Kaspersky Anti-Virus. How to work? Types and varieties

operating system Cross-platform First edition Latest version 2019 (19.0.0.1088) (June 19) Beta version 2020 (20.0.0.318) Test version (-->) State In active development License proprietary Website kaspersky.com

Kaspersky Antivirus(eng. Kaspersky Antivirus, KAV) - antivirus software developed by Kaspersky Lab. Provides the user with basic computer protection against viruses, spyware, Trojans and ransomware. Initially, in the early 1990s, it was called -V, then - AntiViral Toolkit Pro.

In addition to the antivirus itself, a free healing utility, Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, is also available.

Also available free version Kaspersky antivirus Free with a free license for 365 days (it does not have fine-tuning antivirus and Network Monitoring).

Functions

Basic protection

  • Protection against known viruses, Trojans and worms
  • Protection against known spyware and adware
  • Checking files in automatic mode and upon request
  • Examination mail messages(for any email clients)
  • Checking Internet traffic (for any Internet browsers)
  • Protection of Internet messengers (ICQ, MSN)
  • Activity monitoring (collects data about the actions of programs on the computer and provides this information to other components for more effective protection).
  • Protection against known exploit programs.
  • Protection against screen lock programs.
  • Rolling back malware actions ( allows you to undo almost all actions performed by the program if the program is found to be malicious ).
  • Protection against known ransomware Trojans
  • Testing scripts in JavaScript and VBScript
  • Protection against hidden broken links
  • Continuously check files offline
  • Always-on protection against phishing sites
  • Protection against known keyloggers

Threat Prevention

  • Search for vulnerabilities in the OS and installed software
  • Analysis and elimination of vulnerabilities in the Internet Explorer browser
  • Blocking links to infected sites
  • Recognizing viruses by the way they are packaged
  • Global threat monitoring ( Kaspersky Security Network)

System and data recovery

  • Possibility of installing a program on an infected computer
  • Program self-protection function from shutdown or stop
  • Restoring correct system settings after removing malware
  • Availability of tools to create a rescue disk

Protecting confidential data

  • Blocking links to phishing sites
  • Protection against all types of keyloggers

Ease of use

  • Automatic program configuration during installation
  • Ready-made solutions (for typical problems)
  • Visual display of program results
  • Informative dialog boxes to help the user make informed decisions
  • Possibility to choose between simple (automatic) and interactive operating modes
  • 24/7 technical support
  • Automatic database updates

Video on the topic

System requirements

OS System requirements
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2 and higher)
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2 and higher)
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (Service Pack 2 and higher)
  • Processor 800 MHz or higher
  • 512 MB of free RAM
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Business (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Starter (x32)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (x32 and x64)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (x32 and x64)
  • Processor 1 GHz 32 bit (x86)/64 bit (x64) or higher
  • 1 GB free random access memory(x32) or 2 GB of free RAM (x64)
  • Microsoft Windows 8 /8.1 / (32/64 bit)
  • Processor: 1 GHz or higher
  • 1 GB RAM (32 bit) or
  • 2 GB RAM (64 bit)
  • Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6 or 10.7
  • Intel Mac
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 270 MB free space on your hard drive (depending on the size of the anti-virus databases)
  • Internet connection to activate and update anti-virus databases

General requirements for all operating systems

  • About 920 MB of free hard disk space (depending on the size of the anti-virus databases)
  • CD/DVD drive for installation from disk
  • Computer mouse
  • Internet connection for installing and activating the program, using Kaspersky Secure Network, as well as updating databases and program modules
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher
  • Microsoft Windows Installer 3.0 or higher

Hardware requirements for netbooks

  • Processor: Intel Atom 1.6 GHz
  • Video card: Intel GMA950 with at least 64 MB video memory (or compatible equivalent)
  • Screen: 10.1’’
  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Program support status

Status Version Description of support status
Release of database updates Rendering technical support
(by phone / via web form)
Release of update packages for the program
Supported 2015,2016, 2017, 2018 Yes Yes Yes
Supported without maintenance Yes Yes No
Version no longer supported Yes No No
The version life cycle is over 6.0, 7.0, 2009, 2010 CF2, 2011 CF2, 2012, 2013, 2014 No No No

Awards

Criticism

According to independent research in 2010, Kaspersky is one of the best-selling antiviruses in Russia. However, Kaspersky Anti-Virus also has disadvantages. One of the most famous is the large resource intensity of the program. Evgeny Kaspersky himself claims that slowdowns are a thing of the past, this is confirmed by antivirus tests in 2012. You can also find many reviews on the Internet that refute the myth that Kaspersky Anti-Virus is slow.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus added its logo to the welcome screen, which was regarded by many users as an attempt to once again attract attention (removed in latest versions), as well as the famous “pig squeal” - the sound when viruses are detected in older versions of the program, which scared most users. And although this sound was removed in the seventh version of the program, many users associate Kaspersky Anti-Virus with this sound.

On 10/06/2017, the company’s press service stated that the NSA’s accusations of antivirus stealing secret data are groundless.

On October 25, 2017, the general director of Kaspersky Lab, Evgeny Kaspersky, responded to accusations that in 2014 the company’s antivirus allegedly downloaded secret data from the computer of an NSA employee and sent it to the antivirus developers, said that in fact the secret data was an infected data array and was sent to the address of Kaspersky analysts as a result of the negligence of the NSA employee himself, who worked with classified data on his home computer and at the same time tried to install a pirated copy of MS Office and register it using a virus-ridden key generator, having previously turned off the anti-virus scan.

At the beginning of December 2017, the UK National Cyber ​​Security Center (NCSC) recommended that government departments in the country stop using Kaspersky antivirus due to “the risk of access to their information from Russia.” The center also noted that it does not have evidence of Kaspersky Lab collecting data for Russian intelligence services.

On May 15, 2018, the Dutch government announced its decision to begin phasing out the use of antivirus software Kaspersky Lab. As the country's Justice Minister Ferdinand Gropperhaus pointed out, this decision is related to the “offensive cyber program of the Russian government, among the targets of which is the Netherlands.”

"Easter Egg"

If you click on the name of Evgeniy Kaspersky in the credits in the “About the program” window for versions starting with version 7.0, a photo appears where he shows “Preved!” Evgeniy Kaspersky’s stance exactly repeats the bear’s stance from the Russian edition of the film “Bear Surprise” by John Lurie.

see also

Notes

  1. Status of support for programs to protect personal computers. Official technical support website. Retrieved September 4, 2012. Archived October 18, 2012.
  2. Virus Bulletin: VB100 results - Kaspersky
  3. Virus Bulletin: VB100 results - Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010
  4. Antivirus test results for packer support - Tests and comparisons of antiviruses - Anti-Malware.ru
  5. Results of an antivirus test for treating active infections (September 2007) - Tests and comparisons of antiviruses - Anti-Malware.ru

Minuses

The program is really heavy and seriously eats up the performance of low-power old computers with 2 cores(

For the same reason, if you have a slow Internet and a weak computer, then downloading updates can easily temporarily slow down the viewing of videos on YouTube, and this happens at least twice a day

Sometimes a little paranoid about some supposedly safe links

Hello, you are protected by the good ghost Casper!

But seriously, it’s strange that there are so few reviews - IMHO, humanity has not yet come up with an antivirus better than Kaspersky. I’ve been using it for ten years now, and it’s never let me down - it’s saved me from viruses in files, from phishing links, from Trojans, and even repelled unexpected attacks several times. network attacks(and also helped to determine the IP address - the traces led to China, I don’t know what they needed from me - probably the hackers trained on random IPs). And I still crawl only on the “safe part” of the Internet, without going to suspicious-looking sites, without opening spam, and observing other precautions - and yet, even so, sometimes I manage to “get into something.” Therefore, if you think that all these horrors on the Internet are far from you, think again...

And I would especially like to mention the Kaspersky Lab blog. Of course, many articles there describe elementary truths on the level of “don’t open suspicious emails” (however, the fact that this is obvious to you and me does not mean that it is obvious to Aunt Dasha from the accounting department, who with the computer is exclusively for you) and contain offers to buy an antivirus , but from time to time they publish really very interesting materials about everything related to computer security, the Internet of Things and related areas (I remember an article that provided a link to a scientific peer-reviewed study in which scientists calculated that every third user of social networks is an addict from likes).

On April 21, information appeared in the media about the kidnapping of the son of the founder of Kaspersky Lab, Evgeniy Kaspersky, in the capital. Specialists from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate are checking this information.

Kaspersky Lab is the most popular in Russia and the largest manufacturer of protection systems against viruses, spam and hacker attacks. Founded on July 21, 1997.

One of the founders of the company is Evgeny Kaspersky. While working at a research institute at the Ministry of Defense, he became interested in the phenomenon of computer viruses and began collecting malicious programs, creating healing modules for them. It was this exotic collection that later formed the basis of the famous anti-virus database of Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Now it has more than 4 million records and is one of the most complete in the world.

In 1991, Kaspersky began working at the KAMI company, where, together with a group of like-minded people, he developed the anti-virus project Antiviral Toolkit Pro (AVP), a prototype of the future Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

The first international recognition of the project came in 1994. AVP, still little known in the West, was first tested by the test laboratory of the University of Hamburg and showed best result, surpassing all popular antivirus programs in the quality of virus detection. In 1997, Evgeny Kaspersky, together with his colleagues, decided to create an independent company and became one of the founders of Kaspersky Lab. From this moment on, Kaspersky is the permanent head of the company’s anti-virus research.

In 2007, Evgeny Kaspersky took over as CEO of Kaspersky Lab. Natalya Kasperskaya became the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Kaspersky Lab today is an international group of companies with a central office in Moscow and five regional divisions, through which the activities of local representative offices and company partners are managed in the relevant regions: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North and South America, Japan and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Affiliate network The company unites more than 700 first-level partners in more than 100 countries. The company's technologies protect more than 300 million users worldwide.

The company employs more than a thousand highly qualified specialists, ten of whom have MBA degrees, sixteen have PhD degrees. Leading virus analysts at Kaspersky Lab are members of the prestigious Computer Anti‑virus Researcher's Organization (CARO). Kaspersky Lab was the first to develop many modern standards antivirus programs. The company's main product, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, provides reliable protection for all targets of virus attacks: workstations, file servers, mail systems, firewalls and Internet gateways, and pocket computers.

The company is one of the four leading global manufacturers software solutions to provide information security.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

This is the end of the 20th century, a century in which the development of technology aroused the interest of a number of very talented people and, wanting to prove to the whole world their superiority in the computer world, they created the so-called computer viruses. The history of Kaspersky Lab began in that legendary time when “virus writers” were just taking their first steps, and viruses were distributed mainly on floppy disks.

At the end of 1989, the famous “orderly” of the computer world, Evgeniy Kaspersky, discovered the Cascade virus on his computer. This virus led to one of the first viral epidemics in Russia. Having created an “antidote” to the virus, Evgeniy Valentinovich acquired a taste for “medical practice” and still manages a leading company in the antivirus industry.


And already in 1991, Evgeny Kaspersky and his like-minded people (colleague developers) began working with the Kami computer company, where an anti-virus department was created. Subsequently, Natalya Kasperskaya headed the department. With the beginning of her leadership position, Natalya began to lay the foundations for the future commercial success of the antivirus project. Under her leadership, the development of a partner network began.

Call or directly on the website! Our specialists will be happy to help you!


This is the end of the 20th century, a century in which the development of technology aroused the interest of a number of very talented people and, wanting to prove to the whole world their superiority in the computer world, they created the so-called computer viruses. The history of Kaspersky Lab began in that legendary time when “virus writers” were just taking their first steps, and viruses were distributed mainly on floppy disks.

At the end of 1989, the famous “orderly” of the computer world, Evgeniy Kaspersky, discovered the Cascade virus on his computer. This virus led to one of the first viral epidemics in Russia. Having created an “antidote” to the virus, Evgeniy Valentinovich acquired a taste for “medical practice” and still manages a leading company in the antivirus industry.

And already in 1991, Evgeny Kaspersky and his like-minded people (colleague developers) began working with the Kami computer company, where an anti-virus department was created. Subsequently, Natalya Kasperskaya headed the department. With the beginning of her leadership position, Natalya began to lay the foundations for the future commercial success of the antivirus project. Under her leadership, the development of a partner network began.

Later in 1994, AVP, the future Kaspersky Anti-Virus, was entered as a participant in the first international testing of anti-virus products, which was carried out by the Hamburg test center. This was the first international success of the Russian antivirus - it became the absolute champion and record holder in terms of detection and neutralization of viruses. After this, Kaspersky Anti-Virus constantly ranks among the first places in tests of international research centers and computer publications.

In 1997, namely on July 21, 1997, Kaspersky Lab became an independent company. At the end of the same year, AVP technology (the prototype of Kaspersky Anti-Virus) was licensed by the Finnish company DataFellows for its own antivirus called F-Secure. This event can be considered a worthy recognition of the advantages of Russian anti-virus technology. Subsequently, the technology had many more recognitions.

Since November 2000, the official name of the main product of Kaspersky Lab has become Kaspersky Anti-Virus®, which already protected not only office computers and computers of ordinary users, but also protected workstations, file and mail servers under Windows control, Linux and FreeBSD, Novell NetWare networks, firewalls.

At the beginning of 2001, a slightly new product line was developed, including products for home PC users, for medium and small businesses and for corporate clients. This successful decision allowed Kaspersky Lab to achieve a simply extraordinary result: the growth in sales of the company’s products increased manifold.

In 2002, company experts predicted the merger of various areas of cybercrime. Unfortunately, in the future this forecast was completely confirmed. And the managers of Kaspersky Lab needed to make a strategic decision - to expand the scope of their activities to protect users not only from viruses, but also from the totality of all known information security threats. And already at the end of the year, new company products were presented to future clients: personal firewall Kaspersky Anti-Hacker (to protect your computer from hacker attacks) and anti-spam system - Kaspersky Anti-Spam.

In 2003, a team of experts and developers of the Romanian anti-virus system RAV joined the Kaspersky Lab team. Updated versions of products and a completely new product have also been released, such as Kaspersky Security for PDAs (PDAs), which was created to create effective data protection on handheld computers from viruses, as well as to protect PDAs from unauthorized access.

Gradually, Kaspersky Lab began to open its representative offices in different countries of the world. Representative offices were opened in Japan and China, which subsequently allowed entry into the Asian market. New partnership agreements were also concluded with a number of large Russian companies. Currently, Kaspersky Anti-Spam protects users of the largest Russian mail system, Mail.ru. The speed of updating anti-virus databases has increased: updates are now performed every hour. Kaspersky Lab continues to expand its scope of activities. A subsidiary company InfoWatch was created, which specializes in working with corporate clients, namely on protecting their information from all types of threats (leakage of confidential information and others).

For more than fifteen years, a team of Kaspersky Lab specialists has been developing effective protection against viruses, malware and other computer threats. Most modern antiviruses incorporate technologies first developed by Kaspersky Lab. But this gives the company the advantage of being one step ahead of its competitors and pursuing its goal - a new level of comprehensive protection of the information world.

Publications on the topic