Research by SurfRight shows up to 32 percent of PCs infected with malware, even with anti-virus installed

HENGELO, The Netherlands — Computer users assume that the popular anti-virus programs will protect them against malware (viruses, spyware, trojans, etc.). But research by SurfRight shows this is not correct. Over 100,000 computers were scanned using their award-winning product, Hitman Pro 3, and almost 32 percent of the users that have an up-to-date anti-virus program installed were still infected with malware.

“Our research shows that traditional anti-virus programs cannot keep up with the cyber criminals,” according to CEO Mark Loman. “Despite all their efforts, suppliers of anti-virus programs release a solution days, sometimes weeks, after a new malware instance is released.”

Mark Loman continues: “Our research also shows that not all anti-virus programs detect the same threats. A combination of different anti-virus programs would reduce the number of infections dramatically.”

* 107,435 computer users have used the free version of Hitman Pro 3 for the first time in the period from October 10 to December 4.

* 78,828 users had an up-to-date anti-virus program installed. 28,607 users had not.

* 25,038 (32 percent) of the 78,828 users with up-to-date anti-virus program were infected with malware.

See http://files.surfright.nl/reports/HitmanPro3-RealWorldStatistics-OctNov2009.pdf for a detailed description of the results and the methodology.

These 107,435 users have scanned their computer using the Behavioral Scan in Hitman Pro 3. Hitman Pro 3 can scan a computer in only a few minutes from a USB Flash Drive, CD/DVD, local or network attached hard drive and will quickly reveal the presence of any malware using a Behavioral Scan. The actual verification of these potential malware files is then done on the Hitman Pro servers, the “Scan Cloud,” which incorporates a hosted multi-vendor scanning service. Hitman Pro 3 uses 7 different anti-virus programs to analyze the suspicious files.

Hitman Pro 3 can be used in addition to an existing anti-virus program. Scanning a PC is free so Hitman Pro 3 is an ideal solution to check if the current anti-virus program offers sufficient protection. A free version can be downloaded from www.hitmanpro.com .

About SurfRight:

SurfRight B.V. (www.surfright.nl) was founded in 2008, based on the freeware project Hitman Pro 1 and 2 with a user base of more than 1.5 million users. SurfRight is dedicated to the development of smart and efficient security solutions for the average computer user. Hitman Pro 3 and the Caretaker product family include solutions against unsolicited mail (spam), online fraud (phishing), viruses, malware, and content filtering.

About Tabitha Berg

Tabitha Angel Berg is an aspiring author and musician and joined eNewsChannels in Nov. 2006 as an editor and mistress of the WP-based content management system (CMS). She likes ferrets better than cats and tea better than coffee, and is a devout iPad evangelist. Nobody pays her to like Dr. Pepper, but wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?

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