Immunet Anti-Virus Software Poised to be an A-Lister for Original, Useful Holiday Gift Ideas

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- As the holiday season approaches, shoppers are once again wracking their brains to think of the perfect gift for hard-to-buy-for family members and friends. Immunet, the developer of next-generation security and Cloud AntiVirus technologies, suggests giving the gift of PC protection with a $19.95 subscription of Immunet Protect Plus, the industry's premier cloud-based antivirus software with integrated real-time community protection against computer viruses, botnets, worms, Trojans, spyware and keyloggers.

'Grinchy' Viruses Take the Jollies Out of Family Holidays – Photos, Personal Information Lost

"All it takes is for one virus to infect a family PC and everything can be lost:  precious photos, financial records and hard to replace files like your address book," said Immunet Founder and CEO Oliver Friedrichs, a former Symantec and McAfee security veteran and entrepreneur. "Using email and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, playing online games and even surfing the Net are sources of all sorts of dangerous viruses that can infect one PC and then spread to others. These viruses do Grinchy things ranging from keyloggers that steal personal information as you type and Trojans that lift data off your hard drive to locking up your computer or wiping out your hard drive."

Get Together this Holiday for Safety – Collective Immunity Stronger in Numbers

Immunet's Collective Immunity™ technology leverages the power of the Internet (the "Cloud") to create a network protection effect that keeps Immunet Community members' personal PCs and the computers of their friends and family safe online without the normal slowdowns and conflicts associated with traditional antivirus approaches. Each time a virus is blocked on one computer in the Immunet Community ALL other computers are instantly protected from the same virus, increasing the speed and level of virus protection with each new member. This collaborative approach uses "strength in numbers" that grows smarter with each new community member.  

Giving a New Computer as a Gift? Don't Forget the Stocking Stuffer of Protection

Friedrichs says that an estimated 40% to 60% of PCs today are completely vulnerable to computer viruses and other malware. Although most new computers come equipped with a 30- to 90-day trial version of an anti-virus software package, more often than not, when the trial expires it doesn't get upgraded to the paid version. At that point, the PC becomes unprotected.

The danger is so prevalent that according Microsoft's 2010 Security Intelligence Report over 2.2 million PCs in the U.S. are currently infected by botnet viruses. A botnet is a group of computers infected by a Trojan virus that can be used for spamming and mass credit card fraud, among other things. It can take less than five minutes of time online for a Trojan to take hold of an unprotected computer and use it for illicit activities—and the owners rarely suspect it.

Unlike traditional antivirus products, which reside on PC hard drives and take between one and 14 days to gather, analyze and deliver updates—often after the threat has mutated, Immunet Protect anti-virus software identifies viruses in real-time and continually delivers antivirus protection via an Internet connection to its community of Immunet Protect users. Immunet Protect is up to 35 times lighter than traditional antivirus solutions, which take up between 100 and 350 megabytes of disk space and causes performance slowdowns. In contrast, Immunet Protect uses only 10 megabytes of space, to keep PCs running at optimal speeds.

Since its debut last year nearly 700,000 people have downloaded Immunet Protect Free in over 192 countries, including Vatican City, to protect their Microsoft® Windows® desktop PCs. Extremely lightweight (up to 35 times smaller than competing products), fast and compatible with other market leading security software, Immunet Protect 2.0 received a 4.5 star rating (out of 5) from CNET.

Give the Gift of PC Protection – Just $19.95 for a 12-month Subscription

For just $19.95, you can surprise your friends and family members with this season's most original and useful gift:  a one-year subscription of Immunet Protect Plus. It provides everything that Immunet Protect Free provides, plus a host of advanced antivirus capabilities, including enhanced virus removal, the ability to schedule virus scans, offline scanning that protects PCs even when they're disconnected from the Internet, and more. When you visit get.immunet.com and purchase Immunet Protect as a gift, you will be given instructions to download a gift certificate that you can then forward via email or print and put in a stocking.

About Immunet

Immunet was founded in July 2008 by AntiVirus industry veterans to address a sweeping shift in the Internet threat landscape. Immunet utilizes the latest advances in computing, including cloud computing, collective intelligence, data mining and machine learning. Immunet Protect 2.0 is a free Cloud AntiVirus download that provides real-time protection from over 16.5 million threats daily.

To connect with Immunet please visit http://get.immunet.com/, follow us on Twitter @immunet or visit the Immunet Facebook Fan Page.

Collective Immunity is a trademark of Immunet Corporation. All other trademarks used herein belong to their respective companies.

SOURCE Immunet