Software update: AVG Anti-Virus 2015.5315

AVG Technologies has released version 2015 of its protection tools. The line-up remains unchanged from the free Anti Virus Free, and it paid Anti Virus and Internet Security. The latter two cost 35 and 45 euros per year per PC, but if a license is purchased for several years and/or PCs, the price per unit is lower. You can compare the three programs at this page. In version 2015, the user interface has been refreshed and AVG has found a way to provide faster protection against new so-called zero-day threats.

New Interface
With this release, we’ve put a greater emphasis on design to make protecting yourself as easy as possible. We’ve perfected our interface to give you full-featured anti-virus protection in a beautifully simple design. Simple circles give you an overview of your level of protection, and their color alerts you to potential problems. A partial circle means that certain protection features are not activated or installed, while a full one means that you are fully covered.

Outbreak Detection
Normally, when we find a new threat, we build malware definition packages that include several detection and removal methods, test them internally and finally distribute them to our users. This represented a short window during which you could have potentially been infected with an emerging 0-day threat before the detection methods are up to date on your computer. Outbreak Detection fills that gap. Now, when we discover a 0-day threat, we immediately upload our earliest detection methods into the back end of our cloud-based threat database. Whenever a user comes across that threat and is in a position to activate it, our behavioral detection kicks in and does a reputation check. If the application is linked to this new threat-it will be blocked and quarantined. This new method helps keep you safe the moment we know a threat is out there, and helps to stop its spread while we develop the regular definitions packages which contain a broader and more thorough protection.