Agnitum BLOG

Summer discounts for further 6.7 users

2009-07-14T11:18:00.001+04:00

While we're preparing a new major update of Outpost Pro 2009 product line (Outpost Pro 6.7 with beta support for Windows 7 RC), there's some great marketing news as well!

We prolong until the end of July the special summer offers for the entire range of Agnitum's security products. Act now! The number of bargain price licenses is limited.

Lifetime single licenses for Outpost Firewall Pro for the incredible $39.95!

Outpost Firewall Pro lifetime licenses become even more available to any budget! You can purchase a single license (for 1 home PC) with lifetime support and updates for as little as $39.95 – the regular price of a one-year license. Hurry up and take advantage of everlasting protection!

Don't miss this special offer and let us know how you enjoyed the products!

OSS Pro – pay just 1 year's price for 2 years, but only if you buy right away

Agnitum is also offering a tremendous discount on its acclaimed all-in-one solution, Outpost Security Suite Pro. For this month only, you can get comprehensive protection for one year for just 29.95 and 49.95 for two years of product updates and support!

A long-time VB100 winner and consistently a leader in the Matousec.com Proactive Security tests, Outpost Security Suite Pro has recently been enhanced with a brand-new heuristic analyzer and monitor for auto-started objects to give you an additional layer of defense against sophisticated malware.

There is a limited number of OSS license available at these great prices – so don’t miss this offer!

Outpost Antivirus Pro – just 14.95 this summer!

Lightweight yet smart protection, Outpost Antivirus Pro delivers a one-two punch of proactive and reactive defenses against the latest threats. Now you can purchase a 1 year license for as little as 14.95 (instead of 24.95).

Go to our special offer page to buy Outpost Antivirus Pro at this great price.

Outpost Network Security 3.0 – give your boss or admin a nudge

If you've ever tried and like Outpost protection for home, have a word with your office decision-makers. They mayt want to know that Agnitum's new protection for SMBs is still sold with a 20% discount – until September 1, 2009! Learn more at the product page (the prices shown are already discounted prices!).

NB! It is cheeper to buy now license on special offer for 1, 2 years or for the lifetime than renew it even for discounted price!

Now we are done with special offers, development news coming in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

Agnitum announces the release candidate of Outpost 6.7

2009-07-03T15:52:00.001+04:00

We're glad to announce the availability of Outpost Pro (2009) 6.7 release candidate within Agnitum's beta program. This iteration should be finalized in a couple of weeks.

Generally speaking, Outpost 6.7 adds beta-phase compaibility with Windows 7, enhances the capabilities of content filtration and further masters Agnitum's acclaimed host protection. Also the version brings along a few improvements, such as, just to name a few:

• Windows Firewall now disabled after Outpost 6.7 installation
• Quick Tune plug-in now available in Internet Explorer on x64 platforms
• Updates now work when default proxy was changed
• Transit packets are OK for opening web pages on VMWare
• Packets are not blocked if using Internet Connection Sharing

Outpost Pro (2009) 6.7 can be installed on Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows Server 2008 (incl. all x-64 versions) - and Windows 7 RC.

You can try the new Outpost version (release candidate) right away! Just contact our Support Service and ask for the build.

Pavel Goryakin,
Agnitum

SmartScan makes wonders!

2009-06-25T14:54:00.008+04:00

In a few blog notes before we boasted statistics of antivirus scan speeds within Outpost Security Suite, here's the data of yet another research performed by Antimalware Test Lab.

As you remember all Agnitum's products are empowered with SmartScan technology, which helps skyrocket overall product performance and dramatically minimize scanning time. SmartScan records statistics of previous scans and avoids checking unchanged files in consequent analyses, which makes malware checks extremely fast and easy.

The first chart shows primary scan speeds across a bunch of security solutions:

Outpost 2009 does pretty well on the clean set collection with a decent 3 minutes showing.

Now let's take a look at the repeated scan statistics:

Yes, right! Outpost performs a repeated check in just about 5 seconds!

For details, you can study the chart below (click to enlarge):

Keep your eye open for Outpost software updates and new versions that will include further performance tweaks and iterations of the acclaimed SmartScan technology.

Summer editions of Outpost 2009 products with WinServer 2008 SP2 and Vista SP2 support

2009-06-09T16:45:00.003+04:00

We are pleased to announce the new iteration of Outpost 2009 solutions – Outpost 6.5.5 – which brings along further security improvements with a brand-new antivirus engine and extended compatibility.

Agnitum preserves the tradition of monthly software updates for all home products. Each month brings more security measures and ease-of-use keeping pace with the ever-evolving malware threats.

The current improvements include:

a new version of Agnitum's anti-malware engine that guarantees advanced detection rate and even faster operation with minimal lag on system resources;
solid compatibility with the latest OS's – Windows Server 2009 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2, both 32- and 64-bit.

Learn more in the "history of changes" section:

http://www.agnitum.com/products/security-suite/history.php
http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/history.php
http://www.agnitum.com/products/antivirus/history.php

Simultaneously, Agnitum works to ensure Windows 7 support for the whole product range and expects to launch the compatible versions later this summer.

Trial versions of Outpost 2009 Summer Edition products can be downloaded from the product pages:

Outpost Security Suite Pro, Outpost Firewall Pro, Outpost Antivirus Pro.

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum Ltd.

Another VB100 in Agnitum’s collection. In tests under WinServer 2003 x64

2009-06-03T16:51:00.004+04:00

Hot on the heels of our analysis of VB100 test statistics Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 received another award this June. This month's test platform was Windows Server 2003 x64.

According to Virus Bulletin, “with no issues in the current WildList set, no false positives and no other problems, Agnitum starts this month's comparative off well by winning a VB100 award".

It should be noted that Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 is one of very few solutions on the market to offer “native” compatibility with 64-bit platforms and has been specifically designed to work smoothly on both 32- and 64-bit systems.

The new iteration of Agnitum’s all-in-one solution and standalone products - compatible with new Windows Server 2008 and Vista's service packs as well as Windows 7 RC (in beta regime) and featuring an enhanced anti-malware engine, is expected in summer 2009 and will be granted a special notification.

The latest edition of Outpost Security Suite Pro is available for download at the product page.

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum

Antivirus Speed Measurements (VB 100 data)

2009-05-21T17:19:00.014+04:00

It's been more than a month's time since VB 100 published their results for April, and just now we've got down to publish some curious data arising from that comparison. Needless to say, we were interested in performance and scanning speeds Outpost demonstrated, as well as its detection rate. According to VB 100 results we compiled a small chart that reveals system files scanning speed for different products. Here you go:
This is the result for Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009. Kaspersky - the leader of this chart - is, in fact, presented with a standalone antivirus (KAV 2009), which means more velocity "by default" and with no pains, as any separate solution is lighter on resources than any security suite. Therefore, nothing to write home about. ESET submits a standalone product too, less successfully speed-wise, though. Symantec Endpoint Protection is just a bit faster than Outpost.

This gives us a clue that we're doing pretty well among the antivirus industry leaders!

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum

Outpost Firewall goes free... and popular!

2009-05-05T14:36:00.004+04:00

Just a few days after its launch, Outpost Firewall Free went on top of the Download.com chart (Firewall Software Downloads category). An ecouraging sign for us and, hopefully, a good motivator for you!

You can download Outpost Free featuring the award-winning firewall and host protection at Agnitum's site or by the link above.

Pavel Goryakin

Agnitum Ltd.

Agnitum's Outpost Firewall goes free

2009-04-28T15:46:00.004+04:00

We are pleased to announce a new free version of the award-winning Outpost Firewall.

Outpost Firewall Free 2009 encompasses Agnitum's fundamental protective mechanisms and provides key components to build a comprehensive security system.

Agnitum's decision to develop a free version of its flagship product has nothing to do with climbing on the bandwagon of acclaimed gratuitous solutions. Despite economical trends and high development costs, the company sees its goal as to equip the IT community and average internet users with the main parts of the security construction set at no cost.

Those parts are: the best-of-breed two-way personal firewall, host protection module which blocks suspicious activity and 0-day threats and self-protection which prevents product deactivation by malware. All this coupled with minimum impact on system resources makes Outpost Firewall Free a handy instrument for an unprotected PC.

As you know, the paid version of Outpost Firewall also offers identity protection, antispyware engine powered with speedy SmartScan technology, web control that blocks malicious internet content, free technical assistance and multi-language support, just to name a few.

System requirements

Outpost Firewall Free is compatible with Windows Vista SP1, XP SP3, as well as all previous 32- and 64-bit versions from Windows 2000 onwards. The product will work smoothly on a 450 MHz or faster CPU (x86/x64/multi-core) with 256Mb RAM.

The product is available in English only.

Download Outpost Firewall Free here!

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum Ltd.

You pay for Outpost, Agnitum pays taxes for you

2009-03-18T12:09:00.003+03:00

Good news for those of you who reside in Europe and have to pay a rather high VAT when purchasing Outpost products. In fact, you don’t have to do that anymore! According to the recent EU regulations, service providers are obliged to indicate prices including value-added tax - that’s what we do. The trick is: the prices indicated remain the same, because Agnitum pays VAT for its customers and thus saves you around 19% off the product price.

In other words, when purchasing Agnitum’s products online you pay what you see - 49.95 for Outpost Security Suite Pro, 39.95 for Outpost Firewall Pro and 19.95 for Outpost Antivirus Pro (1-year license, VAT included!)

The offer applies to the European Union and the UK only. Take advantage!

Vitaly Yanko,

Marketing and Sales Director
Agnitum

Outpost Security Suite takes the 1st place with 93% in Matousec Tests

2009-02-25T16:28:00.004+03:00

We are pleased to announce that the latest improved version of Outpost Security Suite Pro (OSS) 2009, released on February 14, 2009, has come out on top in the most recent Firewall Challenge test. This security research, performed by Matousec Transparent Security (www.matousec.com) on February 17, 2009, put Outpost ahead of 15 security suites.

Receiving a leading 93 % efficiency rating in leak-tests, termination and performance tests, OSS 2009 beat out more than 35 other personal firewalls and security suites tried against up to 84 latest “Firewall Challenge” tests.

A leaktest is a program designed to determine if a firewall’s outbound protection can be bypassed using specific techniques. A failure in any leaktest indicates that the software is unable to prevent the user’s data from leaking out if that particular technique is used by a hacker or other malware, hence the term “leaktest”.

Leaktests are not the only challenge security software should be able to resist. Matousec Transparent Security also analyses firewall efficiency in:

general bypassing tests that emulate malware attempts to bypass protection generally without targeting specific components;
termination tests that emulate attempts to disable the product and its defense functions;
spying tests (including keyloggers and packet sniffers) that test whether a product is able to prevent malware from spying on a user’s data;
performance tests.

Matousec Transparent Security has recently implemented a new, even stricter and more challenging, methodology of testing, which is described on the researcher’s web-site at http://www.matousec.com. Detailed test results are available at http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php.

"We'd like to thank Matousec lab for another thorough examination of Outpost security, this time the all-in-one solution - Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009. By becoming one of the leaders in this latest test we demonstrated the futility of opposing our standalone firewall product and security suite when it comes to proactive protection and resistance to leaktests", said Maxim Korobtsev, Chief Technical Officer at Agnitum.

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum Ltd.

Agnitum releases Outpost Network Security 3.0

2009-02-20T17:47:00.004+03:00

We are pleased to announce the latest implementation of the company’s core business security solution. Outpost Network Security (ONS) 3.0 delivers comprehensive anti-malware and intrusion protection for Windows-based networks.

Over the past three years, Agnitum has focused on home-user solutions while maintaining ONS as a standalone firewall and anti-malware product for businesses. The release of ONS 3.0 incorporates the applicable functions and benefits that have been added to the Outpost Security Suite Pro.

Outpost Network Security is specifically designed to protect SMB networks against the latest security threats, as well as addressing the problem of productivity waste caused by resource-hungry or otherwise inefficient security products. ONS safeguards local networks against multiple threats, prevents disclosure of confidential information and centralizes the tasks of deploying and managing protection.

ONS ensures the integrity of business data by offering a number of robust security mechanisms:

Proven antivirus and antispyware ensures a malware-free environment
Award-winning bidirectional firewall delivers safe network connectivity
USB access lockdown prevents the business’s digital assets from leaving the network
Safe data repository to prevent data disclosure

In addition to the security benefits, ONS 3.0 offers a number of capabilities that systems administrators will appreciate and that will ensure corporate policies are maintained and enforced.

Centralized deployment to minimize IT workload
Centralized on-demand checks for malware on remote PCs
Online and offline updates to keep protection current
User group segmentation for more targeted protection
Remote configuration for easy, hands-on management
Full compatibility with all current 32- and 64-bit Windows operating systems

One ONS 3.0 benefit that will lead to significant improvements in security management effectiveness is real-time control of endpoint activity. Outpost helps to overcome this limitation by providing real-time monitoring of system and network activity for any remote host.

As in the consumer product, subsequent malware scans on local and remote clients can be performed in almost no time through Agnitum’s proprietary SmartScan3 technology, which stores previous scan results in a single protected location, thus avoiding repeat scans of unchanged files.

Also inherited from home-user versions of Outpost, ONS’ built-in self-defense mechanism guarantees that workstation protection cannot be switched off by targeted termination attacks, ensuring network clients are protected 24/7.

Outpost Network Security 3.0 pricing starts at $224 for a minimum of 10 PCs, with per-user costs reducing as license quantities increase. More details may be found at: http://www.agnitum.com/products/networksecurity/index.php.

Vitaly Yanko,

Director of Marketing and Sales
Agnitum

Agnitum Announces the New Year Edition of Outpost Pro 2009 Product Line

2009-01-22T14:14:00.003+03:00

We are pleased to announce the new iteration of Outpost 2009 solutions which brings along further security improvements and nifty components for even easier product configuration.

What’s new in the latest versions?

Antivirus performance with new SmartScan 3 - now even smarter

The SmartScan engine has gone through a number of optimizations in the quest to deliver the ultimate in virus scan performance. This latest version improves on the scanning speed by skipping safe system files that contain digital signatures of trusted vendors.

Actionable alerts

When an unknown application triggers a firewall alert, the user can act right upon it – in addition to creating a custom rule the user can add the target domain to a blocked addresses list or instantly terminate the requesting application.

Intelligent and more rigorous scrutiny of auto-started objects

Outpost’s heuristic analyzer, part of the antimalware module, screens Windows start-up entries and analyzes contents such as registry startups, services and drivers for the presence of suspicious modules.

Security components selection

Advanced users can now configure the list of installed components during the set-up process. The wizard greets a user with a request to either stick with the “by default” configuration or select preferred components (the firewall and host protection are, naturally, always present and you can't opt to disable them).

System requirements, pricing, and availability

Outpost 2009 is compatible with Windows Vista SP1, XP SP3, and Server 2008 as well as all previous 32- and 64-bit versions from Windows 2000 onwards. All three products will work smoothly on a 450 MHz or faster CPU (x-86/x-64/multi-core) with 256Mb RAM.

The New Year editions of Outpost Firewall Pro, Outpost Antivirus Pro and Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 are available for $39.95, $19.95 and $49.95, respectively.

Note! Agnitum prolongs the “lifetime for 1 year” campaign for its products, which means that you can still buy a 3 PCs lifetime license for Outpost Firewall Pro and Outpost Security Suite Pro for the price of a one-year license until January 31, 2009!

Trial versions of Outpost 2009 NY Edition products can be downloaded from:

http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/download.php,
http://www.agnitum.com/products/antivirus/download.php and
http://www.agnitum.com/products/security-suite/download .php.

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum

Outpost – lifetime license for 3 PCs for the price of a 1-year! Till the end of Jan'09!

2008-12-29T15:07:00.003+03:00

According to numerous requests, we are prolonging the special offer of Outpost lifetime licenses until January 31, 2009!

Hurry up to purchase a lifetime license (including updates and support) of Outpost Firewall Pro or Outpost Security Suite Pro, valid for three PCs, for the price of a 1-year license by the end of January!

Check out the offer to give yourself and your nearest ones an ever-important present of online safety and bulletproof PC defense.

Note! On purchasing these lifetime licenses you'll be able to use the same key for ALL future versions of Outpost Firewall Pro and Outpost Security Suite.

Existing discounts, free renewals and upgrades from previously purchased products CANNOT be applied to this offer.

Outpost Firewall Pro Lifetime License = $39.95
Outpost Security Suite Lifetime License = $49.95

The offer is valid until January 31, 2009. Take advantage!

Outpost – lifetime license for 3 PCs for the price of a 1-year!

2008-12-22T20:00:00.003+03:00

As a gift for the Holidays of the Season, we’re launching an unprecedented offer for the period between December 22, 2008 and December 31, 2008!

Hurry up to purchase a lifetime license (including updates and support) of Outpost Firewall Pro or Outpost Security Suite Pro, valid for three PCs, for the price of a 1-year license by the end of 2008!

By purchasing a 1-year license you receive eternal protection ensured by Outpost’s acclaimed features:

- Advanced firewall for secure connections;
- Combined antivirus* and antispyware for all-in-one malware defense;
- Host protection to block zero-day threats;
- Web control to protect your PC from web-borne threats;
- Antispam* to automatically keep your inbox junk-free.

* Only in Outpost Security Suite Pro.

Note! On purchasing these lifetime licenses you'll be able to use the same key for ALL future versions of Outpost Firewall Pro and Outpost Security Suite.

No existing discounts, renewals or upgrades can be applied to this offer.

Check out the offer to give yourself and your nearest ones an ever-important present of online safety and bulletproof PC defense.

The offer is valid until December 31, 2008. Take advantage!

It's time to migrate to OSS 2009 from older versions

2008-11-26T16:55:00.005+03:00

As Agnitum is going to cease the support of obsolete antivirus bases (due to the implementation of a new mechanism) from December 1, 2008, you need to migrate from older versions of Outpost Security Suite Pro (2007 and early builds of 2008), which will stop getting antivirus updates at the end of this month — to the 2009 version.

There is no cost to migrate to Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 for users having an active OSS license. Just download the latest product version and insert the license key from your current version!

Please take into account that migrating from Outpost Antivirus Pro 2008 is not obligatory.

While the older versions of OSS will continue to work, the virus protection will gradually get more and more out of date, reducing your protection, so we do recommend you migrate at the earliest opportunity. Upgrading to OSS 2009 will ensure the newest and most relevant antivirus, antispyware and web control updates as well as all the other benefits of Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009, including:

Revamped interface that lets you take care of all settings with just a couple of clicks
New SmartScan technology that speeds malware scans and improves overall performance
Enhanced host protection and anti-keylogger functionality
IP block list to keep web surfing clean
Antispam support for The Bat!, and much more!

Take advantage of the latest protection and stay safe online with Agnitum!

Pavel Goryakin
Agnitum

How Outpost Firewall "Lost" a Firewall Challenge, or a Few Words About PR Techniques

2008-11-13T10:26:00.008+03:00

Many of you are likely frequent readers of Matousec Transparent Security Lab’s white papers and tests, including the Firewall Challenge. The Firewall Challenge is intended to show firewalls’ and security suites’ capabilities in resisting “leaktests” (tests that simulate data leakage) and other lesser-known ways of bypassing protection.

As can be seen from the list of solutions tested, both standalone firewalls and security suites are submitted for this report. One of those security suites is Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, which holds 7th place in the ratings with a score of 87% across 73 tests, a “very good” protection level, and a complexity level of “10+”.

Agnitum’s products have traditionally enjoyed well-earned leadership in these tests for several years. Currently Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 holds 1st place with 99% (the build tested was an initial one, released July 1, 2008), “excellent” protection and complexity level “10” (minor errors revealed by the test were fixed in subsequent builds, which enables us to claim a 100% result on all suggested levels if the product were retested in its current condition).

So here is our question. Why did a product with a lower total score receive a higher complexity level– 10+? The answer is actually quite simple. To reach a higher level, a product must get no less than 50% at the current level. The products that managed to pass two rather esoteric tests at the last – 10th level – received a 10+ mark according to this criterion. However, this showing doesn’t have a crucial impact on the final results, as a product can marginally pass all previous levels with just 50% and still show a higher result on the last level.

As for Outpost solutions, it’s no secret that Agnitum offers an integrated solution as well: Outpost Security Suite Pro, based on the standalone Outpost Firewall Pro and incorporating the same arsenal of proactive measures. As a suite, Outpost Security Suite Pro also includes antivirus and antispam capabilities, but these tools don’t play any significant role in the Matousec tests, nor do they interfere with the test procedures (even in the performance segment).

Now, let’s take a look at this article (one of many published world-wide on the Internet). Now take another look at a new so-called “test leader” - Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 (the 7th in the overall rating, as noted above)! Surprised? It’s worth noting that Kaspersky Lab doesn’t take Outpost’s results into account because the most recent build of Agnitum’s security suite “hasn’t been tested by Matousec” and, therefore does not even merit a mention as far as Kapersky is concerned.

However, both Agnitum’s products are so close in their proactive protection and anti-leak capabilities that it seems to us rather strange to separate their achievements and give the winner’s crown to another vendor’s product – a security suite! – in the Firewall Challenge.
We’re confident that those who are interested in this topic are smart enough to read between the lines and make their own independent analysis of the test results. Here’s the link once again: http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php.

While we fully support Kaspersky’s efforts to promote the Matousec tests as a reliable source of information about the robustness of security products, we believe that the tests and their results should be weighted to reflect accurately the likelihood of users encountering each situation in the real world.

Below is the data derived from the Matousec tests (courtesy of Kaspersky Lab which created the initial chart, to which we have added the Outpost results).

By the way, Outpost demonstrated a 100% result on all levels but two while Kaspersky Internet Security scored 100% just on 4 levels out of 10. We leave you to draw your own conclusions …

Vitaly Yanko
Director of Marketing and Sales, Agnitum

Agnitum’s Outpost Security Suite Pro continues its winning streak in VB 100% tests - now under Windows Server 2008

2008-10-01T14:52:00.003+04:00

We are glad to announce the results of the latest anti-virus tests carried out by Virus Bulletin magazine on Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 and 24 other personal anti-virus and security suite products running under Windows Server 2008.

According to Virus Bulletin, “Combining the company’s own highly regarded ﬁrewall technology with a range of security extras including anti-malware detection provided by the VirusBuster engine, the product once again put in a solid performance, with a slick and well-designed interface and smooth, stable running”.

“In the clean sets scanning times were fairly good, and an absence of false positives grants Agnitum its second VB100 in a row.”

Just to remind you, Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 offers:

• All-in-one anti-malware for comprehensive antivirus and antispyware defense with the improved SmartScan technology which makes malware scans up to 10 times faster
• A two-way firewall to safeguard connections and prevent data leakage
• Extended Host protection to protect against zero-day threats and anti-keylogger to avoid spying on the data entered through a keyboard
• Web control for safe surfing and blocking unwanted content
• IP Blocklist to blacklist specified Internet domains and restrict incoming and outgoing traffic from sites with bad reputations
• Self-learning anti-spam that integrates directly into Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Vista Mail and The Bat!

This another VB100 was preceded with two awards for Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 granted by WebUser magazine (UK) and ProtectStar Test Lab (US-Germany).

More information on the latest firewall awards can be found at:

http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/Outpost_Firewall_Pro_2009_review_4669-203.html

http://www.protectstar-testlab.org/award/protectstar-testlab-fw-vergleich0809_web.pdf (in German,PDF document)

The latest editions of Outpost Firewall Pro and Outpost Security Suite Pro are available for download at:

http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/download.php and http://www.agnitum.com/products/security-suite/download.php respectively.

Alexey Belkin,

Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 collecting awards

2008-09-22T16:02:00.005+04:00

This September we’d like to boast the success of our standalone Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 that has received awards from ProtectStar Test Lab in the US / Germany and WebUser magazine in the UK.

Over its lifetime, the company’s flagship product has collected more than 50 awards in 15 countries. Released in July of this year, Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 started out with a 99% leakproof result in the Matousec Transparent Security tests and continues its winning streak across Europe and the US.

The UK’s best-selling Internet magazine, Web User, awarded Outpost a Gold Medal in its recent firewall comparison tests. Agnitum’s standalone firewall beat out four leading competitors – both paid and free software – to gain top place.

The magazine’s verdict was: “Although using this software will force you to dip into your pocket, we think the best security is worth paying for, especially when it's still good value and you're getting the benefits of ease of use and extra features.”

The full version of the review is available on the magazine’s website at http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/Outpost_Firewall_Pro_2009_review_4669-203.html.

During the summer of 2008, ProtectStar Test Lab, an independent IT- and communication security organization with offices in the US, UK and Germany, carried out in-depth testing on eight standalone firewall solutions offered by leading manufacturers. The coveted ProtectStar 2008 award was given to Outpost Firewall Pro 2009.

According to a number of testing criteria, Outpost demonstrated its excellence in protection capabilities and usability. The product outstripped such prominent competitors as Zone Alarm Pro and Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

The test report is available in German from the ProtectStar website at http://www.protectstar-testlab.org/award/protectstar-testlab-fw-vergleich0809_web.pdf (PDF document).

Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 is at your disposal at http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/.

Pavel Goryakin

PR Manager, Agnitum

Outpost Security Suite 2009 review on BrightHub

2008-09-01T13:01:00.004+04:00

The continuous series of positive reviews of Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009 (including those by PC World UK, ComputerActive, IT Reviews, etc.) has been recently extended with a nice BrightHub article!

The author's verdict reads: "Outpost Security Suite 2009 will cover if not all, most of the needed security protection by users. Advanced user is not required!"Also, Donna Buenaventura, the reviewer, emphasized the product's great value for money!

The article contains an overview of the product, installation and set-up experience, as well as, of course, features and performance. All went smoothly and provided a positive impression. The firewall capabilities received their well-deserved estimation and the anti-malware engine performed well and didn't use much PC resource.

We were also glad to learn that the BrightHub reviewer liked our recent feature IP Blocklist that allows to block malicious IP addresses in bulk.

To sum up, we're pleased to receive another great testimonial. Will keep on informing you about our further accomplishments.

P.S. By the way, BrightHub, the network of technology and IT writers, is looking for new contributors! Anyone with decent computer knowledge and tolerable written English can join.

Pavel Goryakin

PR Manager, Agnitum

Agnitum unleashes new Spam Terrier 2.0

2008-08-27T18:29:00.005+04:00

In the previous blog posting we mentioned the upcoming Spam Terrier 2.0, and this information was true.

You can download the new Spam Terrier, still free, and now compatible with Vista mail, The Bat! and 64-bit clients from our web-site.

Spam Terrier offers a user-friendly interface and easy customization to help users get started with teaching the software their personal definition of spam. Then the self-learning engine, based on Bayesian principles, takes over, ensuring significantly fewer false positives and misjudged messages.

Spam Terrier is ‘behavior’-driven rather than the more typical criteria-driven approach of other anti-spam products. In other words: users can select what they consider spam and teach the product to recognize the specific behavior patterns of junk mail.

The more you train Agnitum Spam Terrier, the better its nose for inappropriate mail. This is achieved through a system of “spam scores”, which classify a message as “not spam”, “probable spam” or “definite spam”. Users can alter the principles for such classification in order to adjust the software’s level of tolerance for different types of message. But however “tolerant” the application may be, it will never let unwelcome guests in – Spam Terrier is constantly scanning new mail in search of fresh spam samples.

New support for The Bat!

After installing Spam Terrier, the user’s The Bat! window will display two basic commands -"mark as spam" and "mark as non-spam", as well as the black/whitelist menu. These tools will help The Bat! users to easily define benign and malicious messages.

New support for 64-bit Microsoft email clients

Spam Terrier 2.0 now supports all 64-bit email programs from Microsoft: Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail.

More effective filtering algorithm

By creating a structure of specific libraries of email samples, managing current statistics and archiving obsolete knowledgebase data, Spam Terrier 2.0 enables more accurate decision-making.

Automatic base tuning

In the majority of cases, the user’s mailbox contains an unequal mixture of spam and legitimate messages. To avoid this bias impacting the engine’s learning efficiency, Spam Terrier 2.0 references an internal sample base in order to tune itself to provide greater accuracy moving forward.

Spam awareness evolves over time

As spam evolves, the product’s knowledgebase will ensure Spam Terrier 2.0 keeps pace with the changes. Spam Terrier also performs its own analysis of “new” and “odd” spam samples to extend and update the database.

Spam Terrier 2.0 can be downloaded from the Agnitum website at http://www.agnitum.com/products/spam-terrier/index.php.

Alexey Belkin,

Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

The Politics of Software (or why you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet!)

2008-08-25T12:25:00.002+04:00

After I read Neil Rubenking’s blogpost on security software and the current geopolitical turmoil in

Georgia

(http://www.appscout.com/2008/08/russia_georgia_and_your_securi.php), I figured it was only a matter of time before we at Agnitum began to receive questions along these lines. Last week, I received an email sent using our general PR-form from a long-time Agnitum customer asking us to confirm that Agnitum and its products have no connections to Mr. Putin and that Mr. Putin does not own or control Agnitum, a Russia-based enterprise.

I was going to answer that the Russian prime minister has too small a share to have any influence over our activities, but then I thought that perhaps a guessing game amongst our readers would be more interesting.

So, who do YOU think owns Agnitum?

Vladimir Putin
Mikheil Saakashvili
George W. Bush
Eugene Kaspersky
Other

Submit your answer using the form at http://www.agnitum.com/news/pr_contacts.php#mailform. The first three people to submit the right answer will receive a license for the upcoming free Spam-Terrier 2.0 and a tour of the Russian Business Network’s premises led by Agnitum’s leading employees!

Good luck!

Vitaly Yanko,
Marketing and Sales Director, Agnitum

Outpost Security Suite achieves VB 100% certification under Windows XP, SP 3

2008-08-06T13:27:00.003+04:00

We are glad to announce the results of the latest anti-virus tests carried out by Virus Bulletin on Outpost Security Suite Pro (ver. 6.0.2296.253.0490) and 34 other personal anti-virus and security suite products running under Windows XP, SP 3.

According to Virus Bulletin, “the product ran smoothly and with rock-solid stability, racking up some reasonable if not superb scanning speeds, decent coverage of the trojan test set and no issues at all in the WildList or clean sets, thus easily qualifying for a VB 100 award”.

As you may remember, the VB100 award comes hot on the heels of another successful test carried out on July 3 and 4, 2008, when Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 scored 99 % in the Matousec Transparent Security's Firewall Challenge, beating out more than 30 competitors.

Alexey Belkin,

Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Outpost Firewall Pro 2009 ahead of 30+ competitors

2008-07-10T10:43:00.003+04:00

As many of you have noticed, Outpost Firewall Pro 2009, released on July 2, 2008, has already come out on top in the most recent Firewall Challenge test. This test, performed by Matousec Transparent Security (www.matousec.com) on July 3 and 4, 2008, put Outpost ahead of more than 30 other personal firewalls and security suites, receiving a 99 % efficiency rating in leak-tests.

Leak-tests are not the only challenge security software should be able to resist. Matousec Transparent Security also analyses firewall efficiency in

• general bypassing tests that emulate malware attempts to bypass protection generally without targeting specific components;
• termination tests that emulate attempts to disable the product and its defense functions;
• spying tests (including keyloggers and packet sniffers) that test whether a product is able to prevent malware from spying on a user’s data;
• performance tests

Matousec Transparent Security has recently implemented a new, even stricter and more challenging, methodology of testing, which is described on the researcher’s web-site at http://www.matousec.com. Detailed test results are available at http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php.

Alexey Belkin,
Chief Software Architect, Agnitum

Outpost Pro 2009 is finally here!

2008-07-03T09:47:00.005+04:00

Yesterday, on July 2, we finally delivered the new product line - Outpost Pro 2009! We've informing you about our progress with this release for a few weeks, and now we have to say Monday Updates are over and everyone can taste one of the products (or all).

We encourage you to download the new products:

Outpost Security Suite Pro 2009
Outpost Firewall Pro 2009
Outpost Antivirus Pro 2009

To give you a quick summary of what we've done in Outpost 2009 (frequent readers of this blog are already familiar with the majority of them) :

User interface and controls

• Protection Status Overview: The new dashboard-style display provides a summary of the current Outpost protection status – from the state of updates to the level of security settings.

• Basic/Expert Interface Toggle: By switching between the Basic and Expert interface layouts, users can customize their preferred view of the main program window.

• Improved Event Logger Manageability: The tried-and-true Outpost 4.0 event logger is back with its per-category filterable and sortable log entries.

• New Process Activity Monitor: This utility lists all currently active processes in expandable format, providing quick access to key properties.

• More Informative Network Activity Monitor: Outpost 2009 sports a redesigned, more logical Network Activity display where connections are grouped by application.

Performance

“Gain without pain” was the goal here; Outpost 2009 challenges the stereotype of security products as resource hogs and eliminates a number of potential slow-downs.

SmartScan now runs up to ten times faster than in earlier versions, and data stream processing is much more efficient. This is achieved by storing the history of past malware scans in a single secure location, instead of all PC folders, as in Outpost 2008.

New functionality

The core security layer in all three products has been further reinforced to withstand latest internal sabotage attacks and addresses the most lethal leak techniques employed by undetectable malware:

Extended Host Protection: To fully protect users against inappropriate activity, Outpost now includes protection against the latest security breach techniques. Outpost’s perfect leaktest pass scores reflect the product’s ability to protect against attacks on personal data employed by real, in-the-wild malware.

Protection Against Keyloggers (this is what we haven't revealed in our Monday Updates!): Outpost’s Host Protection protects systems against keylogger activity, monitoring system events and ensuring that no malicious keyboard interaction is possible. This prevents the unwitting disclosure of personal information, including passwords and credit card numbers.

IP Blocklist Keeps Surfing Clean: IP Blocklist lets users blacklist specified Internet domains and restrict incoming and outgoing traffic from sites with bad reputations. The list of blocked entries can be manually defined or imported from different web communities.

Antispam supports The Bat!: Agnitum’s Bayesian-based antispam module, formerly compatible only with Microsoft mail clients, can now be integrated into the popular The Bat! email application.

System requirements

Outpost 2009 is compatible with Windows Vista SP1, XP SP3, and Server 2008 as well as all previous 32- and 64-bit versions from Windows 2000 onwards. All three products will work smoothly on a 450 MHz or faster CPU (x-86/x-64/multi-core) with 256Mb RAM.

Don't hesitate to try the new product line! Were looking forward to your feedback!

Alexey Belkin,

Chief Software Architect, Agtnitum

Even Better Leak Protection, plus New Anti-Keylogger

2008-06-30T15:16:00.004+04:00

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