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Avast
FormerlyAlwil Software
Company typePrivate
IndustryInternet security
Founded1988; 36 years ago (1988)
Founders
  • Pavel Baudiš
  • Eduard Kučera
Headquarters
Prague
,
Czech Republic
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Vincent Steckler (CEO)
ProductsSecurity software
RevenueUS $714 million[1] (2016)
US $353 million[1] (2016)
Number of employees
1000+[2] (2017)
SubsidiariesAVG Technologies
Piriform
Websiteavast.com

Avast is a private company headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. It provides cybersecurity software and services. Avast's software has about 400 million users.[3][4] The company has more than 1,000 employees,[2] with about 650 at its headquarters in the Czech Republic.[5] Avast was founded by Pavel Baudiš and Eduard Kučera in 1988 as a cooperative and has been a private company since 2010. In July 2016, Avast acquired competitor AVG for $1.3 billion.

Corporate history

Avast was founded by Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis in 1988.[6] The founder met each other at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines in Czechoslovakia.[6] The founders weren't allowed to study physics without joining the communist party, which they did not want to do, so they were studying math and computer science instead.[6] At the Institute, Pavel Baudiš discovered the Viennavirus on a floppy disk and developed the first program to remove it.[6][7][8] Afterwards he asked Eduard Kucera to join him in cofounding Avast as a cooperative.[7] The cooperative was originally called Alwil and only the software was named Avast.[9]

The cooperative was changed to a joint partnership in 1991, two years after the velvet revolution[10] caused a regime change in Czechoslovakia. The new regime severed ties with the Soviet Union and allowed more capitalist organizations.[7][9] A few years later in 1995, Avast employee Ondřej Vlček wrote the first antivirus program for the Windows 95 operating system.[7] In the 1990s security researchers at the Virus Bulletin, an IT security testing organization, gave the Avast an award in every category tested, increasing the popularity of the software.[7] However, by the late 1990s, the company was struggling financially.[6] Alwil rebuffed acquisition offers by McAfee, who was licensing the Avast antivirus engine.[6]

By 2001, Alwil was facing financial difficulties, when it converted to a freemium model, offering base Avast at no cost.[7] As a result of the freemium model, the number of users of the software grew to one million by 2004[7] and 20 million by 2006.[9] Former Symantec executive Vince Steckler was appointed CEO of Avast in 2009.[11] In 2010, Alwil changed its name to Avast, adopting the name of the software[9] and raised $100 million in venture capital investments.[12] The following December, Avast filed for an initial public offering, but withdrew its application the following July, citing changes in market conditions.[13] In 2012, Avast fired its outsourced tech support service iYogi, after it was discovered that iYogi was using misleading sales tactics to persuade customers to buy unnecessary services.[14] By 2013 the Avast had 200 million users in 38 countries and had been translated into 43 languages.[6] At the time, the company had 350 employees.[15]

In 2014, CVC Capital bought an interest in Avast for an undisclosed sum. The purchase valued Avast at $1 billion.[16][17] Later that year, Avast acquired mobile app developer Inmite in order to build Avast's mobile apps.[18] Additionally, in 2014 Avast's online support forum was compromised, exposing 400,000 names, passwords, and email addresses.[19][20] By 2015, Avast had the largest share of the market for antivirus software.[13] In July 2016, Avast reached an agreement to buy AVG for $1.3 billion.[21] AVG was a large IT security company that sold software for desktops and mobile devices.[22] In July 2017, Avast acquired UK-based Piriform for an undisclosed sum. Piriform was the developer of CCleaner.[4] Shortly afterwards it was suspected that someone created a malicous version of CCleaner with a backdoor for hackers.[23]

Products

Avast develops and markets business and consumer IT security products for servers, desktops, and mobile devices.[24] The company sells both the Avast product line and the acquired AVG-branded products.[25] As of late 2017, the company had merged the AVG and Avast business product lines and were working to integrate corporate departments from both companies.[26] Additionally, Avast has developed utility software products to improve battery life on mobile devices, cleanup unnecessary files on a hard drive, or find secure wireless networks.[27]

Avast and AVG consumer security software is sold on a freemium model, where basic security features are free, but more advanced features require purchasing a premium version.[25] The free version is also supported by ads.[28] Additionally, all Avast users provide data about their PC or mobile device to Avast, which is used to identify new security threats.[6] Antivirus scanning, browser cleanup, a secure browser, password management, and network security features are provided for free, while firewall, anti-spam, and online banking features have to be purchased.[29][30] According to PC Pro, the software does not "nag" users about upgrading.[29][31] About 3% of Avast's users pay for a premium version (10% in the US).[6]

The Avast business product family includes features for endpoint protection, Wi-Fi security, antivirus, identity protection, password management, and data protection.[26] For example, the desktop product will look for vulnerabilities in the wi-fi network and run applications suspect of having malicious hardware in an isolated sandbox.[32] The Avast Business Managed Workplace monitors and manages desktops, and assesses on-site security protocols.[26] The company also sells management software for IT administrators to deploy and manage Avast installations.[26]

Reception

PC Magazine gave the Avast software an overall score of 8.8 out of 10, which compared to 8.4 for AVG and 9.8 for Kaspersky.[25] The review said Avast gets good lab test results overall and has many features, but its password manager is a bit limited.[25] In tests by the AV-Test Institute, Avast 2017 received six out of six points for protection and usability, and 3.5 points for performance.[25] A review in Tom's Guide said the free Avast antivirus product has "good malware protection" and has a small footprint on the system.[30] The review said Avast has a competitive set of features for a free antivirus product, but the scans are slow and it pushes users to install the Google Chrome browser.[30]

The Avast antivirus product for business users received 4 out of 5 by TechRadar.[32] The review said the software had good features, protection, configuration, and an "excellent interface," but took up too much hard drive space and didn't cover mobile devices.[32] According to Tom's Guide, the mobile version is inexpensive and feature-laden, but some features are unreliable or do not work as expected.[33] PC Magazine said the mobile version "has just about every security feature you could want" but was difficult to use.[34]

AVG has generally performed well in lab tests.[31] AV-Test Institute gave AVG six out of six points for usablity, 5.5 points for protection and 5.5 points for performance.[31] However, AVG scored 81.05 in Virus Bulletin's lab tests, which is slightly below average.[31] The software is "very good" at detecting malware, but "disappointing" in antiphishing screening.[31] A review in Tom's Hardware gave the AVG software seven out of ten stars.[30] It said the software has a small footprint and has good malware protection, but does not have a quick scan option and not many additional features.[30]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Record Revenue Puts Avast in Second Among Security Industry Leaders". Avast. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  2. ^ a b "More than just jobs, accelerate your career at Avast". Avast. 29 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  3. ^ Thubron, Rob (July 20, 2017). "Avast acquires Piriform, the maker of CCleaner and Speccy". TechSpot. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Sawers, Paul (19 July 2017). "Avast acquires Piriform, maker of popular system cleaning program CCleaner". VentureBeat. Retrieved 19 July 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ "Hodně místa, pěkný výhled a celý den jídlo zdarma. Avast se přestěhoval". iDNES.cz (in Czech). January 22, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Avast emerged from Communism to shine in security". USA TODAY. October 20, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g "Příběh superobchodu s antiviry: Avast koupí AVG ukázal um „zlatých českých ručiček" v IT". Blesk.cz (in Czech). Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  8. ^ "Interview with Avast's COO Ondřej Vlček". Download3K. November 19, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c d Wonder, Dan (June 17, 2013). "Who Makes Avast?". Chron.com. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  10. ^ "Who We Are". Avast Foundation. August 8, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  11. ^ "Vince Steckler". The CEO Magazine. September 22, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
  12. ^ "Security Czechs". The Economist. May 1, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  13. ^ a b Roy, Abhirup (October 29, 2015). "Avast worth 'upwards of $2 billion'; no IPO before 2017". Reuters. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  14. ^ Dunn, John E (March 16, 2012). "Avast suspends antivirus support company after mis-selling allegation". Network World. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  15. ^ "Avast becomes most valuable IT company in the CR". Prague Post. March 11, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  16. ^ Tan, Gillian; Cimilluca, Dana (January 30, 2014). "CVC Capital Near Deal to Invest in Antivirus Company Avast". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  17. ^ "Security Software Firm Avast Gets CVC Capital Investment, Now Valued At $1B". TechCrunch. February 5, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  18. ^ "Malware buster Avast buys up mobile app maker in move to be mobile friendly". VentureBeat. July 24, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  19. ^ Kirk, Jeremy (May 26, 2014). "Avast takes community forum offline after data breach". Network World. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  20. ^ Meyer, David (May 27, 2014). "Security company Avast suffers embarrassing forum hack". Gigaom. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  21. ^ "Security Software Firm Avast to Buy Rival AVG for $1.3 Billion in Cash". Fortune. July 7, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  22. ^ "Avast acquires rival AVG for $1.3 billion to create a security software giant". VentureBeat. July 7, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  23. ^ Olenick, Doug (September 19, 2017). "Avast CCleaner used to spread backdoor to two million plus users". SC Media UK. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
  24. ^ "Download Free Antivirus for PC, Mac & Android". Avast. August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  25. ^ a b c d e Rubenking, Neil J. (February 23, 2017). "Avast Free Antivirus 2017". PC Magazine. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  26. ^ a b c d Kuranda, Sarah (September 6, 2017). "Avast Launches New Business Portfolio And Partner Program, Combining Its Channel Forces With AVG". CRN. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
  27. ^ "Avast Main Page: For Home/For Business". Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  28. ^ Larkin, Erik (October 2009). "Can You Trust Free Antivirus Protection?". PC World. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  29. ^ a b "Avast Free Antivirus". PC Pro. April 2015. p. 89.
  30. ^ a b c d e Nadel, Brian (August 3, 2017). "AVG AntiVirus Free: Nearly the Best". Tom's Guide. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  31. ^ a b c d e "AVG AntiVirus Free (2017)". PCMAG. January 13, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  32. ^ a b c Williams, Mike (September 28, 2017). "Avast Business Antivirus review". TechRadar. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
  33. ^ Riley, Sean (August 24, 2017). "Avast Mobile Security: Erratic Performance". Tom's Guide. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
  34. ^ "avast! Mobile Security & Antivirus (for Android)". PCMAG. June 27, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2017.

External links

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