Following its announcement of the end of support for its free antivirus software in December 2021, BitDefender has released a brand new redesign of its antivirus software, free for Windows users. Offering enhanced functionality and new features, the new software lends itself well to a more integrated and comprehensive user experience. Included in these new features are email protection frameworks for Thunderbird and Outlook, giving users a much greater level of protection against malware.
One critique of the old utility was that it was no longer optimized for modern cyber threat protection. To this end, instead of simply adding a few new measures into the existing software, BitDefender opted to rebuild the entire utility from the ground up. As widely available as basic antivirus is in the modern setting, BitDefender found that from a sample of 10000 individuals, barely 11 percent have enough security frameworks in place to be counted as secure. The survey classified respondents’ defensive measures in case of a cyber-attack according to their online behaviors, the number of accounts they held, and the frequency with which they reuse old passwords.
In a subsequent statement, the Vice President of BitDefender’s Consumer Solutions had the following to say: “The attack surface continues to grow with an increasing number of devices used by consumers at home and on the go that need basic protection. We completely redesigned BitDefender Antivirus Free for Windows to provide a powerful first line of defense against modern threats that is also intuitive and easy to use.
While our new free version doesn’t include many important features for complete security protection, it helps stop attacks at the door while giving users a good way to test out BitDefender technology, finding out first hand why we continuously lead independent tests for threat detection.”
The new utility makes real-time responsive and combative measures against cyber attacks a possibility for all Windows users. While we expect the utility to be ported or rebuilt for other operating systems in the future, there has been no confirmation of such endeavors by BitDefender. For more news on malware, check out this malware that hides inside seemingly innocent Android apps.
