Kaspersky Lab Delivers Best of Both Worlds Protection with the Combined Power of the Cloud and Your PC

Woburn, MA – August 15, 2011 – Staying safe from today’s complex Internet threats requires a new kind of approach.  As a result, Kaspersky Lab – a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions – today introduced its new 2012 lineup of PC security software to North America.  Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 pack a double punch against cybercrime with the incredible speed, efficiency and world-wide security information found in the cloud to complement Kaspersky Lab’s sophisticated security technologies on your PC to counter computer threats faster and more effectively than ever before.   

Best of Both Worlds Protection

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about “The Cloud” as an answer to keeping us all safe on the Internet.  The truth is that technologies and data stored online - commonly referred to as “in the cloud” - offer some remarkable security advantages.  But, the cloud is not efficient enough as a real first-line of defense for your PC.  Kaspersky Lab’s new 2012 products offer the best of both worlds – taking the benefits of cloud-based intelligence and information distribution, and using this real-time data source to complement some of the world’s most sophisticated protection technologies installed directly on the PC.  We call this combined security strategy Hybrid Protection.

Cloud-based technologies allow our anti-malware experts to immediately see and react to emerging cyber-threats from anywhere around the world.  The cloud then gives our experts the ability to instantly update our worldwide network of users, ensuring they are protected in real-time as the threats attempt to spread. 

But remotely-hosted cloud technology is not a silver bullet, and cannot take the place of proactive security programs installed on the PC itself. The advanced technologies installed on your machine offer immediate, proactive protection from known malware that attempts to infiltrate your PC and, equally important, monitors and blocks any suspicious behavior that could be caused by unknown malware attempting to attack you.  Using a combination of security technology found in both the cloud and installed on the PC is how Kaspersky Lab’s 2012 software provides a superior level of protection with the performance our customers demand.

The Enhanced Hybrid Approach

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 offer 28 newly-refined technologies.  Examples of protection technologies that have benefited the most from our Hybrid Protection strategy include:

• Kaspersky Anti-Phishing and Anti-Spam – by using real-time data from the cloud, Kaspersky Anti-Phishing scanners will keep the latest con-artist emails from reaching your inbox, while Kaspersky Anti-Spam works even more efficiently than ever to counter spam.
• File Advisor – An additional layer of protection that determines the trustworthiness of any file on your computer by checking its worldwide reputation with a single click.  If our experts or other Kaspersky Lab customers have discovered the file is malicious, you won’t be tricked into opening it.
• URL Advisor – Our global database of website safety statistics is immediately at your disposal, and Kaspersky Lab customers will instantly know if a link leads to a trusted, malicious, or questionable website before they click.  For example, when users perform a web search in their favorite browser, the resulting links are clearly flagged with a red, gray or green icon, so users can easily avoid dangerous websites.
• System Watcher with advanced Roll Back functionality – By automatically monitoring the modifications made to your PC, Kaspersky Lab’s 2012 products can now easily undo or rollback damage caused by malware.  Most actions from a malicious program – even previously unknown malware – can be canceled and reversed, including the restoration of infected files back to their previous condition, eliminating newly-created malicious data, or erasing any changes malicious attacks have made to sensitive registry files.

Usability and Performance

Kaspersky Lab’s team of experts does the work for you, providing advanced online protection from complex threats that doesn’t confuse, slow down, or annoy our customers.  Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 users will immediately notice how new improvements to our software make it easier to spend their time online, whether shopping and banking, or interacting on social networks.

For example, Kaspersky Lab’s 2012 products boast an entirely new user interface – our most extensive interface overhaul ever – to make these products and their security tools easier than ever to use, and to reassure computer owners that their data and system are safe.  The new interface provides instant visibility into the security status of the system, offers easy access to the most popular Kaspersky features, and gives details on exactly how the cloud is working for them.  This ease-of-access has also been applied to our useful Kaspersky Desktop Gadget, which now provides more customization and instant access to more controls than ever before.  

A cornerstone of Kaspersky Lab products has always been fast and efficient performance with our approach to frequent, small updates that don’t affect system resources.  Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 have been optimized even further to deliver intelligent updates that ensure that our technologies are always up-to-date and available when you need them, keeping your system performing at its peak while any security updates occur.

Quotes:

Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and CEO

Kaspersky Lab

“Our approach is to seamlessly combine the very best of both worlds that allow our customers to take full advantage of the latest in cloud technologies in combination with our very best security on their computing devices.  By staying focused on protecting our customers no matter how they use their computers – be it online or offline – we have taken another major step forward in protecting against the most dangerous cyber-threats that are ever-present in our world today.”

Randy Drawas, Senior Vice President, Marketing Operations

Kaspersky Lab

“There is no one size fits all technology to battle against sophisticated cybercriminals. Hybrid protection means applying all of the latest resources and technologies available today to significantly step up the protection our customers require.  It’s the combination that can provide the most meaningful defense. Then add a newly overhauled user interface with easy access to some of the world’s most advanced security technologies and you’ve got what Kaspersky Lab’s 2012 products are all about.”

Chris Christiansen

Program Vice President, Security Products & Services

IDC

“Security vendors certainly need a cloud-strategy as part of their product development, but that doesn’t necessarily mean cloud-only.  It’s clear that cloud-based threat detection and data distribution is going to play a major role in the consumer and B2B security markets for the foreseeable future, which will greatly improve the efficiency of security solutions, but there is still a critical need for on-device security as a first line of defense.”

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 are available for purchase now on Kaspersky Lab’s online store on August 15, 2011, and will be available in all major U.S. and Canadian electronics retailers in September.  Customers may upgrade free of charge from Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 to 2012 products for the remainder of their existing license period.

Pricing:

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 - 1-year, 3-user license: $79.95

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 - 1-year, 3-user license: $59.95

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is the world's largest privately-held Internet Security company, providing comprehensive protection against all forms of IT threats such as viruses, spyware, hackers and spam. The company's products provide in-depth computer defense for more than 300 million systems around the globe, including home and mobile users, small and medium sized businesses and large enterprises. Kaspersky technology is also incorporated inside the products and services of nearly 100 of industry leading IT, networking, communications and applications solution vendors.

For further information about the company, please visit http://www.kaspersky.com/.

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For the latest in-depth information on security threat issues and trends, please visit http://www.securelist.com/. Follow @Securelist on Twitter.  For the most up-to-date world security news, visit http://www.threatpost.com/. Follow @Threatpost on Twitter.

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