Question about some new features?

[BrBrasil]

Hello all!

I have some questions about the new features... May someone help?

1- What exactly "avast! Community IQ" does? Its something visible/controlled by the user? Its automatic? Its more or less like the artemis technology (from mcafee)?

--> I did read this (about avast! Community IQ) from the site, but I couldnt understand the procedure do accomplish this:

Most samples we process come from sensors deployed throughout the avast! community in the Behavior shield and anti-rootkit modules. This is a unique source of data made possible only thanks to our huge user base. Most of the collected samples are analysed by a number of automated processes and only a small fraction of the samples need to be processed manually by our virus analysts.

2- What are the Behavioral Honeypots? Is it in Avast? From what I have read it seems to be related to the "avast! Community IQ" somehow? Is it the sensor sai above?

Thanks for your time!

BrBrasil

[bman412]

I'm kinda curious about this as well. If I opted out of the community option during avast! install process, will all the shields still function as intended? Does behavior shield rely somehow on the community option?

[norel]

Does behavior shield rely somehow on the community option?

I don't know, but after reading what I could find on the Behavior Shield that's my conclusion. I can't see any other way it could work.

The first time I installed avast!5 I opted out of Community but after having abysmal luck I reinstalled with Community left on and seem to be having a lot better performance. Could just be my imagination though.

[waking]

1- What exactly "avast! Community IQ" does?

The Community option allows avast to send data automatically to
the Alwil servers when avast detects an apparently new threat.
For example, if the heuristic scanner finds something suspicious
about a file that file can be sent automatically so it can be
analyzed and if it's a real threat then a new signature can be
created for it. One can opt out of this if they are uncomfortable
about files/data being harvested automatically from their computer.

As to dependencies, I'm sure that the shields will operate normally
even with this intelligence gathering turned off. However, the
opposite is unlikely - if a shield is disabled it won't detect
anything so there will be nothing to send to Alwil.

See the description in the Quick Start Guide {image}:

[norel]

From what I've read here and on other boards where avast!5 is being discussed I've come up with a theory. If you have the Behavior Shield running it will still work if Community is not on, but when it detects something suspicious you'll be given the option to send to Alwil or not. If Community is on, it sends it automatically. In either case it blocks the suspicious activity.

I haven't had any activity from my Behavior Shield at this point so it's just a theory. Maybe someone who knows for sure could confirm or deny.

[olddog]

From what I've read here and on other boards where avast!5 is being discussed I've come up with a theory. If you have the Behavior Shield running it will still work if Community is not on, but when it detects something suspicious you'll be given the option to send to Alwil or not. If Community is on, it sends it automatically. In either case it blocks the suspicious activity...

One would certainly hope that is how it works!

[norel]

EDIT: Deleted, posted in wrong place.

[ioyuioynx]

Does behavior shield rely somehow on the community option?

The first time I installed avast!5 I opted out of Community but after having abysmal luck I reinstalled with Community left on and seem to be having a lot better performance. Could just be my imagination though.

What luck are you talking about exactly man? Are you saying that Avast 5 detected stuff that it missed previously just because the Community IQ option was turned off? And now with the Community IQ option turned on, its catching lots of stuff?