The malware landscape is evolving on a very rapid pace and these days, the technologies released 2 or 3 years ago are becoming slowly obsolete. That’s why providing security only through engine and signature updates is no longer considered enough.
In order to ensure that our customers are using the best protection available, we released in October 2012 the version 2013 of all products, integrating for the first time the Avira Protection Cloud in the Quick System Scan (only in paid consumer and professional workstation products).
After first introducing the Avira Protection Cloud to the product last year, Avira takes the next step beyond the cloud enabled quick system scan: real-time scanning of programs with the Avira Protection Cloud. The goal is to check only unknown, new programs that come from potential dangerous sources. Malware very often enters the victim’s computer in the same way, for example via drive-by-downloads and exploits. So, in order to optimize the user experience, various filters are applied before a binary is uploaded to the Avira Protection Cloud.
How does it work?
When you enable the Protection Cloud, the digital fingerprint of suspicious executable files on your PC (e.g., .exe, .dll, never self-created documents or pictures) is checked in real-time against virus information stored in the cloud. If an unknown file is found—that’s rare for most people—it’s uploaded for inspection and then classified as clean or infected. But fear not: we won’t upload your documents, pictures or other personal files.
The integration of Protection Cloud in the Real-time Protection doesn’t mean that each and every single accessed executable file is checked against the Protection Cloud. Instead, the product decides based on information from various sources which files are suspicious and will only check in real-time against the Protection Cloud these files. This feature accesses information about the viruses that is updated non-stop in the cloud. This way, you’re protected against the latest threats, even between regular product updates.
In certain cases, it might be needed that suspicious files that were previously unknown to the Protection Cloud have to be uploaded for a deep analysis. In these cases, depending on your configurations settings you will be able to see the upload and scan progress.
If a file is found as infected, you will see an exclamation mark and if it is clean, a checkmark.
At any point it is possible to configure that that dialog should be hidden. Just check the option present on the bottom of the dialog: Don’t show this message again.
In case you want to revert it, visit the Configuration Center, General ->Advanced Protection and deactivate the option “Show progress for uploads to the Avira Protection Cloud”.
By default, the usage of the Protection Cloud in Real-time Scanning is activated. If you want to deactivate this feature (which we strongly suggest to use), you can do this in the same dialog: unselect the option “Real-time file scanning”. The option to display the progress for uploads is by default activated.
Note that if you deactivate the entire usage of the Protection Cloud, you will deactivate it also in the Real-time Protection.
The new feature is available in all premium products, version 2013 and 2014:
Sorin Mustaca
Product manager
via Avira – TechBlog http://techblog.avira.com/2013/10/14/advanced-real-time-protection-with-avira-protection-cloud/en/
© Copyright 2013 Sorin Mustaca, All rights Reserved. Written For: Sorin Mustaca on Cybersecurity
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