Avast, achievements and challenges in cybersecurity

Avast Software s.r.o. is a Czech multinational cybersecurity software company committed to creating technology that protects people and businesses on a global scale by combining human ingenuity, artificial intelligence, and expert insights. Avast credits intellectual diversity for its continuing ability to adapt to the everchanging threat landscape.

The company was founded as a cooperative almost four decades ago in 1988. Its co-founders Eduard Kučera and Pavel Baudiš met at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines in Czechoslovakia, where Pavel was said to have discovered the Vienna virus on a floppy disk and developed the first program to remove it. This meeting of the minds led to the establishment of ALWIL to sell an antivirus software. Following the fall of Communism in 1989, the pair went on to establish what would eventually become known as Avast. In 2021, the company decided to merge with cybersecurity firm NortonLifeLock.

Eduard and Pavel are among the wealthiest individuals in the Czech Republic, with Eduard’s net worth at $1.5 billion and Pavel’s at $2.5 billion.

Who is NortonLifeLock?

To understand who NortonLifeLock is, you’ll first need to know about Gen Digital Inc. Based in both the U.S. and the Czech Republic, Gen is a global software company specialising in cybersecurity software and services. Formerly known as Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeRock, the company is today listed on Fortune 500 and is also included in the S&P 500 stock-market index. Gen’s product lineup includes popular brand names like Avast, Norton, AVG, ReputationDefender, LifeLock, and CCleaner. Notably, Symantec revealed its intention to split into two independently traded companies in October 2014.

The intention was for this separation to be concluded by year end 2015. One of the companies was to focus on security and the other on information management. Symantec sold its information management arm, Veritas Technologies, to the Carlye Group in 2014. Broadcom Inc. in turn announced its intention to purchase Symantec’s Enterprise Security software division for $10.7 billion in 2019. Consequently, Symantec was rebranded as NortonLifeLock. It was after merging with Avast in 2022 that the company adopted its current name Gen Digital Inc.

Market capitalisation of Gen Digital

Gen Digital has a market capitalisation of $16.1 billion and revenue of $3.8 billion. A 9 May 2024 article by Reuters reports that the company “beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter revenue estimate, as customers spend more on cybersecurity networking solutions to combat sophisticated online threats. Demand for Gen Digital’s cybersecurity software solutions – including AVG, Norton, Avast and Avira – has increased in the wake of evolving and intricate cyber threats, privacy concerns and a surge in hacking activity.”

The article further stated that for the quarter ending March 29, Gen Digital reported a 2% revenue increase to $967 million, slightly above the analysts’ estimate of $965 million. The company projected its full-year 2025 revenue to be between $3.89 billion and $3.93 billion, aligning with analysts’ expectations of $3.93 billion. Gen Digital anticipates an annual adjusted profit per share ranging from $2.17 to $2.23 and expects first-quarter revenue between $960 million and $970 million, compared to the analysts’ average forecast of $965.6 million.

Avast highlights

Every month, Avast blocks over 1.5 billion malware attacks, more than 33 million phishing attacks, 3 million+ unique phishing URLs, and in excess of 4 million ransomware attacks.

Notably, a February 2024 press release by Avast announced that the company blocked a record breaking 10 billion attacks in 2023, a remarkable 49% increase YoY. Furthermore, in the last quarter of 2023, Avast blocked more than 10 million PDF-based attacks, protecting more than 4 million users worldwide. According to Avast, ”the intensity of these attacks peaked in the final quarter, with a 17% quarter-on-quarter increase, and a monthly average exceeding 1.2 billion attacks”.

Avast invests in 4 key research areas, namely:

Malware detecting and blocking

Avast protects users by detecting and immediately reporting suspicious files or behaviour using its cutting-edge infrastructure, and access to massive volumes of security data acquired from hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. This provides the company with the largest and most advanced zero-day threat-detection network across the globe.

AI and machine learning

Avast uses an advanced AI system which utilises machine learning to automatically collect and extract data from the company’s entire user base, which then trains every security module. In fact, as new malware samples are detected, Avast products are automatically updated with new models, ensuring up-to-the-second protection. Interestingly, the company has also built an advanced machine learning pipeline that enables Avast to quickly train and deploy malware detection models within 12 hours.

Privacy technologies

As the online world has evolved, so too has Avast’s focus on what defines privacy, resulting in the development of products that extend beyond just cybersecurity to identity and individual control over one’s data.  

IoT security

Avast is investing in new cloud-based technology as a means to protect the rapidly expanding Internet of Things domain. For example, as far as smart homes are concerned, statistics from hundreds of millions of devices are processed through the Machine Learning algorithms running in Avast’s distributed cloud infrastructure to detect threats and connected devices.

Federal Trade Commission fine of $16.5 million

In a report published in January 2020 by Motherboard and PCMag, it was uncovered that Avast Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free version were gathering user data for resale to personalise advertising through a subsidiary called Jumpshot. The leaked documents indicated that Jumpshot was offering to provide its customers with data from over 100 million compromised devices, encompassing “Every search. Every click. On every site.” In response to the public backlash over user data privacy concerns, Avast announced the immediate shutdown of Jumpshot and its operations on 30 January 2020. Following the revelation, the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection announced on 11 February 2020 that it had launched a preliminary investigation. This resulted in the company receiving a $16.5 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission in February 2024 for collecting user data and reselling that data.

According to CNN, “on top of the multi-million dollar fine, Avast was hit with a ban from the FTC to prohibit the company from selling or licensing data for advertising purposes.” In a statement to CNN, the company also reported that, “While we disagree with the FTC’s allegations and characterization of the facts, we are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to continuing to serve our millions of customers around the world”.

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