SAN DIEGO, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ESET, the global leader in proactive digital protection with a 25 year track record of developing award-winning technology, today announced the latest release of its flagship consumer products: ESET Smart Security 6 and ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6.

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Enhancements to both products include advancements in threat detection, more thorough cleaning of infected systems, and an improved user experience. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6 is a fast and powerful antivirus solution with improved usability and upgrades to the scanning engine for better overall performance. Both products benefit from Anti-Phishing protection as well as the new ESET Social Media Scanner App, which protects users and their linked friends against attacks launched from within Facebook. ESET Smart Security 6 further extends that functionality by adding unique Anti-Theft capabilities.

"ESET has always worked to be the fastest, most accurate, and complete antivirus solution available," said Andrew Lee, CEO, ESET North America. "With the release of Version 6, we believe we have delivered on that promise while improving usability, driving value for our customers, and making it possible for people to use and enjoy their technology with confidence. Cyber security is about more than just technology. It's about helping people make good decisions."

In planning the latest product versions, ESET researched and evaluated the most prevalent security issues affecting North American customers. The findings reinforced that laptop and device theft continue to be a growing concern. A wide variety of sources identify computer theft as a leading cause of data breaches and identity fraud. Without protection, it is very unlikely that stolen computers are ever recovered.

In addition to computer theft, identity fraud remains a crucial issue. More than 11.5 million Americans were victims of identity fraud in 2011, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. Social media is also a growing factor in the threat landscape with nearly five percent of Facebook users reporting some degree of identity theft.*

ESET Social Media Scanner protects social media users from malicious content, including their profile, wall, newsfeed and private messages. Protection continues even when the user is not logged into their Facebook account. If an infection is found, a notification arrives by email, so that the user can take immediate action. ESET also helps the user's friends stay a safe distance from malicious content, checking their walls for potentially dangerous links. For more on the ESET Social Media Scanner, please visit http://www.eset.com/social-media-scanner.

ESET Anti-Theft helps locate missing devices and makes it possible to monitor activity on lost or stolen laptops, notebooks, tablets and more.

"At ESET we do not want our customers to pay extra for what we consider to be an integral part of a complete personal security solution," said Ignacio Sbampato, ESET Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. "We are among the first vendors to have added the new Anti-Theft feature into the product at no extra cost rather than offering it as a standalone application."

ESET Anti-Phishing offers increased protection against digital identity theft. According to the global Online Security Brand Tracker Survey**, worldwide protection against phishing websites is highly valued among computer users with 68 percent considering this function important. In the latest AV-Comparatives single product test ***, ESET Smart Security 6 ranked as one of the most effective products blocking almost 94 percent of threats. The dedicated Anti-Phishing module in V6 includes an extended database of phishing sites as well as verified reports by users via http://phishing.eset.com.

Both ESET Version 6 products have received the Windows® 8 Certification and use the "Windows 8 Compatible" logo. They are available in the Microsoft® Company Windows 8 Store.

Selected features and benefits of ESET Smart Security 6

Anti-Theft–Automatically monitors a missing device and displays its position on a map based on visible Wi-Fi networks in range when it comes online.

Anti-Phishing Module–Protects the user from attempts by fake websites masquerading as trustworthy ones to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords or banking and credit card details.

Personal Firewall–Prevents unauthorized users from accessing the computer and taking advantage of personal data. Users can safely go online to shop, bank and use social media.

Parental Control–Helps keep kids safe on the internet with age appropriate site categories linked to blocking controls.

Idle-State Scanning–Performs in-depth scans when the computer is not in use, aiding system performance and detecting potential inactive threats before they can cause any damage.

Selected features and benefits of both ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6 and ESET Smart Security 6

ESET Social Media Scanner–Protects the social media user and their friends from malicious content, including protection of their profile, wall, newsfeed and private messages.

Antivirus and Antispyware–Provides proactive protection against all types of online/o­ffline threats and prevents the spread of malware to other users.

Cloud­-powered Scanning–Speeds up scans by whitelisting safe files based on ESET's file reputation database.

Scan While Downloading Files–Decreases access time to downloaded files by scanning them during the download process.

For more information about the products and a complete list of features and benefits please go to ESET Smart Security 6 and ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6.

*Javelin Strategy & Research, "2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report: Identity Fraud Decreases – but Remaining Frauds Cost Consumers More Time & Money." February 22, 2012.

**Online Security Brand Tracker wave 7 is a global research project measuring brand performance of leading security software products in the home user segment. The survey is representative of 1.3 billion Internet users across six continents. Its objective is to gain knowledge of the current situation and trends on key markets; obtain market information and interpretations to manage sales and marketing activities of ESET, as well as technological development of its products. The number of selected countries was 49; field work was carried out by InSites Consulting (Belgium) on online panels of respondents, with analysis conducted by United Consultants (Slovakia) throughout April– May 2012).

***AV-Comparatives, Single Product Test, January 2013: http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/docs/sp_rev_eset_201301_en.pdf

Windows® is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.

The ESET logo, and brand name are trademarks of ESET spol. s r.o. or ESET North America. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

About ESET
ESET is on the forefront of security innovation, delivering trusted protection to make the Internet safer for businesses and consumers. IDC has recognized ESET as a top five corporate anti-malware vendor and one of the fastest growing companies in its category. Trusted by millions of users worldwide, ESET is one of the most recommended security solutions in the world. ESET NOD32 Antivirus consistently achieves the highest accolades in all types of comparative testing, and powers the virus and spyware detection in ESET Smart Security, ESET Cybersecurity for Mac, ESET Endpoint Security and ESET Endpoint Antivirus. ESET has global headquarters in Bratislava (Slovakia), with regional distribution centers in San Diego (U.S.), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Singapore; with offices in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Prague (Czech Republic). ESET has malware research centers in Bratislava, San Diego, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Prague, Kosice (Slovakia), Krakow (Poland), Montreal (Canada), Moscow (Russia), and an extensive partner network for 180 countries. For more information, visit http://www.eset.com/us or call +1 (619) 876-5400.

SOURCE ESET