Avira Operations GmbH & Co. KG is a multinational and family-owned company based in Germany that provides antivirus software, Internet Security, Privacy, Identity and Performance tools for computers, smartphones, servers and networks, delivered as both software and cloud-based services.
Avira’s headquarters are located near Lake Constance, in Tettnang, Germany. The company has additional European offices in Munich, Germany and Bucharest, Romania. Avira also has sales and marketing offices in Beijing, China and in Burlingame, California, USA Silicon Valley.
With an estimated 9.6% of global market share according to OPSWAT, and over 100 million customers, Avira was considered the sixth-largest antivirus vendor in 2012.
The company supports the Auerbach Stiftung, a foundation created by the company’s founder, Tjark Auerbach. It promotes charitable and social projects, the arts, culture and science.
Functions of Avira
Virus Definition
Avira periodically “cleans out” its virus definition files, replacing specific signatures with generic ones for a general increase in performance and scanning speed. A 15 MB database clean-out was made on 27 October 2008, causing problems to the users of the free edition because of its large size and Avira’s slow Free edition servers. Avira responded by reducing the size of the individual update files, delivering less data in each update. Nowadays there are 32 smaller definition files that are updated regularly in order to avoid peaks in the download of the updates.
Advance Heuristic (AHeAD)
Avira products contain heuristics that can proactively uncover unknown malware, i.e. before a special virus signature to combat the damaging element has been created and before a virus guard update has been sent. Heuristic virus detection involves extensive analysis and investigation of the affected codes for functions typical of malware. If the code being scanned exhibits these characteristic features it is reported as being suspicious, although not necessarily malware; the user decides whether to act on or ignore the warning.
ProActiv
The ProActiv component uses rule sets developed by the Avira Malware Research Center to identify suspicious behavior. The rule sets are supplied by Avira databases. ProActiv sends information on suspicious programs to the Avira databases for logging.
Firewall
Avira removed their own firewall technology from 2014 onwards, with protection supplied instead by Windows Firewall (Windows 7 and after), because in Windows 8 and later the Microsoft Certification Program forces developers to use interfaces introduced in Windows Vista.
Protection Cloud
Avira Protection Cloud (APC) was first introduced in version 2013. It uses information available via the Internet (cloud computing) to improve detection and affect system performance less. This technology was implemented in all paid 2013 products. APC was initially only used during a manual quick system scan; later it was extended to real-time protection. This improved Avira’s score in the AV-Comparatives and Report from September 2013.
Products
Windows
Avira Free Antivirus: the free edition antivirus/anti-spyware, for non-commercial use, with promotional pop-ups.
Avira Antivirus Pro: the premium edition antivirus/anti-spyware.
Avira System Speedup: a suite of PC tune-up tools.
Avira Internet Security Suite: consists of Antivirus Pro + System Speedup.
Avira Ultimate Protection Suite: consists of Internet Security Suite + additional PC maintenance tools (e.g. SuperEasy Driver Updater).
Avira Rescue System: a set of free tools that include a utility used to write a Linux-based bootable CD. It can be used to clean an unbootable PC, and is also able to find malware that hides when the host’s operating system is active (e.g., some rootkits). The tool contains the antivirus program and the virus database current at the time of download. It boots the machine into the antivirus program, then scans for and removes malware, and restores normal boot and operation if necessary. It is updated frequently so that the most recent security updates are always available.
OS X
Avira Free Mac Security for Mac: Runs on OS X 10.9 and above.
Android and iOS
Avira offers the following security applications for mobile devices running Android and iOS:
Avira Antivirus Security for Android: free application for Android, runs on versions 2.2 and above.
Avira Antivirus Security Pro for Android: premium edition for Android, runs on versions 2.2 and above. Available as an upgrade from within the free application.it provide additional Safe browsing, Hourly update and free tech support.
Avira Mobile Security for iOS: free edition for iOS devices, such as iPhone and iPad.
Other platforms
Avira formerly offered free antivirus software for Unix and Linux, but this was discontinued in 2013, although updates were supplied until June 2016.
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