VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware is now released

Today, I�m pleased to announce that after a very long development and beta testing effort, we have released VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware. This is the consumer version; the enterprise version will be shipping next week. Company propaganda here, earlier beta announcement (with more information) here. Some reviewers also took an early peek at the beta � including Robert Vamosi at CNET and John Hawes at Virus Bulletin.

Those who have been following this blog may have read some of my prior postings, which started out with a blog post early last year entitled Evolving the Antimwalware Technology Model. In that blog post, I discussed how antivirus products have had to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

The flood of malware these days is just mind-boggling, and the tools needed will require constant reevaluation and new thinking. However, it starts with the platform: Our first task was to make everything from scratch, a blank slate, in order to start off without any legacy code and bloat, using the latest concepts in software development. The second was to create a product that successfully combined antivirus and antispyware functionality, since those two concepts are no longer separate (all users cares about is malware, not some semantic argument about the definition of a trojan, or whether a commercial keylogger should be tagged in a system scan, or whether adware is acceptable or not).

But it goes further than just bloat and performance: It�s a problem with our industry. People generally just hate antivirus vendors (I don�t use the term �hate� lightly, as I�ve seen the user surveys). People are angry with resource hogging applications. They�re upset about missed malware, and poor support coming from some distant overseas call center. They�re tired of �scan and scare� tactics. And they�re very upset about price gouging and abuse of the software subscription process (such as the now common and shameful practice of negative option billing � automatically charging your credit card without your explicit permission.)

And the users are right. Something has to change.

VIPRE is not just a product that answers the call for better performance. It�s also about other ideas, such as fair pricing, responsive support, ethical (not �scan and scare�) marketing, responsible subscription practices, and so on.

Ok, off my soapbox. Please feel free to download the trial version and give it a whirl, and don�t hesitate to email me directly with your thoughts.

(The new CounterSpy 3.0 will also be released soon, likely before the end of the month.)

Alex Eckelberry