Kaspersky Labs rolls unveils free antivirus software

Artificial intelligence buzzwords such as "deep learning" and "neural networks" seem to be showing up all of the place these days, and Kaspersky Labs is contributing to this phenomenon. In honor to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary, Kaspersky has released a free version of its antivirus software.

Kaspersky Free ships as a stripped down version of the premium Kaspersky AV software. Unlike the paid version, there are no parental controls, payment protection options, or an included VPN. Therefore, Kaspersky believes that the free version will not compete with their premium offerings which include all of the aforementioned features.

Basic protection against infected files and malicious websites is standard. Removable devices, instant messages and email are scanned before opening incoming files to help prevent phishing and foreign executables from being used as an entry point.

This new sales model follows the likes of successful mobile apps. A full product is free to use, but data collection is where the real value is. Kaspersky is seeking to gain a larger user base, so that they can improve machine learning capabilities for detecting malicious software by collecting threat information from end users.

The free antivirus software is available to everyone today, but language specific versions will not be ready until later this year. See the above map for the projected timeline.

Kaspersky Free is available to download from our software section as well as directly from Kaspersky Labs website where they offer a handful of other free tools.