Kaspersky Lab Delivers Unrivaled Hybrid Protection from the Latest Threats

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News Flash

Kaspersky Lab announces the launch of two new versions of their flagship products for protecting desktops and laptops against malware, hacker attacks and spam – Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 2012.

The new versions are packed with industry-leading data protection technologies to counter the evolving IT threat landscape faster and more effectively than ever before. Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 provide a highly secure and user-friendly personal digital environment, whether you are working, banking or shopping online, or just catching up with friends and family on your favorite social networking site.

Quick Facts

The new features and improvements inside the 2012 product range include:

  • Kaspersky Hybrid Protection, which harnesses the power of the cloud and world-class security technologies that reduce the average protection delivery time to just 40 seconds
  • Top-notch defense against unknown cyber threats with smart application monitoring and roll back capability able to eliminate traces of even the most sophisticated malware infection, including rootkits
  • Optimization for use with popular business and entertainment software packages resulting in a performance increase of up to 50% in some operations compared to the previous versions
  • A new animated user interface that allows you to access all the main features of the product with just one click
  • 28 other newly-refined technologies

Computer Threat Insight

The battle between the cybercriminals and security solutions vendors has grown in size, speed and complexity in recent years, reaching every corner of the globe. Today, Kaspersky Lab discovers a new malicious program every 2 seconds, with over 7 million web attacks registered each day.

Traditional data protection technologies are no longer sufficient to cope with emerging security challenges.

Lately, some security software companies have raced to “The Cloud” in search of ways to keep their customers safe from the exponential growth of malware. Some have even poured all their technology into the cloud, touting it to customers as a one-stop provider of speedy protection and better computer performance. But what happens if the cloud “goes down?” What happens if a user’s Internet connection fails, or performs too slowly to keep up?

The reality has become clear: remotely-hosted online (or cloud) technology isn’t a silver bullet. Effective, multi-layered computer protection requires the best security technology in both the cloud and on the PC itself. Many sophisticated threats exist that can’t be tackled by the cloud even if the user is online, such as advanced rootkits or malicious scripts. Unprotected computers that are offline can be infected from sources such as a local network or a USB storage device. However, although the cloud can block incoming infections, it is impossible to remediate an already infected PC in most cases.

Naturally the computer threat landscape requires well-balanced solutions that leverage the immediacy of the cloud approach and the capabilities of PC-based protection.

Kaspersky Lab has recognized the potential of cloud technologies for years, launching a first-of-its-kind cloud-based Urgent Detection System in 2006 as a way to immediately provide the latest protection to our customers worldwide. Later it was followed by Kaspersky Security Network, which has boosted the efficiency of cloud protection even further. KAV/KIS 2012 takes this concept to the next level, optimizing our technology to use real-time data from the cloud, but not dependent on an Internet connection to provide protection.

Product Highlights

  • Hybrid Protection
    KAV/KIS 2012 are built around the concept of Hybrid Protection – harnessing the power of the cloud and top of the line security technologies we’ve placed on PCs. Users will benefit from the collective wisdom of the Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team and a worldwide network of users and expert analysts through the cloud-based Kaspersky Security Network (KSN). KSN retains real-time data about malicious and suspicious application activity from the PCs of more than 30 million voluntary members from 213 countries. The system performs a comprehensive analysis of the collected data and automatically delivers a remedy to PCs for even the most advanced threats including zero-day exploits, phishing and spam.

    KSN provides users with a number of additional advantages.

    The File Advisor is an additional layer of protection that determines the trustworthiness of any file on your computer by checking its worldwide reputation with a single click. If our experts or other Kaspersky Lab customers have discovered the file is malicious, you won’t be tricked into opening it.

    The URL Advisor is a global database of website security statistics that enables users to learn if a link leads to a trusted, malicious, or questionable website before they visit. For example, when users perform a simple web-search, the resulting links are clearly tagged with a red, yellow or green icon, so users can easily avoid dangerous websites.

    The integrated Anti-Spam module no longer requires “training” by the user to accurately block unsolicited emails. The updated database and adjusted spam filtering rules are delivered from the cloud right after installation.

  • Improved protection against unknown threats with roll back capability
    Being one of the industry leaders in protection against unknown threats Kaspersky Lab continuously improves its proactive technologies. KAV/KIS 2012 now has an advanced version of the System Watcher module for discovering suspicious activity, tracking down malicious traces and PC restoration.

    The System Watcher module records the activity of each installed application throughout each one’s entire lifecycle. This way, KAV/KIS 2012 can store event concatenations and develop a comprehensive pattern of both stand-alone and groups of applications. As a result, the discovery of a single malicious action will enable KAV/KIS to effectively reveal the infection details and roll back the changes including the disinfection of files, deleting newly-created data and restoring the system registry.

  • New animated user interface
    KAV/KIS 2012 boast a whole-new user interface – the most extensive interface overhaul in three years – to make the product and its security tools easier than ever to use, and to reassure computer owners that their data is safe.

    The new interface provides instant visibility into the security status of the system, offers easy access to the most popular features, and displays information about how the cloud-enabled protection is working for you. All wrapped in a user-friendly and elegant environment with support for touch screen computers.

    This ease of access was also applied to the Kaspersky Desktop Gadget, which now provides more customization and instant-access options than ever before.

  • Performance optimization
    Alongside the advanced technologies and innovations, the new product versions provide increased performance and improved compatibility.

    KAV/KIS 2012 works with a number of the most popular business and entertainment applications to achieve better performance without sacrificing protection levels. Users can now enjoy seamless integration with VoIP clients (including Skype), web browsers, video players and online games.

    The new intelligent updating system significantly reduces the traffic burden on broadband connections and minimizes the impact on operating systems and other resources.

Pricing, availability and upgrade options

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 will be available from the Kaspersky Lab global online store on 07 June, 2011. Contact your local Kaspersky Lab office to confirm product availability dates and prices for your region. Registered users of previous versions can upgrade to KAV/KIS 2012 free of charge.

Quotes

Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and CEO, Kaspersky Lab
“We are really focused on optimizing advanced technologies, both in the computer and the cloud, that work seamlessly to keep our users safe. By staying focused on protecting our customers no matter how they use their computers – online, or offline - we have taken a huge step in protecting them from the most dangerous cyber-threats of today and tomorrow. In addition, our new look is refreshing and empowering, and I think our new interface will make our products easier to use than ever before. This is world-class protection in its most elegant form.”

Nikolay Grebennikov, CTO, Kaspersky Lab
“The new 2012 versions continue the long tradition of excellence that our home user products have come to be known for. At the same time, these products are now simpler and more user-friendly than ever before. Many of the modules featured in Kaspersky Internet Security 2012, such as web-antivirus, behavioral analysis, the threat rating sub-system and anti-rootkit components, have been made easier to update and now interact more effectively with cloud technologies.”

Petr Merkulov, Chief Product Officer, Kaspersky Lab
“We conducted an in-depth analysis of the performance of our new products with a variety of operating systems, thoroughly optimizing them for the most widespread usage scenarios and applications. As a result, compared to the previous version, we’ve significantly improved the speed of application startup, network connection bandwidth, and the boot time of various versions of Microsoft Windows. Additionally, file operations such as opening, closing and saving are now performed twice as fast”

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Kaspersky Lab Shows Significant Results of Market Growth in First Half of 2011

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, announces its successful results of business growth on US and European markets in the first half of 2011. The company demonstrated outstanding results by gaining bigger market share in B2C sector and significantly outperforming the competition.

"Both European and US markets are of the strategic importance for Kaspersky Lab from the point of view of its capacities as well as competition, - said Eugene Kaspersky, Chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab. - Gaining bigger market share on these mature markets proves that our expansion and business development strategy reflects both understanding of market needs and better knowledge of technology trends. Today we’re getting even closer to global market leadership which shows that we’re on good path to reach #1 position in our market segment in the foreseeable future."

The early indicators of the 1st half 2011 shows that Kaspersky Lab continues strengthening its market positions. As by NPD* data, the company is ranked number one in the B2C Antivirus Market in the US with a Market share of31.3% (by dollar volume) in the first quarter of 2011. In Total Security and Security Suites segments Kaspersky Lab has the second and the third positionsin dollar volumeaccordingly.

The company has the best growth indicatorsin European countriesamong the Top 4 vendors and continues speeding toward its competitors. According to GfK data, in the first half of 2011 Kaspersky Lab has shown #2 position in B2C sector in Western Europe**, being on the first place in such key countries as Germany and France. In the antivirus category Kaspersky Lab has shown especially high results, being #1 with 46% of the European retail market*** in the first quarter of 2011.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is the largest antivirus company in Europe. It delivers some of the world's most immediate protection against IT security threats, including viruses, spyware, crimeware, hackers, phishing, and spam. The company is ranked among the world's top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users. Kaspersky Lab products provide superior detection rates and one of the industry's fastest outbreak response times for home users, SMBs, large enterprises and the mobile computing environment. Kaspersky® technology is also used worldwide inside the products and services of the industry's leading IT security solution providers. Learn more at:www.kaspersky.com. For the latest on antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and other IT security issues and trends, visit:www.securelist.com.

* The NPD Group, Retail Tracking Service, January-March 2011

**Ranking by Sales Value in GfK Retail Market, B2C

***Ranking by Sales Units inGfK Retail Market, B2C

 

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Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 Awarded "Advanced+" Rating in AV-Comparatives’ Retrospective Testing

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, reports that its Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 product has deservedly received the “Advanced+” grade in a retrospective test conducted by AV-Comparatives. A similar result was received by the same Kaspersky Lab product in AV-Comparatives’ “On-Demand” test, held simultaneously with the retrospective test.

In the retrospective test, 12 products of different manufacturers were tested and compared against one another. Unlike the On-Demand testing, in the retrospective test the quality of heuristic detection of new malware was analyzed. Interestingly, all other means of threat protection were disabled, including the possibility to update the antivirus database.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 successfully passed the testing and received the Advanced+ grade. The level of detection of malware using only heuristic algorithms came to 55%, which is one of the highest in the industry. In the simultaneous On-Demand test the detection rate for Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 came to 97%. The results of the false positive/alarm test (12 instances for Kaspersky Lab’s product) were similar to those in the On-Demand comparative. It should be pointed out that, according to data of the cloud-based Kaspersky Security Network, all 12 files are practically never encountered on users’ computers.

Nikita Shvetsov, director of Anti-Malware Research of Kaspersky Lab, said: “What is interesting is that the leading antivirus companies refused to take part in the test, stating that without cloud protection and updates of antivirus databases their products won’t protect users in the proper manner. We think that even without an Internet connection or cloud services the user should be fully certain about the security of his/her system and personal data. As a result, even given such test conditions Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 showed one of the highest levels of threat detection, which demonstrates how users of our products are protected even without an Internet connection. However, we agree that the retrospective testing reflects just a small part of the capabilities of Kaspersky Anti-Virus, even less than the On-Demand test, which also doesn’t fully reproduce a real situation with a user’s computer. Therefore, in judging anti-virus products, we recommend using results from more realistic tests, such as those carried out by “Real-World” or “Dynamic”.

More detailed information on the results of the testing can be found at:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_retro_may2011.pdf

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Spammers regaining lost ground after botnet closures

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Spammers are gradually regaining their position following the closure of major botnets in the second half of last year according to Kaspersky Lab’s February report on global spam activity.

The latest figures show that India remained the leading source of spam in February, accounting for 8.83 percent of all global spam traffic. Almost half as much spam came from Russia which was the second biggest source compared to the previous month after a drop of 4.26 percentage points. Brazil rose to third place (+0.41 percentage points) and Indonesia moved up one place to fourth (-0.39 percentage points). Newcomer to the top five South Korea climbed six places to claim fifth place following a rise of 1.4 percentage points.

According to the report the USA ended the month as the eighth biggest source of spam, but it should be noted that there is a gradual increase in the amount of spam traffic coming from the country. After the closure of the Pushdo/?utwail botnet in August 2010, the volume of spam emanating from the USA fell considerably with record-low levels at the end of last year (approximately 1-1.5 percent from October to December). In February, that figure reached its highest level in four months – 4.27 percent – and it looks like it will continue to rise over the next few months.

“Spammers are gradually regaining their position following the closure of major botnets in the second half of last year, and we foresee a return to spam levels of 81-82 percent by April-May 2011,” said Maria Namestnikova, Senior Spam Analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

In February malicious files were found in 3.18 percent of all emails, a rise of 0.43 percentage points compared with the previous month. Most of the malicious programs in February’s rating can be split into two groups. The first group consists of mail worms whose primary function is to harvest email addresses to continue propagating. The second group of malware contains programs designed to steal confidential information, primarily of a financial nature. February’s rating also included a malicious program capable of disabling victim computers and demanding payment to restore access to them.

The full version of the spam report for February 2011 is available at: http://www.securelist.com

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