Newsroom

Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries.  SXSW is a multi-day event, from March 16-20, 2021. 

On a virtual panel discussions for SXSW Interactive called “Ethics of Hacking: Doing Good with Security Skills”, Jaya Baloo, CISO at Avast, interviews Katie Moussouris, CEO & Founder of Luta Security, and Chris Roberts, Hacker & Consultant for Hillbilly Hit Squad on the ethical boundaries of hacking. 

Avast is a gold sponsor of Machine Learning Prague, the European practical conference about ML, AI, and Deep Learning applications. The event will take place on the 26th and 28th of February, 2021 as a virtual conference. The program promises interesting topics. And experts from Avast cannot be missed there!

Avast is a Bronze Sponsor of the Women of Silicon Valley 2020 Conference. The Women of Silicon Valley is a platform to facilitate movement - to bring together women to celebrate success, to overcome challenges, to learn skills, to support one another, and to positively and irreversibly change the technology landscape. Leena Elias, VP of Product Delivery at Avast, will be speaking about her passion for technology and how it's shaped her career. 

This event has been rescheduled from May to October 15-16, 2020. 

Avast was a Gold Sponsor of the Women in Business Expo 2020. WIB is a two-day event designed for all women at any stage of their professional journey. Providing inspiration, guidance and business services to find their best career match or support their business.

Jaya Baloo, Avast Chief Information Security Officer, shared her experience of moving a global company to fully remote working as the COVID-19 lockdown swept worldwide. From technology and security concerns through to employee engagement and workforce wellness, she provides insights into and advice from what she learned from the experience which can be applied to a business of any size.

The essential virtual event connecting global AI and cybersecurity experts. Our conference explores the critical issues around AI for privacy and cybersecurity and 2020's keynote speakers are Roger Doger Dingledine (Director, Researcher, and Co-founder of the Tor Project) and Garry Kasparov (Chess Grandmaster and Avast Security Ambassador).

Avast is a Bronze Sponsor of the BIG 5G 2020 Event. BIG 5G is a leading conference for the service provider community in North America, focusing on the technological innovations affecting the industry. On Tuesday, September 22 at 2:10 pm, T. Sean Obrey, Global Head of Sales for Avast’s Telco, Family & IoT Business Unit, will be speaking on a panel entitled, "Is there an opportunity beyond connectivity for MNOs?"

Avast is a Gold Sponsor of Collision from Home 2020 Conference. On Thursday, June 25, Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek will discuss the changing landscape of security and data privacy in a fireside chat. Additionally, chess grandmaster and Avast security ambassador Garry Kasparov will speak about the need to embrace progress on advanced technology like AI without compromising on security and privacy.

Avast is a Gold Sponsor of the IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy 2020. The IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy is a premier conference for presenting developments in computer security and privacy, and for bringing together researchers and practitioners in the field. Avast will be sponsoring the workshop on "Deep Learning for Security" on 21-May.

Avast partnered with ImpactPARENTS.com to host a free, week-long online event for parents: the first-ever Digital Sanity Summit 2020: Navigating Technology & Parenting in the Modern World. Avast VP Leena Elias spoke about managing screen time, online privacy, and cybersecurity in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Avast invites you to join us at Machine Learning Prague 2020 to meet Avast experts and learn more about our research in artificial intelligence, IoT, and network security. Visit our booth in Rudolfinum and discuss how machine learning and AI shape cybersecurity. Also, you can find out more about our partnership with significant institutions and in academia around the world.

Science Café is a series of popular science presentations and talks by the best Czech scientists and innovators of today presented by the Czech Centre London. Join us for Michal Pechoucek's (CTO of Avast) talk about Personal security in the age of AI.

Avast is a Bronze Sponsor of the Enigma 2020 Conference.  Enigma centers on a single track of engaging talks covering a wide range of topics in security and privacy.  On Monday, January 27, Avast Research Scientist, will present a research paper entitled "How to Build Realistic Machine Learning Systems for Security?".  The presentation will be at 5 pm at the conference. 

Hack Cambridge is back! From the 18th to the 19th of January 2020, the University of Cambridge’s annual hackathon will yet again bring together 300+ outstanding hackers, programmers, designers and more from universities all over the world.

Avast was a proud Platinum sponsor of the Kids & Family Tech Summit at CES 2020. VP Leena Elias discussed IoT security considerations for parents in a fireside chat, and the CES Innovation Award-winning Avast Omni was demoed on the show floor.

Avast will participate in the New Adventures in Online Safety and Technologies panel at the FOSI 2019 Annual Conference. The panel will discuss and explore new products, technologies, and services available to make the online world safer for kids and their families.

CES Unveiled New York is the official kickoff party to mark the start of the CES season, featuring the emerging tech trends that will dominate the CES show floor in January. Avast representatives were on-site demoing Avast Omni.

Dmitry Kuznetsov, Senior Machine Learning Researcher from Avast will talk about Securing Home IoT Devices in a 5G Architecture.

At CyberSec & AI Prague, Avast and the CTU (Czech Technical University in Prague) brought together leading thinkers in the fields of AI, machine learning and cybersecurity.

Avast’s Chief Marketing Officer will speak about opportunities for women in tech and what needs to be done in order to increase the number of women in the industry.  

Garry and Ondrej will talk about ethics, responsibility and the right to privacy in the era of AI and the IoT technologies

At the annual Virus Bulletin International Conference, Anna Shirokova, security researcher in the Avast IoT research team, participated in a panel, along with two other panelists, titled "Geost botnet: The discovery story of a new Android banking trojan from an OpSec error". The session focused on the discovery, causes and effects of Geost botnet and the OpSec error behind it all.

Avast will present joint research with Stanford University on IoT and security "All Things Considered: an Analysis of IoT on Home Networks" at the USENIX Security Symposium in Santa Clara, CA.

At Mobile 360 Latin America, Nikolaos Chrysaidos, Head of Mobile Threat Intelligence and Security at Avast, spoke in a panel titled "Building Trust in the Digital Economy".

mDevCamp 2019 is the largest conference for mobile enthusiasts in Central Europe. The 8th edition will feature world-class speakers, in-depth talks and workshops and great hands-on zones. Come to meet 1000 enthusiasts from all over Europe.

Monitoring threat trends on a global scale can be beneficial, however, it can sometimes also be misleading. Jan Sirmer, Malware Analysis Team Lead, illustrated his findings from comparing global data of Android detections, using three major regions as examples: Europe, North America and Russia. The data presented clearly shows a significant drop in less sophisticated malware strains, such as downloaders and rooters, which dominated Android threats in past years. On the other hand, the data shows a rise in technically advanced and covert malware; such as bankers, fake apps or even targeted attacks. In his presentation Jan showed how understanding the trend evolution helps predict, prevent and detect new malware strains.

Avast Security Ambassador, Garry Kasparov, and Avast's Head of AI, Rajarshi Gupta spoke about the benefits and challenges of artificial intelligence in industry and home applications at Infosecurity Mexico 2019, in a talk titled: "Responsible use of Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Society".AI creates massive progress and convenience, but is also being abused by corporations and states for data collection, and by cybercriminals for financial gain. Kasparov and Gupta debated the ethical challenges of such powerful tools against human values, and the steps that society can take to counter the threats. The speakers also discussed the challenges arising from the proliferation of smart technologies and AI, and how positive use of the technology can be a vital tool to protect the values of human society.

VivaTech is the world’s rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It’s a gathering of the world’s brightest minds, talents, and products taking place in Paris on 16–18 May 2019.

Avast's IoT Threat Researcher Vladislav Iliushin spoke about the evolution of IoT botnets at Kaspersky's Security Analyst Summit in Singapore. His talk focused on Avast Threat Labs' analysis of Torii, a current-gen IoT botnet capable of data exfiltration with a stealthy network footprint. The presentation included a live hack of a smart home to illustrate Torii's capabilities and those of future IoT botnets.

Avast's Vladislav Iliushin, IoT Threat Researcher, and Anna Shirokova spoke about the evolution of IoT botnets, at Troopers. Their talk included findings from their analysis of the Torii botnet, including its capabilities, and a smart-home hack demo.The two took a look at the evolution of IoT botnets and see how much IoT malware has evolved in just one year. Threat actors are integrating exploit kits into IoT malware, performing Man-in-the-Middle attacks and using other sophisticated techniques.

Avast attended Cloud Security Expo in London where the team exhibited its new Secure Web Gateway security product for SMBs and released a new global report on the likelihood of small business being infected by malware, leveraging data from Avast's Threat Intelligence database.

Garry Kasparov, Avast's Security Ambassador, and Ondrej Vlcek, President at Avast, spoke about Ethics and Responsibility in the AI and IoT Age, at South by South West

Avast attended the RSA Conference 2019 which took place from March 4 - 8, 2019 in San Francisco. Ondrej Vlcek, president of Avast's consumer business, spoke about the impact of shadow IoT on corporate networks during a talk titled, "The Office as the New Smart Home."

Avast attended Mobile World Congress 2019 where Avast presented an Internet of Things security lab and Avast carrier services and products.

Come to visit the Avast stand at Hack Cambridge which takes place January 19-20, 2019 in Cambridge

Avast Security Evangelist, Luis Corrons, spoke at Electro Week in Burgos Spain about today's threat landscape, recap the most prevalent threats of 2018 and his predictions for 2019, with a special focus on IoT threats.

Avast President of Consumer, Ondrej Vlcek, participated in a panel, along with six other panelists, titled "Cybersecurity as key for a Digital Economy and Society" at ICT 2018: Imagine Digital - Connect Europe. 

At the AI Frontiers conference in San Jose, Avast's Head of AI Rajarshi Gupta spoke about adversarial AI.

At Web Summit, Avast demonstrated the scenario of a smart home hack, performed by security researcher Vladislav Iliushin, and narrated by Garry Kasparov.

At South Summit in Madrid, Avast's Threat Intelligence Director Michal Salat talked about the rise of smart homes and digital threats targeting them. He talked about how artificial intelligence can be used to identify threats at an early stage, to protect people's homes and businesses.

Garry Kasparov shared his views on what can be done by regulators and the industry to assure that ethical standards and privacy protections are a part of the exciting technology of AI.

Martin Hron, Security Researcher, introduced vulnerabilities with the MQTT protocol and the severity of the data leaks from smart home networks.

Hacks in Taiwan (HITCON) is a highly technical security conference in Taiwan to gather the various information security researchers and their expertise, the first of its kind in Taiwan. HITCON aims to provide everyone interested in security and hacking to meetup face to face, so they can exchange their experiences and share their newest and most exciting findings. It was first held 10 years ago by chr00t security group.

Avast's Security Evangelist Luis Corrons spoke about how companies can build resilience and manage the threat of cyberattacks as they become more high profile and damaging to public and private sector organisations. He also discussed how to establish a cross-sector response to cyber risk, and how the industry can build better barriers against an increasing danger.

Ondrej Vlcek spoke about cyberthreats targeting smarthomes and how to protect people and their homes.

Nikolaos Chysaidos spoke on using the APKLAB.IO Mobile Threat Intel platform to fight banking threats.

Martin Hron, a Security Researcher at Avast, presented how to be a hacker in few minutes and demonstrated how easy it is to get full access to someone’s connected home.

Avast brought together cybersecurity experts and those new to security to experience some cybersecurity challenges including trying to compromise remote servers and other IoT hacking challenges.

Vladislav Iliushin spoke on "Shodan and IoT - it is getting darker."

Miroslav Umlauf spoke on big data in IoT at the CRA IoT Summit & Expo 2018.

Martin Hron, Avast Threat Researcher, presented on the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.