PSafe is the first portfolio company of Brazilian technology group Xangô. The antivirus was initially designed for Latin America users (readers take note that the only languages available at the moment are Portuguese and Spanish). According to av-comparatives, an independent tester of anti-virus software, Psafe ranks 4th in the malware detection category and 1st amongst all free antivirus softwares with a 99.5% detection rate.
PSafe Services
PSafe’s CEO, Marco Mello, worked in the security department of Microsoft for 10 year until he left to found this anti-virus company in Brazil. According to an interview, Mello’s original vision in 2010 was to develop a cloud storage solution. The antivirus technology was born from Mello’s thought that users would want to ensure their computer was safe of any threats and viruses before using cloud storage services.
It was only after the antivirus technology was built that Mello launched PSafe Lockbox, a cloud storage application that is integrated with the antivirus technology. Although PSafe antivirus is free, Lockbox costs a monthly fee, ranging from $2 to $13 for packages that offer 5GB to 100GB of storage.
Psafe also has two more products that are available during the antivirus installation. PSafe Turbo is a computer optimization tool that clears histories, cookies, recycle bin files and limits download and upload speed. The other one, PSafe Busca Segura (PSafe Safe Search) is a browser security tool to prevent any threats or leakage of personal data when browsing on the internet.
PSafe is also available for Android. PSafe Suite can be downloaded for free on Play Store and offers antivirus, anti-theft, anti-spam and battery management services.
The New PSafe
PSafe recently teamed up with BitDefender, one of the most well-regarded antivirus technologies in the world with close to 600 million active users. BitDefender won 3 PC Magazine awards in 2013 alone, including PC of The Year by AV Comparatives.
This month, Psafe received a round of investments for $30 million. Chinese company Qihoo 360 led the round with a $25 million investment. The other $5 million came from Redpoint Ventures, Redpoint e.Ventures, and Pinnacle Ventures. According to Mello, they will use this new investment in new marketing strategies to reach their goal of 100 million users while further enhancing their platform.
Installation Process
For those interested, the antivirus is currently unavailable in English, but the installation process for PSafe is intuitive and runs in the background without interference. The interface isclean and minimalist.
When you open PSafe for the first time, there are two options to choose from, Verificação Automática (Automatic Scan) and Verificação Manual (Manual Scan).
If you’d like to see how easy the installation process is, check out this video tutorial by an American living in Brazil:
Conclusion
With a 99.5% malware detection rate and a user friendly interface, PSafe is a solid antivirus and cloud storage company.With the new version using the best that BitDefender has to offer, the antivirus has a further edge.
The biggest question for us:when are they going to develop an English version? Although it’s easy to install and operate Psafe following the English video tutorial, we’d like to see an English interface option (probably won’t hurt them in their quest for 100 million users either)!
