Kaspersky has finally launched its free antivirus software after a year-and-a-half of testing it in select regions. While the software was only available in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China and in Nordic countries during its trial run, Kaspersky is releasing it worldwide. The free antivirus doesn't have VPN, Parental Controls and Online Payment Protection its paid counterpart offers, but it has all the essential features you need to protect your PC. It can scan files and emails, protect your PC while you use the web and quarantine malware that infects your system.
The company says the software isn't riddled with advertisements like other free antivirus offerings. Instead of trying to make ad money off your patronage, Kaspersky will use the data you contribute to improve machine learning across its products. The free antivirus will be available in the US, Canada and most Asia-Pacific countries over the next couple of days, if it isn't yet. After this initial release, the company will roll it out in other regions from September to November.
Source:
Kaspersky launches its free antivirus software worldwide
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:38PM (3 children)
Hey, look, a nice big wooden statue of a horse, and it's free!
(Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:50PM (2 children)
Of course even back then, the purpose of the horse was to fight against Trojans.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:21AM
If SN had yearly awards (like best comments, best submissions, etc.), I'd totally nominate that for Comeback of the Year Award.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @03:17AM
But Trojans reduce the risk of infection: http://www.trojanbrands.com/en/condoms [trojanbrands.com]
(Score: 1) by pipedwho on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:55PM (5 children)
So they want to scan your email contents, your software catalog (and how often/when you use each piece of software), any network activity (sites you access and what you download), and probably all disk accesses. Then send all this information back to their servers. All this for free, without having to pay you anything!
And, just to be sure, it'll make sure that there are no (other) trojans on your machine?
I wonder if it also comes with free life time backups and a dedicated pipe between the Kaspersky data center and the Kremlin?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @10:38PM (2 children)
Would you feel better about it if they charged you for it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:25AM (1 child)
Yes, because if I paid them, then there is a better chance of the authorities arresting them for fucking me over.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:32AM
In your dreams.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:51AM
These guys must work on a different definition of "contribute" than I do. I think they speak Microsoft-ees over there.
OTOH, didn't google do the same? Their voice reco was totally built from contributed voice samples with Google Voice answering software. The end-ran the biggest voice reco patent holders in the world, and it worked in each successive language they pointed it at.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @01:53AM
They say that it "doesn’t come cut with all the usual nonsense like advertising-oriented user-habit tracking and confidentiality infringements." But suppose, for the sake of argument, that's a lie. If you're running Windows, why would you have a problem with telemetry? If you're not running Windows, you don't need this.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:56PM (1 child)
So the company that is getting slammed by the current administration for potential, actual and/or possible connections with Russian security service (FSB) is handing out free antivirus software to the public. I guess when you get removed from doing business with governments you can always turn to the public. That said I have no idea if their product is any better or worse then any other similar product on the market. It just seems like a somewhat odd thing to do, trying to get government contracts and when that fails you instead just turn to the public, it seems like the fallback-option.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-kasperskylab-analysis-idUSKBN19Z0EH [reuters.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @06:46AM
Kaspersky is generally ranked as the #1 antivirus available, and has been for years. Here [av-test.org] is one site that routinely sends a variety of major antivirus software through a set of rigorous tests. Click the arrow icon to get more information on the tests they use and the overall results. Kaspersky outperformed all other top performers in terms of false positives (it had zero) and performance. You can search for other similar tests. There's plenty and it always comes out on top.
This is why our government in the middle of their little red-scare is having to try to pass laws to get people to stop using it. Note Kaspersky also offered full source code access to our government which is laying yourself as bare as possible. The motivations for the attack on Kaspersky are definitely not as they seem. I'm the sort of person that will not install Windows 10 (and have also disabled telemtry updates) but will happily be using Kaspersky.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @09:39PM (1 child)
An OS whose development -starts- with a security model is a much better idea.
Trying to paste on "security" afterwards is obviously completely backwards.
...and I just have to swivel my head every time I think that Windoze didn't even include a firewall before XP SP1, didn't activate the firewall by default until XP SP2, and didn't have one that would filter OUTBOUND packets until XP SP3.
Glad I found something that was built properly from the start.
Gratis and libre was the icing on the cake.
From that point:
- do your updates.
- don't run as root.
- get your software from non-dodgy places.
...and for those who are still nervous, sandbox your apps. [google.com]
(Also gratis and libre.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Thursday July 27 2017, @03:31AM
The AV approach in theory is harder than solving the halting problem ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem [wikipedia.org] ) since in many cases you don't even have the full inputs or source but you are supposed to determine whether the program is malicious. In practice imperfect solutions are acceptable, and popular useful programs tend to not be infinitely diverse.
I still believe the sandboxing approach is the more effective path for securing an OS for normal users (I proposed this 10 years ago: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/156693 [launchpad.net] ). There are better ways of doing sandboxing for OSes than the ways mobile OSes are currently doing it.
Sandboxing is like "solving" the halting problem by ensuring that a program will eventually halt no matter what the code or the inputs are.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday July 26 2017, @10:33PM (2 children)
I mean.. programmed it :p
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 26 2017, @10:50PM (1 child)
Ruskies advacned AI in Merican computers? NO00OO000OOOoo0ooO000OOOooo
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @08:14AM
What anti-virus does Trump use? No matter ... as long as it's Russian.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday July 26 2017, @11:45PM (3 children)
For those of us who require Windows, what anti-virus is the correct choice these days?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:37AM
For Windows 10, MS Security Essentials is just as good as any other resident antivirus, costs nothing, and at least the API is decently implemented.
For Win 10, who cares? The OS itself is a virus.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday July 27 2017, @02:29AM
Run it in an emulator in Linux: if it gets a virus, wipe and reinstall.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @06:52AM
There are plenty of sites [av-test.org] that offer regular test suites for all major virus programs.
Kaspersky has been and remains the #1 choice. If you're going for the red scare nonsense (they literally offered full source code access to the US government - so much to hide...), the other top options in terms of results look to be Norton, and Trend Micro. Avira is also top ranked but has recently missed some major attacks. Norton and Trend Micro also give some false positives from the data used, Kaspersky had 0.