Johannesburg, 11 May 2010
AVG Technologies, represented locally by software distributor and republisher Phoenix Software, developer of the world's most popular free anti-virus software, has announced that it has fortified its AVG Virus Research Labs team to help fight cybercrime worldwide.
As part of this initiative, the company recently appointed security industry veteran Yuval Ben-Itzhak as senior vice-president of engineering, as well as added two more researchers to assist in detecting trends and preventing exploits.
Ben-Itzhak was formerly Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a global Web security company, where he led the company's vision, strategy, innovation, IP and technology.
Ben-Itzhak is also founder and CTO of KaVaDo, a leader in Web application security. An innovator, Ben-Itzhak holds a number of various US patents and patent applications. He is frequently quoted in the international business and technology press and has been a key speaker in dozens of security conferences around the world. Ben-Itzhak was selected as InfoWorld's "Top 25 Most Influential CTOs of 2004" and Computerworld's "40 Innovative IT People to Watch, Under the Age of 40" for 2007.
AVG's Virus Research Lab leverages its network of more than 110 million computers worldwide - each installed with AVG LinkScanner technology - to detect exploit trends in real-time and report back data that is in turn licensed by top security software companies to update their products. The Virus Research Lab works regularly with law enforcement and industry leaders to detect and prevent online bank fraud, consumer phishing schemes, identify theft scams and many other cybercrime activities.
“The AVG Virus Research Lab is the cornerstone of our operations, working at the front lines to hunt down the bad guys and protect our customers from their malicious schemes,” says Roger Thompson, Chief Research Officer, AVG Technologies. “Consumers, small businesses and law enforcement all rely upon AVG for security trends insights and specific remedies to halt exploits.”
Ben-Itzhak and the staff in the AVG Virus Research Lab offer regular comments and analyses of the latest spyware, viruses, Internet exploits and other cybercrime trends at http://viruslab.blog.avg.com/.
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