Avast Software s.r.o. is a Czech
multinational cybersecurity software company headquartered in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
,
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
that
researches and develops computer security software,
machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
. Avast has more than 435 million monthly active users
and the second largest market share among
anti-malware application vendors worldwide as of April 2020.
The company has approximately 1,700 employees across its 25 offices worldwide.
In July 2021,
NortonLifeLock
Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague, Czech Republic. The company provides cybersecurity software and services. Gen is a Fortune 50 ...
, an American cybersecurity company, announced that it is in talks to
merge
Merge, merging, or merger may refer to:
Concepts
* Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road
* Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program
* Merger (politics), the comb ...
with Avast Software. In August 2021, Avast's board of directors agreed to an offer of US$8 billion.
Avast was founded by
Pavel Baudiš
Pavel Baudiš (born 15 May 1960) is a Czech software engineer, entrepreneur and the co-founder of Avast along with Eduard Kučera. As of 2022, he is the 8th wealthiest person in the Czech Republic, with a net worth of more than 54.5 billion Czech ...
and
Eduard Kučera
Eduard Kučera (born 11 January 1953) is a Czech software engineer and an entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of the computer security company Avast along with Pavel Baudiš. Kučera is the 10th wealthiest person in the Czech Republic as of 2022 acc ...
in 1988 as a
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
. It had been a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
company since 2010 and had its
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in May 2018. In July 2016, Avast acquired competitor
AVG Technologies
AVG Technologies is a brand of cybersecurity, privacy, performance and utility software applications for desktop computers and mobile devices developed by Avast, a part of Gen Digital. AVG was a cybersecurity software company founded in 1991 an ...
for $1.3 billion. At the time, AVG was the third-ranked antivirus product. It was
dual-listed on the
Prague Stock Exchange
Prague Stock Exchange (PSE; cs, Burza cenných papírů Praha (BCPP)) is the largest and oldest securities market organizer in the Czech Republic. After a 50-year hiatus brought about by World War II and the Communist regime, it was reopened in ...
and on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
and was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...
until it was acquired by NortonLifeLock in September 2022.
The company's main product is the
Avast Antivirus
Avast Antivirus is a family of cross-platform internet security applications developed by Avast for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. The Avast Antivirus products include freeware and paid versions that provide computer security, brows ...
along with tools such as the
Avast Secure Browser
Avast Secure Browser (formerly Avast! SafeZone) is an Avast Software web browser included for optional installation in the Avast Antivirus installer since 2016, but it is also available on its website. It is based on the open source Chromium pr ...
and the
Avast SecureLine VPN
Avast SecureLine VPN is a VPN service developed by Czech cybersecurity software company Avast. It is available for Android, Microsoft Windows, macOS and iOS operating systems.
The VPN can be set to automatically turn on when the user connects t ...
.
Avast produces Avast Online Security, which is its main
extension
Extension, extend or extended may refer to:
Mathematics
Logic or set theory
* Axiom of extensionality
* Extensible cardinal
* Extension (model theory)
* Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate
* E ...
, but it also has extensions like Avast SafePrice and Avast Passwords.
History
Avast was founded by
Eduard Kučera
Eduard Kučera (born 11 January 1953) is a Czech software engineer and an entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of the computer security company Avast along with Pavel Baudiš. Kučera is the 10th wealthiest person in the Czech Republic as of 2022 acc ...
and
Pavel Baudiš
Pavel Baudiš (born 15 May 1960) is a Czech software engineer, entrepreneur and the co-founder of Avast along with Eduard Kučera. As of 2022, he is the 8th wealthiest person in the Czech Republic, with a net worth of more than 54.5 billion Czech ...
in 1988.
The founders met each other at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines in Czechoslovakia.
They studied math and computer science, because the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia would require them to join the communist party to study physics.
At the institute, Pavel Baudiš discovered the Vienna virus on a floppy disk and developed the first program to remove it.
Afterwards, he asked Eduard Kucera to join him in cofounding Avast as a cooperative.
The cooperative was originally called Alwil and only the software was named Avast.
The cooperative was changed to a joint partnership in 1991, two years after the
velvet revolution
The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...
caused a regime change in
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
. The new regime severed ties with the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and reverted the country's economic system to a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
.
In 1995, Avast employee wrote the first antivirus program for the
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...
operating system.
In the 1990s security researchers at the Virus Bulletin, an IT security testing organization, gave the Avast software an award in every category tested, increasing the popularity of the software.
However, by the late 1990s, the company was struggling financially.
Alwil rebuffed acquisition offers by
McAfee
McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...
, who was licensing the Avast antivirus engine.
By 2001, Alwil was experiencing financial difficulties, when it converted to a freemium model, offering a base Avast software product at no cost.
As a result of the freemium model, the number of users of the software grew to one million by 2004
and 20 million by 2006.
Former Symantec executive
Vince Steckler
Vincent Steckler (18 October 1958 – 15 June 2021) was an American businessman and CEO of Avast Software.
Early life
Steckler was born in Los Angeles, but moved to Garden Grove, Orange County at the age of two. He earned two bachelor's degrees ...
was appointed CEO of Avast in 2009.
In 2010, Alwil changed its name to Avast, adopting the name of the software,
and raised $100 million in venture capital investments. The following December, Avast filed for an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
, but withdrew its application the following July, citing changes in market conditions.
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.
By 2013, Avast had 200 million users in 38 countries and had been translated into 43 languages.
At the time, the company had 350 employees.
In 2014, CVC Capital bought an interest in Avast for an undisclosed sum. The purchase valued Avast at $1 billion.
Later that year, Avast acquired mobile app developer Inmite in order to build Avast's mobile apps.
Additionally, in 2014 Avast's online support forum was compromised, exposing 400,000 names, passwords and email addresses.
By 2015, Avast had the largest share of the market for antivirus software.
In July 2016, Avast reached an agreement to buy AVG for $1.3 billion.
AVG was a large IT security company that sold software for desktops and mobile devices.
In July 2017, Avast acquired UK-based
Piriform for an undisclosed sum. Piriform was the developer of
CCleaner
CCleaner (, originally Crap Cleaner), developed by Piriform Software, is a utility used to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer. It is one of the longest-established system cleaners, first launc ...
.
Shortly afterwards it was disclosed that someone may have created a malicious version of CCleaner with a backdoor for hackers.
Avast had its
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
on the London Stock Exchange in May 2018, which valued it at £2.4bn and was one of the UK's biggest technology listings.
assumed the role of CEO and co-owner of Avast Plc in July 2019.
A day later, he changed his annual pay to $1 and pledged his board director's compensation of $100,000 to charity.
In October 2019
Jaya Baloo
Jaya Baloo is a cybersecurity expert who is currently the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Avast Software. Baloo was named as one of the top 100 CISO's in 2017, and one of Forbes ''100 Women Founders in Europe To Follow'' in 2018.
Ca ...
joined Avast as their Chief Information Security Officer.
In April 2020, Avast released a new secure, private mobile web browser for Android based on technology acquired from previously unreported acquisition of Tenta, a Seattle-based startup.
In July 2021,
NortonLifeLock
Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague, Czech Republic. The company provides cybersecurity software and services. Gen is a Fortune 50 ...
, an American cybersecurity company, announced that it is in talks to
merge
Merge, merging, or merger may refer to:
Concepts
* Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road
* Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program
* Merger (politics), the comb ...
with Avast Software. In August 2021, Avast's board of directors agreed to an offer of US$8 billion. In September 2022, the
Competition and Markets Authority
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the competition regulator in United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-com ...
approved the proposed takeover by NortonLifeLock so allowing the transaction to be completed.
Products
Avast develops and markets business and consumer IT security products for servers, desktops, and mobile devices.
The company sells both the Avast product line and the acquired AVG-branded products.
As of late 2017, the company had merged the AVG and Avast business product lines and were working to integrate the corporate departments from both companies.
Additionally, Avast has developed utility software products to improve battery life on mobile devices, cleanup unnecessary files on a hard drive, find secure wireless networks
or create a VPN connection to the internet.
Avast and AVG consumer security software are sold on a
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
model, where basic security features are free, but more advanced features require purchasing a premium version.
The free version is also supported by ads.
Additionally, all Avast users provide data about their PC or mobile device to Avast, which is used to identify new security threats.
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.
According to ''PC Pro'', the software does not "nag" users about upgrading.
About 3% of Avast's users pay for a premium version (10% in the US).
The Avast business product family includes features for endpoint protection, Wi-Fi security, antivirus, identity protection, password management, and data protection.
For example, the desktop product will look for vulnerabilities in the wi-fi network and run applications suspect of having malicious software in an isolated sandbox.
The Avast Business Managed Workplace monitors and manages desktops, and assesses on-site security protocols.
The company also sells management software for IT administrators to deploy and manage Avast installations.
Reception
''PC Magazine'' gave Avast Free Antivirus software an overall score of 4 out of 5 and gave AVG, which was purchased by Avast in 2016, a score of 4, plus "AVG AntiVirus Free offers precisely the same virus protection engine as Avast Free Antivirus, but it lacks the impressive collection of additional features you get with Avast." In tests conducted by the
AV-TEST
AV-TEST is an independent organization which evaluates and rates antivirus and security suite software for Microsoft Windows and Android operating systems, according to a variety of criteria. The organisation is based in Magdeburg, Germany.
Ever ...
Institute in August 2021, Avast and AVG received six out of six points for protection and usability, and six out of six points for performance. A review in Tom's Guide says that the free Avast antivirus product has "good protection against malware" and takes up little space on the system. The review says that Avast has a competitive set of features for a free antivirus product, but the scans are sometimes not very fast.
The Avast antivirus product for business users received 4 out of 5 by
TechRadar
''TechRadar'' is an online publication owned by Future and focused on technology. It has editorial teams in the US, UK and Australia and provides news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2007 and expanded to the US in ...
in 2017.
The review said that the software had good features, protection, configuration and an "excellent interface", but it took up a lot of hard disk space and did not cover mobile devices.
According to Tom's Guide, the mobile version is inexpensive and packed with features. PC Magazine said that the mobile version "has almost all the security features you could want."
AVG has also generally performed well in lab tests. A review in Tom's Hardware gave the AVG software seven out of ten stars.
The review highlighted that the software has a small system footprint and has good malware protection, but does not have a quick scan option and lacks many additional features.
Collection and sale of user data
In late 2019, Avast
browser extension
A browser extension is a small software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styling of web p ...
s were found to collect user data, including browsing behavior and history, and send it to a remote server. The discovery led to the extensions of the Avast and AVG brands being temporarily removed from the
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...
,
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
and
Opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
extension stores, however, they returned a short time later as there was no concrete evidence that demonstrated a breach of private data of the users.
In January 2020, a joint investigation by
Motherboard
A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...
and
PCMag
''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...
found that the
Avast Antivirus
Avast Antivirus is a family of cross-platform internet security applications developed by Avast for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. The Avast Antivirus products include freeware and paid versions that provide computer security, brows ...
and
AVG AntiVirus
AVG AntiVirus (previously known as AVG, an abbreviation of Anti-Virus Guard) is a line of antivirus software developed by AVG Technologies, a subsidiary of Avast, a part of Gen Digital. It is available for Windows, macOS and Android.
Histo ...
Free version were collecting user data, which was being resold to personalize advertising through a subsidiary, Jumpshot. The leaked documents showed that Jumpshot offered to provide its customers with "Every search. Every click. On every site." from more than 100 million compromised devices. In response, Avast announced on January 30, 2020, that it would immediately shut down Jumpshot and cease all operations due to the backlash of its users' data privacy.
On the basis of the information revealed, on 11 February 2020 the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection announced that it had initiated a preliminary investigation.
See also
*
Comparison of antivirus software
This article compares notable antivirus products and services. It is Wikipedia list article rather than a deep analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Legend
The term "on-demand scan" refers to the possibility of performing a manual ...
*
Comparison of firewalls
Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1988 establishments in Czechoslovakia
Software companies of the Czech Republic
Multinational companies headquartered in the Czech Republic
Companies based in Prague
Software companies established in 1988
Czech brands
Computer security software companies
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
Former cooperatives
Gen Digital acquisitions
2018 initial public offerings
2022 mergers and acquisitions