New from Kaspersky: Internet Security and Anti-Virus 2009 versions

Kaspersky Lab announced the North American release of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009, bringing to market a new standard in anti-malware protection. This new generation of Kaspersky security software is designed to address these challenges. Kaspersky has entirely rebuilt its award-winning anti-malware security engine.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 are engineered for speed and are packed with a first-of-its-kind arsenal of tools to help to protect computer users from the rapid growth of malicious cybercrime attacks.

The New Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 include:

• Updated Anti-Malware Engine: The Kaspersky 2009 anti-malware engine has been re-engineered, rendering scanning speed improvements of 300% at initial scan and 700% during subsequent scans. System boot-up time has been reduced in excess of 35%, making it one of the fastest scanning engines on the market.
• New Vulnerability Assessment: The Kaspersky Security Analyzer, based on vulnerability intelligence technology from Secunia, scans the computer for vulnerabilities, including patch updates and configurations for many common applications. As vulnerabilities are discovered, Kaspersky 2009 directs its users to detailed information about the vulnerability and how to fix it.
• New Collective Intelligence Gathering: The Kaspersky Security Network is an opt-in feature that enables users to automatically send previously unseen information to Kaspersky Lab for evalution and potential inclusion on either the Kaspersky blacklist or whitelist. This allows Kaspersky Lab to react faster to emerging threats and add New entries to the list of known “good” applications.
• Automated Standard Hourly Updates: By default, Kaspersky 2009 selects the best server, checks for signature updates, and automatically downloads and installs New updates hourly, or at a user-specified schedule.

In addition to the above New features, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 also includes:

• New Application Activity Filtering: Uses multiple methods to determine the trustworthiness of software installed on a user’s computer.
• Applications are automatically categorization based on signature detection (blacklisting) and a constantly Updated database of known good applications (whitelisting) derived from data in Bit9’s 6.5 billion record “Global Software Registry.”
• Unknown applications are subject to a thorough set of tests in a secure virtual environment, which emulates queries to system resources and processes.
• Advanced heuristic analysis is used to assess the security of the unknown applications and processes, and a Security Rating is given to each process.
• Once an application has been assigned a security rating (such as high restricted or low restricted), it is treated accordingly with pre-defined or user-established rules. These rules may allow, limit, or block access to the computer’s resources such as hard disks, the Internet, other software applications, or the Windows registry.
• Ongoing defense measures leverage a sophisticated Host-based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) and an integrated bi-directional firewall which constantly monitor the behavior of all applications and processes. Together with highly advanced heuristic rules, Kaspersky’s proactive protection is always on guard for instant detection, evaluation and blocking of hidden malware that can come to life on protected systems, even before the signatures in the anti-virus database are updated. In total, this represents a significant departure from the traditional anti-malware detection.
• New Anti-Phishing Virtual Keyboard: Warns users and blocks access to phishing sites. A screen-based virtual keyboard prevents keyloggers from intercepting keystrokes and sending online banking PIN numbers or other confidential data to criminals.
• EnhancedParental Controls: Improved Parental Controls allow parents to restrict access to the Internet based on the suitability of the content. Internet access can be time-limited, sites can be added to the whitelist or blacklist and site visits can be logged or blocked.