Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Avast Ye Pirates!

Don't go checking your calendars; it's not national talk like a pirate day. That was September 19th so at this point you'll have to wait until next year. No, Avast is actually an Internet security firm headquartered in Prague that produces some of the best antivirus protection software on the market and makes certain versions of it available for free.

The company recently discovered that licenses for their paid Pro edition had been pirated and have traced the IP addresses of these pirated editions to some 200 countries around the world including Vatican City. The company allowed the piracy to spread long enough to learn what they could about the attack and then sent out pop-up messages to all the pirated editions presenting the option to either start paying for it or to switch to the free version.

Avast's chief executive Vince Steckler warns users against getting your security software from questionable warez sites that make such programs available for cheap or free. Getting software from such sites is somewhat akin to buying a stolen car. It may seem like a good bargain but you will undoubtedly be setting yourself up for trouble down the road. While driving a stolen car will ultimately result in you getting pulled over and your car impounded, using pirated security software is more likely to lead to your computer being infiltrated by malware or spyware. Dodgy warez sites are notorious for imbedding malicious codes that will infect the computers of anyone who downloads the software.

Besides when it comes to the Avast software the free version should meet the basic needs of most consumer users and it can be downloaded here.

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