Avast! Macintosh Edition - Security Package Report

Avast! Macintosh Edition is an anti-virus solution for Apple Macintosh machines running Mac OS X. It is based on a central virus-scanning daemon and includes a mail scanner, an on-demand scanner and an on-access scanner all controlled through a simple user interface. Although designed as a solution for individual desktops, and priced accordingly, the level of performance is closer to that normally delivered by server antivirus software. 

While protecting Mac users direct data and programs, Avast! Mac Edition also helps to prevent the passing on of virus infectors to their PC using friends and collegues, by detecting such threats, that might be innocuous on the Mac platform, but can be passed on to other platforms in heterogeneous environments.

Mac Edition comes as a universal binary, deployable against both PowerPC and Intel platforms of the Mac, running OS X 10.4 or higher. It also provides a central scanning service with adjustable priority and remote accesability, with access via TCP or UNIX sockets.

The product's modular architecture means the GUI can adopt new features provided by the scanning deamon architecture automatically.

The Mac Edition allows autorun after start, on-demand, on access and mail anti-virus protection. Chesting and repair tools are built in. Moreover, the legendary unpacker/packer/archive support is also fully supported on the Mac platform.

Avast! Mac Edition supports standard template pre-setup for most needed / wanted preferences, to make installation and use, particularly in a corporate environment, painless and industry leading in approach.

Key Features of Avast! Mac Edition:

• Full On-Access Scanning - Scans files as the user access them, to make sure they are safe from infection.
• On-Demand Scanning - For scheduled or ad-hoc scans to the system volumes.
  
• Mail Protection - Integrated mail protection to stop infection at one of the most vulnerable access vectors.
  
• Virus Chest - A safe storage place for infected or suspected files, where they cannot harm the system.
  
• Fully Automatic Updates - Program updates and virus definitions for new viruses, malwares, trojans, etc.
  
• Full Scanner Preference Control - Customizable to the user's perferences.

Technology Features:

• Native execution of virus database on Intel platform Macs, with fast emulation on PowerPC of assembler-level parts
• Multi-threaded scanning daemon
• Unpacker support (for archives)
  
• Able to upgrade the definitions database, even while doing background scanning
  
• Application itself multi-threaded
  
• Fail-safe updating architecture (if the daemon fails to do an update, the main application will do it instead)
  
• Kernel extension architecture for capturing after-close events on modified files
  
• Optimized software architecture, including non-blocking system calls

Official Avast! Macintosh Edition Website >>

ALWIL Software is a Czech-based company, established in April 1991. On 1 January 2007, ALWIL Software changed its status to ALWIL Software a.s. 

The company specializes in security software, with Avast! Anti-Virus being the flagship product line. The Avast! Anti-Virus range offers complete protection against viruses for both individual home users and large corporations.

>> ALWIL Software Profile <<

Official Avast! Macintosh Edition Website >>

Actual Customer Feedback:

Official Avast! Macintosh Edition Website >>

Avast! PDA Edition is designed to protect pocket devices (PDAs), PalmOS and WinCE/PocketPC based devices from viruses.  Avast! PDA Edition currently supports Palm OS, Windows CE (incl. SmartPhone Edition) and Windows Mobile 5 (PocketPC). Installation is performed from a PC, using standard tools for computer-PDA synchronization (ActiveSync, in most cases).

Avast! PDA Edition detects only viruses (or any other malicious code) written for the target environment (code capable of running on the given OS). Moreever, the PDA Edition can create report files with a detailed description of the scanning process: what was scanned, what was the result, etc.  

Even though it would be possible to detect all known viruses, on a PDA, this would tend to make a large deployment footprint on a small device, when the purpose of the anti-virus product is to protect the pocket device primarily; in other words, memory requirements, size and speed are more important here than the detection of viruses for other platforms.

Key Features of Avast! PDA Edition:

• Scanning kernel - Special "pocket version" of the Avast scanning kernel with the following features:
  
  • Small size and memory requirements
  • High speed, and so a quick response even on slower CPUs
• Installation - Easy installation (the only one) from a PC, using standard tools for computer-PDA synchronization
  
• Reports & Logs - Report files are created with detailed description of the scanning process. These files can be viewed by an integrated log viewer
  
• Updates - A updater able to download and install new updates using the standard means of data transfer for mobile devices, i.e. GPRS and other; thus, it is fully integrated into the "pocket environment"

Official Avast! PDA Edition Website >>

Official Avast! PDA Edition Website >>

Avast! U3 Edition is a mobile version of Avast! Anti-Virus, that is designed to protect U3 smart drives from viruses and other forms of malware.

The program can also be used to scan files or folders on the host computer that is connected to the USB drive. The user can create a list of trusted computers, and automatically scan all other machines for virus infections as soon as the user insert the USB drive, thereby preventing any host infection to spread to the USB drive.

Other features include automatic virus signature updates, real-time virus shield and proxy support.

Key Features of Avast! U3 Edition:

Anti-Virus Engine
Avast! Anti-Virus kernel features detection abilities, together with high performance. The kernel is certified by ICSA Labs. Anti-virus kernel engine also features unpacking support. It can scan inside the following archives: ARJ, ZIP, MIME (+ all associated formats), MAPI (Outlook pst files), DBX (Outlook Express archives), RAR, TAR, GZIP, CAB, BZIP2, ZOO, ACE, ARC, LHA/LHX, TNEF (winmail.dat), CPIO, CHM, RPM, ISO, 7ZIP and SIS. It also supports a number of executable packers (such as PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, PeShield, FSG, MEW etc.).

Virus Shields
Virus Shields (also known as the Resident protection or On-Access Scanner, that is the real-time protection of the device). The file system protection module ensures that no virus will be saved on the U3 volume, and if one is detected, the user is given a chance to remove it instantly.

Before the Virus Shields start, the host machine is thoroughly scanned to ensure its integrity. If a virus is found active on the host machine, it is not recommended to continue working. 

Automatic Updates
Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, with only new or missing data downloaded: thus reducing the transfer heavily. The typical size of a virus database updates are tens of KB; program updates typically are in the hundreds of KB range.

The update is performed automatically whenever the U3 smart drive is connected (provided Internet connection is available), and can also be performed manually at any later time from the program interface. 

User Interface
The program comes with a simple-to-use user interface and comprehensive online help. The whole system was designed so that deep knowledge of computers or computer security is not necessary to operate the program. Most tasks are preset so that the program can take action automatically, without asking any difficult questions.

The activity of the Virus Shields is signalized by a small icon in the system tray. By clicking the icon, the uer can simply access all parts of the program.

Official Avast! U3 Edition Website >>

Official Avast! U3 Edition Website >>