go to http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2378961,00.asp

To view a table comparing Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011, Kaspersky Internet Security 2011, and Kaspersky Pure Total Security, go to http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/pure

Otherwise, in brief, Kaspersky Pure Total Security adds home network control, remote management of Parental Control, Password Manager, Scheduled Automatic Data backup, Encrypted Data Vaults, and File Shredder to the Internet Security 2011 suite.

Outpost Security Suite Free 7.0 - Outpost Security Suite Free 7.0 received 3 stars out of 5 from Rubenking. This was a higher score than a number of paid security suites. Interestingly enough, Outpost’s paid suite received only 2.5 stars from Rubenking. In the end, he recommended choosing this free suite only if you wanted a complete free package and didn’t want to create your own suite.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375624,00.asp

A table listing both PC World’s and PC Magazine’s top Internet Security suites for 2011 is at http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/pc-world-battle-of-security-superpowers.html Kaspersky Pure Total Protection has not been added to this yet.

Create Your Own Free Internet Security Suite?

An obvious advantage of creating your own free suite is the price. However, you’ll be relying on volunteers and FAQ’s for support. Then there’s the classic best of breed separate components versus a free (or paid) integrated solution conundrum.

Mary Landesman wrote a column last year on how to put together a free internet security suite. She listed six components a suite should have and provided links to suggested companies to obtain these from. The six components are antivirus, antispyware (this is often part of an antivirus product), firewall, spam filters, antiphishing filter, and popup blocker. People going this route may want to download and install McAfee Site Advisor or AVG Technologies LinkScanner to provide additional protection while surfing the web. http://antivirus.about.com/od/freeantivirussoftware/a/securitysuite.htm?nl=1

A potential free suite Rubenking suggests assembling would be a combination of AVG Technologies AVG Antivirus Free Edition 2011, Zone Alarm’s free firewall and Cloudmark Desktop One. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370328,00.asp

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