Tag: Avast

NortonLifeLock’s Avast deal interests watchdogs

Posted on March 29, 2022 by - News

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that NortonLifeLock’s proposed acquisition of Avast is going to get  put under its antitrust microscope.

For those who came in late, NortonLifeLock announced last year that it was to acquire LSE-listed cybersecurity vendor Avast for as much as $8.6 billion in a deal that it claimed would create an “industry-leading” consumer cybersecurity business.

But the CMA revealed in January of this year that it had launched an inquiry into the merger before stating earlier this month that the deal “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdom”.

SME employees log on with security free devices

Posted on November 17, 2021 by - News

Research from Avast has found that employees in almost a third of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in the UK are connecting to the corporate network using personal devices that do not have any security controls in place.

Since the pandemic began, SMB leaders have had to quickly adapt to changing working behaviours. Whether teams are fully remote or hybrid, trying to ensure employees have the right technology in place hasn’t been straightforward.

SME security concerns rising

Posted on September 29, 2021 by - News

New research from insecurity outfit Avast has found that security concerns among IT decision-makers (ITDM) in small and medium-sized businesses have grown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by 56 percent.

The more employees, the more ITDM’s security concerns have grown. In businesses with 2-5 employees, only 32 percent of ITDMs are more concerned since COVID, but the number grows to 76 percent in SMBs with 100-300 employees.

NortonLifeLock is buying Avast to get vaster

Posted on August 13, 2021 by - News

NortonLifeLock has confirmed it is buying Avast for as much as $8.6 billion as part of its cunning plan to create an “industry-leading” consumer cybersecurity business.

The transaction, made up of a combination of cash and new shares, will value LSE-listed Avast at between $8.1bn and $8.6 billion.

The deal represents a 20.7 percent premium on Avast’s closing price of 504.2 pence per share as of 14 July 2021.

Once the acquisition closes, the combined business will be listed the Nasdaq exchange and be headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague in Czech Republic.

Avast’s chief executive Ondrej Vlcek will join NortonLifeLock’s board and will be appointed president of the combined business while NortonLifeLock CEO Vincent Pilette will become chief executive of the combined business.

Avast couples with RiskIQ to share intelligence

Posted on July 22, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Avast is forming an intelligence partnership with RiskIQ. Under the agreement, the companies will use their specific areas of expertise to develop combined threat intelligence that will be offered to their customer bases to enhance their security practices.

Avast Senior Vice President Nick Viney said that no one security company can see the whole picture and it was important to form alliances.

“Our global threat intelligence will contribute to RiskIQ’s understanding of the global threat landscape, and Avast will leverage RiskIQs intelligence to enrich our own data and further scale our threat hunting and response capabilities for companies and consumers.”

Avast scores Enterprise Nation as a partner

Posted on June 16, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Avast has announced a strategic partnership with Enterprise Nation small business network and business support provider, which will see it become the exclusive cybersecurity partner for the UK national network.

The partnership aims to deliver key cybersecurity resources and training for more than half a million UK small businesses to help them securely operate and thrive in today’s digital economy.

According to the Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Study 2021, 39 percent and a quarter of charities reported cyberattacks in the last 12 months. The study also suggested that the threat level was potentially higher over the pandemic as businesses found it harder to administer security effectively.

Avast VP Worldwide Channel & Alliances Marc Botham said: “SMBs are the lifeblood of the UK economy, and they have faced unprecedented challenges in recent times, including temporary closures of their businesses, implementing remote working, and scaling e-commerce for sales and customer communication. For many, they have had to do this without dedicated, or at best minimal, IT support in the face of increased cyberattacks. The focus now must be on post-Covid business recovery and growth. We are committed to working with Enterprise Nation to support SMBs by providing them with the tools, resources, and insights they need to optimise their digital possibilities securely and effectively.”

Avast launches new business security hub

Posted on May 19, 2021 by - News

Avast has launched its new Business Hub to streamline how its channel partners, managed security service providers (MSSPs), and business customers manage their cybersecurity.

The company said that with growing remote workforces, increasing number of ransomware, phishing, supply chain and BEC (business email compromise) attacks, and expanding compliance needs, the risk that end-user devices in business networks face has never been higher.

Avast Business Hub consolidates a number of critical security and availability capabilities for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It consolidates endpoint protection, patch management, backup and recovery, and remote access and support solutions into an integrated security platform that enables organisations to easily manage and protect their devices, applications, data, and networks. The platform combines cloud-based endpoint protection and network security solutions that are easy to deploy and manage, reducing overhead and cost while delivering the most comprehensive protection.

Avast couples with Recorded Future

Posted on April 22, 2021 by - News

Security outfit Avast has partnered with Recorded Future delivering intelligence on common vulnerabilities and exploit prevalence (CVE) while Recorded Future contributes to its real-time intelligence reports.

The Recorded Future Intelligence Platform, it’s claimed,  gives global organisations the ability to accelerate detection, decision making, and response times by putting real-time intelligence at the centre of security workflows and sending daily threat intelligence reports to its customers.

The insights from reports allow enterprises to prioritise alerts, calculate risk scores for patching, and make better decisions on how to handle a threat or cybersecurity incident –  through a single, source of security intelligence.

Avast gets into bed with Westcoast

Posted on February 4, 2021 by - News

Avast is teaming up with Westcoast to distribute its full portfolio of on-premise professional antivirus software.

Westcoast is the distie for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and other reseller partners.

The deal, signed in January 2021, is the largest regional distribution contract in Avast’s history and signals the company’s intent to help create a safe, private, modern-day workplace in our ‘new normal’ for UK businesses and their customers, it’s said.

SMEs staff fear for their jobs in security breaches

Posted on December 4, 2020 by - News

Security outfit Avast has found that almost 40 percent of small business employees think that a staff member who unknowingly clicks a malicious link would be held personally responsible for a data breach, which could be encouraging employees to keep quiet rather than flagging a potential threat.

The survey, consisting of 2,016 office-based workers in the UK and US, explores the current cybersecurity awareness levels among small business employees during a period of elevated risk brought to pass by the ongoing pandemic.

O’Mara joins Avast

Posted on May 6, 2020 by - News

Security outfit Avast has announced the appointment of Anthony O’Mara as VP Global Sales at Avast Business.

O’Mara joined Avast following a five-year tenure at Malwarebytes where he held the position of Vice President EMEA. Previously, he was VP EMEA at Trend Micro. O’Mara began his career in Finance and Operations and held several VP Finance positions before moving into general management positions.

Avast to boost channel partner support

Posted on November 11, 2019 by - Moving People, News

Security outfit Avast announced leadership promotions as part of its cunning plan to boost channel partner support.

Daniel Parks (pictured) is promoted to Sales Director for UK and Rest of World, and Thomas Hefner is promoted to Sales Director for the DACH and Benelux regions, with immediate effect.

Vita Santrucek, GM for Avast Business, said: “One of my areas of focus this year is on ensuring excellence in our products and growth in our partner program. With these promotions, I have assigned additional responsibilities to Daniel and Thomas who will be supporting our delivery in these two core areas and building out our partner channel in their respective geographies. Their contribution will be key to the expansion of our product portfolio, increasing our channel support services, and reinforcing our footprint globally.”

Avast teams up with Barracuda

Posted on February 11, 2019 by - News

Cybersecurity outfit Avast and the cloudy security company Barracuda Networks have teamed up.

Under the deal, Barracuda will become a master reseller of Avast Business CloudCare, Avast Management Console and Avast Antivirus Security solutions.

Kevin Chapman, General Manager of Avast Business, said that SMEs are underserved by the market as security systems tend to be targeted to the needs of larger enterprises.

Barracuda will acquire the Managed Workplace business (a Remote Monitoring and Management Solution – RMM) from Avast to continue developing the platform and offer its MSP partners a security-centric RMM solution.

Avast has merged its channel with AVG

Posted on September 7, 2017 by - News

apples-orangesAvast has finished its year of merging its technology and channel programmes with AVG.

The outfit bought AVG last year and has been working towards combining the channel and integrating products and processes to get into a situation where it can launch as a single entity.

The company has rolled out some major changes to its product portfolio an channel programmes as it merges the AVG business into its operations.

The Avast Business brand will lean on the AVG legacy in behavioural security technology and the cyber capture from the Avast side that looks at suspicious files, email or web content and ensures it will not hit the user.

The vendor will offer three levels of end protection for users which delivers anti-virus, data protection and identity protection as well as public wifi inspection tools, a data shredder, VPN and password management.

As well as the brand changes and product roll out there is a fresh channel programme, certifications and payment platform.

On the channel side, the aim is to bring the two firm’s reseller roster together. The company said there would be a transition period giving the channel the time to get to grips with the combined programme and certifications.

Avast appoints more security partners

Posted on March 17, 2017 by - News

securityInsecurity outfit Avast has named a third UK distributor to get the AVG product range out there before more partners.

Avast has signed up Northamber as part of a cunning plan to increase its channel sales this year. AVG was  initially called Grisoft and grew to become one of the biggest brands in desktop and mobile security apps. It also offers a range of related services, including AVG Cleaner for Android and Mac. The company is now headquartered in Amsterdam.

Avast was founded out of Prague in 1988. It has since emerged as one of the leading online security firms and is reported to control more than a fifth of the global antivirus software market. Though it is better known for its security software, Avast has branched out into other verticals — earlier this year, the company launched a new initiative to reveal the best Wi-Fi hotspots, using crowdsourced data.

Avast acquiried AVG to “gain scale, technological depth, and geographical breadth” and so it can “take advantage of emerging growth opportunities in internet security, as well as organizational efficiencies.”

Northamber will be handling the AVG small business products, which include CloudCare and Managed Workplace, which provide remote monitoring and management.

Northamber joins CMS and Sigma Software Distribution, which was signed up by the vendor last September, as the firm’s UK distributors.