March 2, 2009

Doctor Web — the Russian anti-virus vendor — announces successful deployment of Dr.Web AV-Desk by the Astra company that provides Internet to users in the Chelyabninsk region. Now its subscribers can protect themselves from viruses, Trojans and other malicious programs.

The number of users that subscribe for the anti-virus service to ensure their virus-free internet-surfing keeps growing. Now the service is available to subscribers of more than 50 providers in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria and Estonia.

Four providers in the Chelyabinsk region have already added the Dr.Web anti-virus to their service portfolios. The Astra company joined them in February 2009.

“Infection on computers of our subscribers often causes long outages or significant financial losses due to increased traffic. The anti-virus service powered by Dr.Web technologies reduces the probability of getting infected to zero. The statistics and updating server installed in the local network reduces costs of daily updates of anti-virus software for a provider and makes them free for subscribers. Analysis of virus statistics allows us to promptly notify our customers about vulnerabilities and block sources of infection”, Sergei Mikheenko, the head of the automation department of Astra said.

About Dr.Web AV-Desk
The internet service was developed by Doctor Web in 2007. It allows service providers to deliver the anti-virus protection service powered by Dr.Web for Windows to an unlimited number of subscribers. A service provider also receives a tool for centralized management of the delivery process. Deployment of Dr.Web AV-Desk gives subscribers an opportunity to use the anti-virus from Doctor Web as a service: select a desired subscription term (1-36 months) and plan their expenses on anti-virus protection. The innovative model that turns information security software into a service ensures instant delivery of an anti-virus making it extremely easy to renew for any user regardless of his geographical location.

More than fifty provider companies have already deployed Dr.Web AV-Desk in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Estonia. Following results shown by the service in 2007 it was named the best product-service by PC Magazine Russia. In September 2008 Dr.Web AV-Desk was awarded the large golden medal of the Siberian Fair as an original technical and telecom solutions.

About Astra
The company provides a wide range of communication services including access to the Internet, IP-telephony, service and application hosting and building VPNs.