Avast met the criteria for the 2023 AV-Comparitives phishing certification test evaluating the protection provided against phishing websites and was one of the few that did.

Wikipedia calls phishing a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. This is similar to fishing, where a fisherman puts bait on a hook, pretending it is genuine food to fool fish.”

The test was conducted using 255 phishing active URLs that would attempt to get personal information. The URLs targeted different types of personal data such as login credentials for PayPal, online banking and credit cards, e-mail accounts, Dropbox, eBay, social networks, online games and other online services.

Two hundred and fifty clean URLs were also used to test for false positives.

To pass, at least 85% of phishing sites had to be detected and blocked with no false alarms on the 250 legitimate sites.

Of the twelve vendors that submitted their products for testing, only seven (which included Avast) passed the test.

According to the Avast Q2 threat report released on August 10, 2023, 75% of threat detections are now from scams, phishing and malvertising. Phishing accounted for a whopping 25% of all threats in Q2, according to Avast.

This signifies a significant shift toward psychological manipulation, the end goal being financial gain. Social engineering is now the biggest threat to online safety.

Read the full report here

According to Avast researchers a number of scams ranging from dating hoaxes to fraudulent donation sites and deceptive advertising with thousands of new phishing e-mails are doing the rounds. Criminals are also making use of AI to imitate legitimate communication.

Another accolade awarded to Avast was that the Avast Secure Browser was awarded top position in an anti-phishing comparative test by AV-Comparatives which ran from 13 Jan to 28 Jan 2022 – the AV-Comparatives’ study.

This study did a phishing detection comparison test among some of the world’s leading browsers in parallel, exposing each to 250 valid and independently selected phishing URLs, and 250 clean URLs for false alarm detection.

Avast’s Real site protection component also provides protection against fake websites that pretend to be the real deal. It also prevents DNS hijacking, ensuring that you are going to where you want to go and not a well-crafted imitation of the real thing. Help to prevent your users from accidentally entering their usernames, passwords or credit card details into fake sites.

Avast e-mail scanner warns you of infected attachments phishing scammers like to use.

Avast is also leveraging AI. By scanning and evaluating each site their users visit, sites that present as suspicious are presented to their AI for evaluation. Phishing sites are then flagged in order to protect users quickly and efficiently. With the number of Avast users worldwide, this is a valuable tool to protect Avast subscribers against phishing.