Third market in terms of facilities and second with respect to revenues, the France is a choice for the Czech security editor. Vincent Steckler, CEO and Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of Avast, detail for us their strategy and their objectives.
Avast solutions are mainly known through free formula "without options. How do you maintain this strategy?
Vincent StecklerVincent Steckler: Do the free allows us to simplify our way of distributing our products. It cut the use of the intermediary and then we can reach more customers whether it's users or professionals. This model of distribution channel succeeds us rather well because we manage to be present in many countries, 186 to date.
The France is a good example of our development. Even if few people with regard to the number of our users go to a paid model, the country is the third largest market in terms of facilities (after the Brazil and the Russia) and second in relation to revenues (behind the US).
We are now trying to increase our efforts in the direction of SMEs. The idea is to provide simple tools to use, we will also very soon to show them new products.
You are a former Symantec, how do you assess the strategy of this competitor Editor, currently in difficulty?
Good news is that they simplify the way to present their products. The positioning of Symantec is not easy to take, by making the all-in-one, they make up the price of their solutions and somewhat force the update to their customers. Their difficulty is to attract new customers by offering them more services, but their recent movement is encouraging.
For McAfee/Intel, it is more difficult in my opinion to decrypt their strategy. Following its acquisition by Intel, many things have been said. We talked to bring safety equipment but do this type of movement remains very complicated. I'm still waiting to learn more before deciding.
You are targeting so more emerging markets to win new users?
Once again, our distribution channel is global. But it is also viral, because Word of mouth allows our services to be installed quickly in emerging markets. The Brazil, the Russia are very important areas and we are now trying to attack more distant lands, as a part of the Middle East for example.
However, some areas we are still denied. I think China for example. Internet users are instead directed to home products and it remains very difficult to settle.
You publish a new security report in which you draw attention to risks on mobile. But these threats are new?
Ondrej VlcekOndrej Vlcek: We secure 230 million devices in the world, whether they are mobile or fixed. Data we collect will allow us to have an overview on the State of current threats. We are thus able to extract important data. But indeed, we see that between old threats and others more recent, the principles remain the same.
EC that it is possible to say, it is that with the rise of mobile devices, attacks only target necessarily the camera itself but the network by which a device is connected. This is why I drew attention to the security of routers. For example, a great number of users do not alter their router default login information. What is an easy gateway for any attacker.
The trend seems to be connected objects, but these new products are a new playground for hackers?
To be totally honest, I don't think that we are going to run major risks of security due to a connected bracelet. Similarly, I do not really interest for anyone of interest to me in my connected refrigerator. But again, it is the network which is connected my device that must be monitored.
I therefore invite everyone to control the list of devices connected to its home network. Techniques exist and are very simple such as hide the name of the router. It is easy to put in place procedures and can be applied by all.
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