I had a nice meet up with avast! CEO, Vincent Steckler. Although he has to left early for some personal matters, we are at good hand with Hazrul, CEO of Verbeter Group. In this discussion (over dinner), we had a better understanding of how avast! works and how it progresses over the years.
I did not know that you can actually download avast! Antivirus software for free. So, if you do not have any anti-virus software on your computer, you may want to try avast! antivirus software. Anyway, here is the Press Release from avast!.
avast! releases internet security forensics data from the web’s largest
malware hunter community
(SINGAPORE, April 28, 2010) Researchers at ALWIL Software, providers of the avast! Antivirus program, have released the first set of data from its CommunityIQ, an opt-in sensor program for the 100 million avast! Antivirus users.
CommunityIQ is the world’s first large-scale sampling of online threats. Sensors in the avast! Antivirus program identify malware and infected websites by analyzing suspicious behavior, use of malicious code, and past experience with other avast! users.
“The huge numbers of CommunityIQ member’s create a “cloud” of sensors that gives us a real-time snapshot of the threats posed by websites across the internet,” said Vince Steckler, CEO of avast! maker ALWIL Software. “Our cloud gives a huge time-sensitive amount of data on the state of malware and viruses across the web.”
Globally, the 1Q’2010 set of data includes over 252,000 infected domains which were visited and identified through 11.9 million visits by CommunityIQ members.
The list from our CommunityIQ is an interesting compilation of all types and locations. “Within the last 14 days in Asia, we have identified a variety of infected sites including babykingdom.com.sg (shopping), depdagri.go.id (government), and selesa.com.my (hotel). Even a public health site in Thailand had a Trojan JavaScript infection,” stated Mr. Steckler. “We find a similarly broad assortment of sites everywhere on the globe.“
Every time a CommunityIQ member visits a website, the avast! antivirus installed in their computer performs a rigorous scan and examines the behavior of the site for any infection, viruses, or suspicious activity. If this uncovers malware, avast! then shuts off the connection – protecting the user’s computer – and sends data off for analysis.
This anonymous packet of data includes information on the malware type, visited website, and computer applications running at the time of exposure. The data allows the discovery of known infections and provides useful clues through behavioral analysis and cross-referencing of operating systems, service packs, and browser data.
By combining reports from individual CommunityIQ members, avast! researchers are able to identify new malware and chart the spread and duration of the infection. Other CommunityIQ data is processed automatically and forms the basis for the daily virus database updates.
“The data from the CommunityIQ is invaluable as it is based on the real surfing experience of a large sample size,” explains Mr. Steckler. “Most community members are just average PC users that go online as part of their daily regime. This increases the potential to find and clarify new threats at close to or even at zero day.”
avast! will be releasing a detailed CommunityIQ internet security barometer report later in the year which will have detailed statistics on the threat landscape broken down by country and domain as well as information on emerging threats captured by behavioral analyses.
“Our goal is to make information from the CommunityIQ freely available to improve overall internet security,” adds Steckler, “We would also like to thank users within the CommunityIQ for their support and wish them happy – and safe – surfing.”
| Infected sites identified in Q1’2010 | 2,149,042 pages
252,801 domains |
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| Visits to infected sites by CommunityIQ members
(This does not include attempted visits to blocked sites. Blocked URL visits can reach 3 million daily.) |
11,876,357 – visits to non-blocked infected sites | |
| Infected sites by country | Domains / hits by CommunityIQ members | |
| General (.COM) | 102,721 / 5,186,345 | |
| General (.NET | 19,883 / 898,867 | |
| Russia (.RU) | 20,639 / 1,230,077 | |
| Brazil (.BR) | 6,356 / 344,888 | |
| China (.CN) | 5,657 / 193,785 | |
| Thailand (.TH) | 1,446 / 92,838 | |
| Vietnam (.VN) | 471 / 11,063 | |
| Malaysia (.ML) | 375 / 5,318 | |
| Indonesia (.IN) | 291 / 5,809 | |
| Singapore (.SG) | 175 / 1,070 | |
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About ALWIL Software
ALWIL Software is the maker of avast! — the world’s most popular computer security program with over 100 million registered users. From its headquarters in the Czech Republic, ALWIL Software has developed the award-winning suite of avast! products and localized them into 33 languages. Further details about the company and its products can be found at http://www.avast.com.
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avast! is a registered trademark in the United States of America and other countries and is used under exclusive license to ALWIL Software.