HotSpot Shield strengthens VPN with anti-malware wall

AnchorFree, the global leader in consumer privacy and Internet freedom, today announced the addition of malware protection to its security, privacy and open Web access solution, Hotspot Shield ( http://www.hotspotshield.com ). AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield addresses a market of more than 1.5 billion users -- 600 million of whom live under censorship and another 800 million of whom use anti-virus products to secure their devices, but lack a solution to secure their browsing and Internet communications. Hotspot Shield is already the world's most popular consumer Virtual Private Network (VPN) with more than ten million monthly users and one of the most downloaded mobile security  solutions in the Apple App store. New malware protection transforms the product into a complete browser security offering, with a database of more than three million malicious domains. Malware protection will be available on all platforms with Hotspot Shield, including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.


Hotspot Shield's VPN technology encrypts a user's entire Web session -- turning all HTTP sites into HTTP(S) -- so that every website visited and every mobile app is as secure and private as a banking site. The new layer of malware protection now alerts Hotspot Shield users when they attempt to access domains containing malware, providing them with a snapshot of the page they're trying to access and blocking the malicious site. Regular updates to the malware database will ensure that Hotspot Shield users remain one step ahead of online security threats at all times.


AnchorFree CEO David Gorodyansky said during a phone call on Tuesday that the update makes HotSpot Shield a complete secure browsing solution. "There was no issue for us in integrating the secure browsing with the VPN."
When I tested it, the updated Elite version worked well. There was no lag time where the malicious site appeared to resolve before being blocked. And in fact, the way the new protections work is to prevent that site from even loading in the first place. Instead, what you're shown below the warning is a screenshot of the site.
There are two options in the upper right corner of a blocked page. The first takes you to a little-known search engine called Search-Results.com, that appears to have a referral deal with Anchor Free. While that makes sense from a business perspective, a link to the browser's default search engine would've been more polite. Search-results.com is also known for paying companies that install proprietary toolbars to have them change your default search engine. That's not happening here, thankfully.
Below that is a link to go to the real site, though for obvious safety reasons AnchorFree doesn't recommend you click on it. I perceived no lag in loading either known malicious sites or known safe ones.

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