It's the time of year for sweeping summaries of the past 12 months and predictions aplenty for the next ones to come. While we may see a few too many of these analyses and list-making as we come to the close of another year, they can provide us with an interesting look at the months gone by, which in turn can open up some insight into the coming year.


For the many who have been scammed by rogue and scareware security applications, this recent news from the U.S. FTC may come as a welcome update:

"At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a U.S. district court has issued a temporary halt to a massive "scareware" scheme, which falsely claimed that scans had detected viruses, spyware, and illegal pornography on consumers' computers."


Microsoft is releasing another "out of band" update tomorrow. This update is to fix a recently discovered zero day vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 that is actively being exploited.

More information about the vulnerability can be found at Microsoft's Security Advisory page.


Introducing Live Help

by Jona on December 17th, 2008 in News about Lavasoft.

We know that your computer is a very important part of your life. We also know it can be very frustrating if your PC is not working the way you want it to. So in order to provide an additional layer of technical expertise, Lavasoft has decided to partner with SupportSpace - thereby giving you access to PC repair help, virus & spyware removal and much more, through remote access services. It's quick and easy - all you have to do sit back and relax.


Lavasoft Anti-Virus HelixComplete Virus Protection to Safeguard & Heal

We are pleased to announce the release of our new stand-alone anti-virus tool - Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix - designed to address the rapidly changing malware landscape. Using advanced heuristic technology, it offers superior detection rates, guarding against over 1.5 million known threats, along with unknown, emerging, and rapidly changing threats - without slowing your system down.


Recently, we came across this rogue: Antivirus Plus. What makes this one different from others was that it was distributed directly as a fake video codec. They have now removed the fake alert step in between.

fake codec install


33 million records.


Beta 3 - Now Available

by Jeffery on December 8th, 2008 in Beta Testing.

Calling all beta testers - the third stage of our Beta testing process is now underway!

With Beta 1 and 2, we focused initially on testing the scanning process, then on real-time protection. Beta 3 is designed to test additional functionality of the real-time protection - including registry and network protection - as well as the startup manager feature.

To download Beta 3, please log in to the Beta Center.


Looking Forward

by Wolfa on December 8th, 2008 in Everyday Life at Lavasoft.

AntivirusTrigger is a new rogue anti-spyware application and a clone of VirusTrigger. It will give exaggerated threat reports on the compromised computer then ask the user to purchase a registered version to remove the reported threats.

AntiVirusTrigger's GUI


There has been an abundance of facial hair at Lavasoft this past month, as our first ever Movember made its mark.

All throughout November, our Mo Bros have been growing their moustaches (some with better results than others) and raising about 4,000 SEK for cancer research. All funds raised at Lavasoft will be donated to cancerfonden.se

Thank you all for contributing to this great cause.


Have you made any recent purchases to be delivered by the postal service? With the holiday season upon us, chances are good that you have. If so, there's a common spam scam that may try to catch you off guard in order to infect your system with malware. Here's an example of a subject line and e-mail message to be on the lookout for this holiday shopping season, and beyond -

Subject: [NO-REPLY] UPS Tracking Number 21263130


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