We have launched many products in the 14 year history of PC Pitstop, but today’s announcement of PC Matic Home Security is different.
There is an epic war between the companies that make viruses and the companies that write software to protect our computers from malware. The unfortunate truth is that the virus writers are winning. The most common technique to detect, block and remove viruses is called black listing. The black list contains a digital list of every known virus to man. The virus industry (also known as the bad buys) have developed a technique called polymorphic viruses. This method allows one virus to morph into to what seems like thousands to black list security software. The security industry quite often touts the explosion of viruses is a reason to purchase their wares, but the reality is that the incredible ascent is a sign of the ineffectiveness of their software to defeat modern viruses.
Polymorphic viruses have created an explosion of viruses suggesting that a white list approach is more viable and effective. Source: KnowBe4Since April 2011, PC Matic has included white list protection which blocks and does not allow the virus to propagate or morph. Rather than a list of known bad programs, PC Matic uses a list of known good programs. As the graph shows, in today’s polymorphic virus world, it is an easier task to track good software than bad. Furthermore, good software is not trying to escape detection. PC Matic Home Security features white list real time protection blocking the morphing viruses in its tracks.
PC Matic Home Security also includes a black list as a scan and clean engine. We license the Vipre Engine from Threat Track in Clearwater, Florida. It is not one of the better known engines, but independent test houses such as VB100 recognize Vipre as being above the others. There is another reason that we prefer Vipre. Unbelievable as it sounds, Vipre is the only security engine maintained and written in America. McAfee or Symantec are American brands but they do their development in India. PC Matic Home Security was also written 100% by Americans.
Although it might be patriotic to purchase our products, we believe our country should not let our software security be outsourced to foreign developers. Americans have written some of the best software the world has ever seen, and there is no reason that America should not be a leader, rather than just a consumer of security software.
| Company | Development |
|---|---|
| Avast | Czech Republic |
| AVG | Germany |
| Avira | Germany |
| Bit Defender | Romania |
| Eset | Slovakia |
| Kaspersky | Russia |
| Lavasoft | Germany |
| Malware Bytes | Estonia |
| McAfee | India |
| Panda | Spain |
| PC Pitstop | USA |
| Prevx | UK |
| Symantec | India |
| Threat Track | USA |
| Trend Micro | Japan |
Only PC Pitstop and Threat Track have security development in the USA.
The bad guys have a new attack vector called exploits. The polymorphic viruses enter through holes in out of data software often called vulnerabilities. These holes are generally found in commonly used free software such as Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, and Oracle Java, to name a few. To be sure, it is not possible to watch a YouTube video without Adobe Flash Player, but how many of us are making sure that Flash Player is up to date? The bad guys have nurtured a nascent industry called exploit kits. For roughly $2500, a virus writer can purchase an exploit kit that will allow the virus to plow through as many holes as possible, allowing the pay load to propagate faster.
Since there is this epic battle between good and evil, Flash Player and others are updated weekly. The good news is that PC Matic Home Security includes sophisticated vulnerability protection. As you might imgine, this is no easy task, because on average there are over 3 out of date applications per computer. We have seen many instances where there are 8-10 applications. On top of that, since many of these applications are free, the installers try to sneak a toolbars and other junk during the installation process. We are happy to say that the installations are silent, and without the junk.
Learn more about PC Matic Home Security
PC Matic Home Security includes our cloud scheduler. The cloud scheduler allows the user to remotely schedule scans and cleans and receive reports in their inbox. The scheduler is a key piece for keeping the vulnerability holes closed, since many of the holes are identified and patched so frequently.
After three years of TV advertising, PC Matic’s awareness still trails the pack. It is our hope that PC Matic Home Security will move PC Matic into the same league as the others. Source: Internal 2013 Awareness StudyAnd last but not least (drum roll please), PC Matic Home Security is free for non-commercial purposes. In today’s day and age, it is really hard to break through the clutter and misinformation of the security industry, and it is our hope that providing a superior product for free will help us break out of the pack. PC Matic’s awareness levels after three years of TV advertising stands at 8%. Many of our competitors, such as AVG and Alvira, have higher market awareness strictly by proving a security product for free. Additionally, we hope that if a critical mass of the installed base are using white list protection, as well as closing vulnerability holes consistently and quickly, that it might impact the financial statements of the virus makers. To be clear, the reason that the virus industry exists today is strictly financial, and if their cost to infect a computer rises dramatically, it might be enough for them to close shop. Think of PC Matic Home Security as the free armor to protect you in this epic war.
We have made a lot of products in the history of our company, but this one could be really big. Give it a try and let’s see where this leads us.
One last note: If you are among the legions of PC Matic users, no action is required. PC Matic has all of the features of PC Matic Home Security and more.
