Kaspersky woos market with polite software

Kaspersky has launched its 2010 internet security suite and said an important part of the new software is the attempt to engage the user with politeness.

A key feature was to make the code more user-friendly by taking key functions and automating them, or making them easier to understand.

“We’re paying a lot of attention to politeness, which is something you don’t often here,” Peter Beardmore, senior product marketing manager at Kaspersky said.

“Software shouldn’t be harassing users or asking them to make decisions that they don’t know how to make.”

For example, the new software featured a Safe Run function, which allowed any application or web page to be run in a sandbox to protect the PC. Such applications run on the screen with a green outline to show they are safe.

The software was the first to run Kaspersky’s Urgent Detection System, which uses feedback from customers around the world to cut the warning time to discover new threats. Beardmore said this would cut reaction times to dealing with some malware to just 40 seconds.

The software also uses whitelisting to identify safe sites and applications and this also cuts the amount of processor power needed to function.