Even Better Leak Protection, plus New Anti-Keylogger

As you’ve probably already realized, Outpost Pro 2009 is not just a pretty face. So this Monday, we’re going ‘under the hood’ to take a look at some of the more technical improvements to the software.

Outpost has always been a leader in proactive defense and to prove it has consistently scored well on independent leaktests. These tests are performed on a regular basis by Matousec Transparent Security and in some cases can be a useful way to understand where our own vulnerabilities might lie (not everything can be picked up by internal testing). Such was the case with a recent set of tests, and we have responded by further strengthening Outpost’s anti-leak capabilities.

We’ve also increased protection against leaks and zero-day threats in Outpost 2009 with the addition of a dedicated anti-keylogger protection.



As you can see in this screen shot, “keyboard logging” has been added to the Anti-Leak Control tab of the Host Protection module, so that any attempt to capture keystrokes by an unauthorized application will be immediately noted and blocked.

So, as well as the pretty face, Outpost 2009 will bring greater control over the unauthorized capture of your valuable digital information. We look forward to independent verification of the effectiveness of these new protections in upcoming tests. In the meantime, we encourage you to try them out yourself by downloading the latest beta at http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/betatest.php.

You can find our Outpost 2009-related Monday blog posts at http://agnitumblog.blogspot.com/search/label/monday%20update%202009 or subscribe to the RSS feed. The product release date is approaching, but we still have some product secrets to share with you, so keep your eye out for the next update.

Take care online,

Alexey Belkin,
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Skyrocketing Performance

This Monday we’re not looking at any particular features, but rather analyzing the overall performance of Outpost 2009 and the impact of other improvements on the products’ improved speed of operation.

We’ve already touched on this topic when we looked at the revamped SmartScan (SmartScan 2 – smarter and faster than ever!). We mentioned then that this single feature will make repeated malware scans 100 times faster, whatever the capacity of your hard drive! As a consequence, the overall performance of the products increases tenfold, assuming a normal mode of operation on the PC. The way we cache antivirus checks has also been significantly improved, as has the speed of processing data streamed from the web. In short, your PC will not slow down when the Outpost real-time scanner is active or when you run an on-demand scan.

Rather than measuring the performance improvement ratio in percentage terms, we say that your PC will function at almost the same speed as it would with no antivirus installed and running. System start-up, program launch, files copying, processing of a large number of files (photo archives, for instance), automatic scheduled scans – all benefit from these performance improvements in terms of speed and efficiency.

As a result, your PC has only a very small additional CPU load compared to a clean system, dramatically decreased hard-drive load and economic use of kernel memory when file activity is intense.

We’re not saying the performance improvements can’t be quantified – but performance is a user experience, so why not try the product out for yourself? You can join our beta program and download the software today at http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/betatest.php.

You can find our Outpost 2009-related Monday blog posts at http://agnitumblog.blogspot.com/search/label/monday%20update%202009 or subscribe to the RSS feed. There are still more 2009-related notes to come, so stay tuned!

See you next Monday!

Take care online,

Alexey Belkin,
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

‘My Security’ window

This Monday we’re looking at one of the most important parts of the GUI. What you were used to as the Welcome screen in Outpost 2008 has been renamed My Security for Outpost 2009, and has undergone some significant changes. It’s no secret that changing this screen was at the top of our users’ wish-lists for 2009, so now you can take a look at what we’ve done and see whether you think we’ve made the right decisions.

Here’s what the Outpost 2008 main window looks like:


What you see is the news section, registration / update info and My Shortcuts.

In Outpost 2009, the My Security page also displays the status of Outpost’s components. If you click on the status type, the corresponding settings will appear. These settings are as follows:

• green represents the optimal choice / variant
• yellow represents a riskier choice
• red represents the most unsafe choice.

Firewall

• Rules Wizard, Allow Most, Block Most policies
• Stop All
• Disable
• Firewall disabled

Self-Protection

• Enabled
• Disabled

Host Protection

• Optimal, Advanced or Maximum settings
• Low
• Host Protection disabled

Real-time Malware Protection

• Enabled
• Enabled, mail not scanned
• Disabled
• Disabled in compatibility mode

Malware database

• Updated no more than a day ago
• Updated no more than a week ago
• Updated more than a week ago

The News Flash still leads to the news page on our website. As for the shortcuts, we’ve kept the most important ones:

• Contact Support (http://www.agnitum.com/support/)
• Click here to test your security online

But a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a sample ‘My Security’ screen for Outpost 2009:



We believe this new layout will give you greater transparency and ease-of-use. You can easily access any basic setting with a single click and check the status of the different components. It’s easy to adjust the level of security and enable or disable components according to your needs and experience. Plus you’ll never forget important product updates – My Security will remind you in good time.

In summary, the new design makes it quicker and easier for all users to configure the program appropriately for their optimum protection.

To test this yourself, please join our beta program at http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/betatest.php and evaluate the product. As always, you can find our Outpost 2009-related Monday blog posts at http://agnitumblog.blogspot.com/search/label/monday%20update%202009 or subscribe to the RSS feed. There are still more feature notes to come!

See you next Monday!

Take care online,

Alexey Belkin,
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Revamped Online Activity

This Monday we’re taking a look at another GUI tweak in Outpost 2009 – this time, a more convenient display of Online Activity. In the same way as the Network and Process Activity, this log of active web processes is now more customizable and visually attractive.

Here’s how the display looks in Outpost 2008:


The new layout displays the following columns by default:

- Process
- Host Address
- File Name
- Object Size

If you want to see a full URL address and Object type, just select the Columns command by right-clicking on the process. We’ve also added in a time lag on the deletion of obsolete records; in Outpost 2009 they are marked in grey before being removed (the same as in the Network Activity monitor).

Here’s a screenshot of the Online Activity monitor in Outpost 2009:


By suppressing long addresses and additional details, the information is easier to read without having to scroll around. One more small but helpful way to improve the usability of Outpost 2009.

As always, please feel free to join our beta program at http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/betatest.php and evaluate the product for yourself. You can find our Outpost 2009-related Monday blog posts at http://agnitumblog.blogspot.com/search/label/monday%20update%202009 or subscribe to the RSS feed.

See you next Monday!

Take care online,

Alexey Belkin,
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Outpost 2008 fights spyware and keyloggers effectively

We’re sharing with you here some interesting statistics based on research conducted by Neil Rubenking (Senior Analyst at PC Magazine US). The table below was not published by Neil or by PC Magazine, but we complied it using the points given to the listed products in Neil’s reviews.

TS stands for 'total score', SW - for 'spyware', KL - for 'keyloggers'.

		removal		blocking
TS	product	SW	KL	SW	KL
36,9	Norton 360 version 2.0	8,8	10,0	8,1	10,0
35,1	Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008	9,0	8,5	8,6	9,0
33,8	Spyware Doctor 5.5	9,5	8,5	9,8	6,0
31,2	Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0	8,6	5,7	7,6	9,3
29,8	Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2008	9,0	5,0	9,8	6,0
29,8	Spy Sweeper 5.5 with Antivirus	9,0	6,3	8,1	6,4
28,8	BitDefender Total Security 2008	8,6	7,1	8,8	4,3
27,1	Windows Live OneCare 2.0	8,3	4,5	9,3	5,0
26,6	CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008	9,0	6,5	7,6	3,5
26,5	BullGuard Internet Security 8.0	6,7	5,0	8,8	6,0
26,3	Avira Premium Security Suite 8	7,4	3,2	9,3	6,4
25,9	McAfee Total Protection 2008	7,6	4,5	9,3	4,5
25,7	Panda Internet Security 2008	10,0	2,1	10,0	3,6
19,0	ESET Smart Security 3.0	7,1	2,0	7,4	2,5

We were delighted to find that Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008 came out ahead of such products as Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0, Panda Internet Security 2008 and ESET Smart Security 3.0 in terms or removing and blocking spyware and keyloggers. OSS 2008 took second place after Symantec’s Norton 360.

We believe this technological success is due at least in part to the number of improvements Agnitum has been implementing in its antimalware engine. In the meantime, we keep on working, adding new signatures, analyzing new types of spyware as well as strengthening scanning speed and detection rate.

Look out for our Monday Updates in this blog and learn more about the improvements in the upcoming Outpost 2009!

Alexey Belkin
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Simple / Expert View Switcher

This Monday we’re reviewing another improvement to Outpost 2009’s ease-of-use – Simple / Expert View Switcher. Complex logging and configuration information is really not necessary for everyday use, so we decided to create the option of a simplified view.

The simple view omits the Network Activity, Used Ports, Attack Detection, Process Activity and Online Activity menus, and displays just the basic logs. You can choose either simple or expert layout during installation, as this automatically corresponds with the security level options (Normal and Advanced respectively).

After installation, you can switch between views by clicking the link in the lower left corner of the program screen.

Here’s how it looks in the interface:



As a consequence of this improvement, we also disabled the logs shift on the Event Viewer page (Advanced Logs Enable/Disable link) and the checkmark Show advanced logs in the Logs settings.

This new option is primarily for the benefit of users who like to keep things simple and see just the essential information without any extras, while advanced users may choose the enhanced type of protection and configuration tools. The new option also makes program navigation simpler and quicker.

As always, we encourage you to see how it works in practice! Please join our beta program at http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/betatest.php and evaluate the product for yourself. You can find our Outpost 2009-related Monday blog posts at http://agnitumblog.blogspot.com/search/label/monday%20update%202009 or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Look out for another great feature description next Monday!

Take care online,

Alexey Belkin,
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum