AVG releases free link scanner download

By Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 21 April 2009 09:05

Technology

AVG reckons on any given day around the world something like two million web pages are poisoned by hidden threats, and the security firm has just released a free link scanner download which it says will protect Internet users against these “random, invisible online threats”.

According to AVG, every day 60 percent of those threats shut down or move to a different destination on the web – which, it says, makes real-time link scanning crucial – and it’s doing something about it by releasing to the world at large, for no charge, a stand-alone version of the LinkScanner software it says users of its own security system already have as protection.

Lloyd Borrett at AVG Australia/New Zealand, says any type of site can be affected, from a small business to a government department to a major brand-name company.

“If a user simply visits one of these poisoned web pages they don’t even need to click on anything to get into real trouble, to lose their credit card details, their ID or other valuable information or files,” says Borrett, and he says regular anti-virus software alone cannot protect against this type of threat.

According to Borrett, to get that protection, he claims that AVG’s just released linkscanner gives users an additional real-time layer of protection on top of their existing security software.

“It works by looking at the web page behind a link or a web address typed into a browser and analysing whether it harbours a threat. If it does, then linkscanner stops the user from downloading that page. This means that, for the first time, Windows XP and Vista users can truly know whether it is safe to click on a link at the only time that matters – when they click on it.”

AVG says the 80 million users of its security software are already protected by its linkscanner and the company is now making it available to users of other major security software brands, which AVG CEO JR Smith says “just don’t have the same degree of protection.”
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