AVG Technologies, developers of the world’s most popular free anti-virus software, today unveiled AVG LinkScanner® for the Mac operating system. AVG LinkScanner® for Mac is the first free AVG product designed for Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard and supports internet browsers Safari 3.x, Safari 4.x, Safari 5x and Mozilla Firefox 3.x and higher.

According to AVG research, 99 per cent of all malicious threats are delivered through the web and cannot be stopped with traditional anti-virus software. These threats can come and go within hours and can live on familiar, big-name sites and even on third-party applications on popular social networking sites, without users even noticing. With the growing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, these sites are being targeted as a main vehicle for spreading malware.  

LinkScanner for Mac allows users to surf, search, email, shop and use social network programs online with the confidence that the pages they visit are safe and secure enough to enter personal and private information. LinkScanner updates continuously with data garnered by AVG’s industry-leading research team and user community, checking each web page a user visits in real-time before it opens on the Mac, warning users to refrain from opening them if LinkScanner detects threats.
 
“Mac users have traditionally been less vulnerable to virus threats and attacks because of their lower market share, but that is quickly changing and no operating system is immune, as these attacks are leveraging the web to deliver malware that target web browsers and application vulnerabilities,” said J.R. Smith, CEO, AVG Technologies.

“LinkScanner for Mac takes the first step to ensure customers are safe and won’t end up losing their money, identities and precious digital memories.  In addition, this new product has been enhanced to better protect users from being scammed, phished and entering personal information into infected games, quizzes, surveys, etc. on social networking sites. We want to help you keep your personal information private. And, because AVG believes strongly that security software like LinkScanner is critical, we believe it should be free.”

AVG’s Free LinkScanner for Mac product protects users against the ever-increasing online web-threats by dynamically scanning the web pages before they open in your Mac to see if they are genuine sites. If it detects something suspicious, Linkscanner notifies the user that the web site is malicious. LinkScanner for Mac is available for free and included as part of all AVG anti-virus and Internet security products for Windows. Download LinkScanner from http://linkscanner.avg.com/Mac, or at www.download.com