avast.PRO.19.1
Avast Premier 2019’s anti-phishing alert window.
Anti-phishing technology is a mainstay in Avast’s security suites, as it is in most security suites these days. But for 2019, Avast Premier can flag phishing sites without a browser extension. Typically, security suites install a browser extension in your default browser and flag suspicious sites that way. With Avast Premier, when a phishing site is detected the suite throws up a medium-sized alert window in the center of the screen. It informs you the site was blocked for potential phishing and then advises you to scan your PC, as pictured here.
Avast’s approach analyzes various components of a site to detect nefarious behavior including a site’s URL, domain meta information, and “the visual aspects of sites.” Avast says this new approach allows it to “recognize new phishing sites in seconds,” but I’m not so sure about that.
I didn’t run a formal test of Avast’s phishing capabilities but I did visit Comodo’s PhishBank.org to find some current phishing sites so I could see the new feature in action. During my time trying out the new feature, it blocked a OneDrive phishing site almost right away, but then Avira didn’t let out a peep when I landed on the login page for a phishing site posing as Blockchain.com, a popular trading and Bitcoin wallet service.
To be fair, Chrome also didn’t throw up an alert for that site, and Chrome often catches known phishing sites. Still, the fact that Avast didn’t block me from logging into a fake cryptocurrency site is concerning since phishing is an easy way that unsuspecting users can lose their digital coins.
Moving on to the new gaming mode, now known as Do Not Disturb, this feature is designed to stop alerts from Avast and other programs when you are running a program in fullscreen. This can be anything from a video game to a movie or a presentation. It’s great to see Avast acknowledge that game mode can be used for more than just gaming, as some other suites do.
Do Not Disturb does its work automatically in the background so there’s no need to activate the feature; however, you can also add programs manually to the Do Not Disturb list by going to Performance > Do Not Disturb Mode > Add A New App.
This list still requires that the listed apps are in fullscreen. If you need a quick do not disturb mode without a fullscreen app, right-click on the Avast symbol in the system tray and select Silent Mode. That won’t silence third-party apps, but it will keep Avast itself from bothering you.
Looking at Avast Premier’s interface, it’s basically the same as we saw in 2018. The suite uses shades of blue and gray as the primary colors with purple used to help menu items stand out. On the left rail there are four options: Status, Protection, Privacy, and Performance.
Each one houses the major features of the suite that we’ve seen before. Under Protection you’ve got access to Avast’s scan options, the firewall settings, Wi-Fi inspector, a ransomware shield, and a sandbox for running programs and viewing files that you’re worried might be suspicious.
Two new additions to this section are Core Shields, which lets you turn on and off specific aspects of Avast’s protection including file protection, behavioral analysis, protection from web threats, and mail scanning. The Virus Chest, meanwhile, is Avast Premier’s version of the quarantine section.
Moving on to Privacy in the left-hand rail, you’ve got the Data Shredder, a built-in password manager, and SecureLine VPN, as usual. Note that SecureLine requires an extra subscription cost for Avast Premier users.
There’s also now a Webcam Shield in this section that blocks the webcam from use by shady applications. You can set it to three different settings: Smart, Strict, and No Mercy. The first option allows trusted apps to use the webcam and everything else has to ask. Strict requires an app to ask your permission no matter what, and No Mercy locks the webcam down completely.
There’s also a new anti-tracking feature in the Privacy section, but like the SecureLine VPN it costs extra.
Conclusion
Avast Premier 2019 is a solid security suite with some good extra features such as the webcam blocker and the improved Do Not Disturb mode. I’m not so sure the improved anti-phishing feature is as good as it should be, as its results were mixed in my brief experience with the feature. Still, the testing houses give Avast high marks and overall the company has a great reputation as a strong security product.
The bigger issue, then, is that price. So many other suites cover more devices for less. You can get Avira Prime, for example, for $130 to cover up to 25 devices with all the bells and whistles. A similarly priced plan for Avast Premier covers just five devices, and you’ll still have to pay for some of the extra utilities on top of that.
