Company Profile

Who are Prevx?

Prevx provides cloud-based products with unparalleled capabilities for protecting consumers, SMEs and enterprises, banks, and government organizations from the latest malware threats.

The entire Prevx suite is underpinned by its award-winning flagship security agent, Prevx 3.0, and connects to the world's largest cloud-based threat database. Prevx 3.0 is the world's smallest, fastest, and lightest endpoint security agent yet its detection, protection and removal capabilities rival the largest antivirus solutions. Prevx specializes in detecting zero day attacks, reducing the time exposed to danger and providing real-time protection against the latest and the most malicious forms of malware, including keyloggers, Trojans, and rootkits - catching the threats that are missed by traditional antivirus providers.

Prevx is a division of Internet security service company Webroot. With its main operations in the United Kingdom, Prevx products are also sold and supported across Europe and in the United States. Before acquisition by Webroot in 2010, Prevx was formed by IT entrepreneur Mel Morris who acquired Immunify Ltd in 2005 and re-launched it as Prevx. Now vice president and general manager of the Prevx division at Webroot, Morris named Prevx to reflect the organization's mission to help customers - from consumers and small businesses to the largest financial institutes and global organizations - to best protect themselves against the evolving and unknown nature of malicious software. Prevx: preventing the unknown.

Prevx's family of security software is deployed by leading banks, enterprises, and government agencies and supports over 15 million users worldwide.

Technology Overview

Prevx has more experience in cloud based security than any other vendor and operates an entirely different approach to PC security. Prevx utilizes its PC security software to monitor and learn about the threat landscape as well as to provide protection against a very wide range of threats. The Prevx 3.0 agent communicates in real time to the powerful cloud based database where the emergence, propagation, and behavior of ALL software applications and modules can be monitored, measured, and assessed automatically in real time.

By watching ALL new software, Prevx sees ALL new malware.

The Prevx database learns of more than 250,000 new unique executable programs every day. Our database is approaching 150 million unique executables and our research operations are significantly more efficient than any other security vendors. This vast database allows Prevx 3.0 to quickly identify infections and know exactly what is required to remove them and restore the PC to safe operation.

In stark contrast to the signature approach adopted by conventional security companies, Prevx uses an inverted signature model. In this model, the Prevx security software on the user PC calculates a wide range of signatures for each and every executable object it sees. These signatures, in addition to behavioral data, registry, environmental and static file analysis meta data, are fed in real time to the Prevx cloud for analysis. Results are then fed back to the user in real time. Once a file is determined, this will be updated instantly across all users in the Prevx community with no need for signature updates.

The traditional model for malware detection is ultimately unsustainable as it relies on a finite number of malware researchers to verify an infinite number of threats. As a result, in the period of time between a new threat being detected and a user updating their anti-malware to protect their PC, the typical rate of infection can increase significantly.

Hence Prevx has pioneered a real-time and sustainable anti-malware model that improves the efficiency of malware scanning and automates the process for malware detection.

Unique Product Features

There are 4 unique features of the Prevx 3.0 product set: The ultrafast scan engine; the rootkit and malicious software detection and removal engine; the real-time protection agent; and SafeOnline browser protection. Collectively, these provide powerful levels of protection against today's advanced malware:

1. Prevx 3.0 Ultrafast Scan Engine: The more often a PC is scanned, the less opportunity there is for any malicious software to steal information. With traditional antivirus programs taking up to an hour or more to scan a PC, many users only scan their PC once or twice a week to avoid its effect on system performance. The Prevx 3.0 Ultrafast Scan Engine incorporates an innovative 'raw' disk and registry access technology, which has the simultaneous benefits of dramatically reducing scan times and allowing much more effective detection of rootkits and hidden malware. As a result, Prevx 3.0 will scan an average PC in around 2 to 4 minutes immediately on installation and will then come down to under 1 minute per scan. This means that, unlike traditional anti-malware solutions that slow down a PC considerably during scanning, users find that Prevx 3.0 has little or no impact on the normal use of the PC. Prevx 3.0 assesses the full security status of a Microsoft Windows-based PC, e.g. are latest security patches updated? are there any unknown programs running? etc.
2. Prevx 3.0 Rootkit and Malicious Software Detection and Removal Engine: In order to identify potential threats, Prevx 3.0 Ultrafast Scan Engine has access to the world's largest cloud-based threat database, which is the platform for the Prevx 3.0 Rootkit and Malicious Software Detection and Removal Engine. This database tracks more than 50 million types of known, evolving and emerging malware, in real time, by collecting information about new potential threats 24/7 from Prevx's own user community. This unmatchable database is coupled with the world's most powerful automated malware research operation. Automation both reduces the number of human malware researchers needed to recognize the difference between a real threat and genuine applications (false positive or false negative) and significantly speeds up the process of malware detection. As a result the Prevx 3.0 Rootkit and Malicious Software Detection and Removal Engine is the fastest and most comprehensive approach to the detection and removal of infections on PCs today.
3. Prevx 3.0 Real-time Protection Agent: Often known as 'zero day attacks,', certain malware can go unnoticed for a significant period of time, and then suddenly come to life long after the damage is done. The Prevx 3.0 Real-time Protection Agent reduces the risk from these threats, by not only using the Prevx 3.0 Rootkit and Malicious Software Detection and Removal Engine, but also by going deeper to incorporate three separate layers of protection: a powerful heuristic layer that identifies new malware based on its behavior, e.g. a browser-based download. Two further layers of protection either delay a program deemed as relatively new from starting or ring-fence potential malware identified on any other Prevx-protected PC. This means PCs are immediately impervious to new, or even uniquely targeted, malware in itsearly life.
4. Prevx SafeOnline: Criminals are constantly looking for new ways to compromise PC users by deploying malware that captures personal information. This form of identity theft renders the internet browser an obvious target, particularly when it comes to an online banking or e-commerce session. This powerful technology, successfully tested by Immunity Inc., protects a PC user from threats such as phishing, DNS poisoning, screen grabbing, man-in-the-browser, and keystroke logging. Prevx SafeOnline can be downloaded and active in seconds and completely locks down the PC operating system and browser to render malware blind to the transaction, enabling more secure online transactions.

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