AVAST Fights Back Against Phone Theft, While Securing Your Data

AVAST surpasses 25 million customer milestone with its free Android security app and now releases advanced innovative features to combat device theft and data loss

REDWOOD CITY, California, August 22, 2013 – AVAST Software today announced the release of avast! Mobile Premium, the premier version of its award-winning mobile security app for Android smartphones and tablets, which is currently used by more than 25 million people. avast! Mobile Premium offers customers new superior anti-theft and backup technologies that will help them recover a lost or stolen phone and the data stored on it. Geofencing, a core anti-theft feature of avast! Mobile Premium, creates a virtual perimeter around a device sounding a loud alarm if someone attempts to take the device beyond a user-set distance. Anti-theft, along with mobile backup, addresses consumer’s primary concern of losing important content such as pictures, contacts, and even financial information when their mobile device is either lost or stolen.

In a customer survey with more than 167,000 worldwide respondents, AVAST found that one in five smartphone users in Canada has lost or had their device stolen at least once, costing an average of $384 per person. AVAST found that not only are consumers lax in using anti-theft features to prevent losing their mobile device and the data on it but more than 50% of Canadian smartphone owners do not back up their content as well.

“Almost half the people in Canada own a smartphone and consumers are growing more concerned by the day about the security of the information on their mobile devices,” said Vincent Steckler, Chief Executive Officer at AVAST. “avast! Mobile Premium easily fills the rapidly growing need for on-the-go security and protection.”

Keeping Track of Device and Data

avast! Mobile Premium includes the same antivirus and anti-malware protection as the free version, which was certified by independent testing organization AV-Test with top-level effectiveness (99.8%) and 100% in usability. The premier version’s user interface has been further simplified for smooth and easy access to all new features. The solution includes two cornerstone apps: avast! Mobile Security and avast! Mobile Backup.

avast! Mobile Security: To protect their data and retrieve a stolen device, free customers can already remotely locate, lock, or wipe data from their lost phone, or sound an alarm. Now avast! Mobile Premium customers can also choose to have pictures taken or sounds recorded of thieves who attempt to unlock their phone. Another feature that prevents anyone from accessing a customer’s device is Password Check, which locks the device if the wrong password is entered three times in a row. With avast! Mobile Premium, Geofencing allows customers to define the radius of a location where they will be for a period of time. With Geofencing activated, if someone were to attempt to take the phone beyond the set perimeter, an alarm sounds, catching the would-be thief red-handed.

App Locking empowers customers to set a password for chosen apps, as online shopping and banking via apps bears the risk of losing sensitive data when a user’s smartphone gets stolen. Moreover, avast! Mobile Security’s Ad Networks Detector informs customers of ad networks and tracking systems that target them with unwanted ads while collecting their information.

avast! Mobile Backup: Customers can back up their personal data as a preemptive measure to avoid data loss. In addition to backing up contacts, text messages, and photos, which is available in the free version, apps, music files, videos, and even video game scores can be backed up with the premium app.

"Our developers continuously keep an eye out for emerging security issues in order to invent new solutions to provide our customers with bullet-proof protection. With avast! Mobile Premium we catch smartphone thieves in the act and we safeguard customer’s valuable personal information," said Ondrej Vlcek, Chief Technology Officer at AVAST Software.

avast! Mobile Security is the top-rated mobile security app by users in the Google Play Store, by leading technology publications and by independent testing organizations. In addition to AV-Test’s certification, PC Magazine and Laptop have rewarded avast! Mobile Security with Editor’s Choice awards.