ID Watchdog And AVAST Software Launch Ground-Breaking Integrated Identity Protection Suite

ID Watchdog Inc., in partnership with anti-virus leader AVAST Software, today announced the availability of its latest consumer identity theft detection feature set. ID Watchdog's proprietary identity protection and detection technology has been fully integrated into the updated version of AVAST Software's award-winning 6.0 antivirus software, available to all US consumers for free.

Acting as an early warning system for fraud and potential identity theft, the newly-released antivirus software incorporates security features that give registered users notice of meaningful changes to their credit report, broadening AVAST's antivirus software protection beyond the confines of the PC. Consistent with AVAST Software's philosophy of providing the highest-quality protection to all consumers at no cost, the new feature set is free.

"This partnership represents an important and game-changing milestone in the convergence of identity protection and PC protection," said Michael Greene, CEO, ID Watchdog. "Security-minded consumers can now go to one place and get protection for their personal data on their own computer together with the earliest-possible warning about the potential misuse of this data by identity thieves."

"The integration of identity protection technology into our antivirus products is something our users have been asking us about," said Vince Steckler, CEO, AVAST Software. "We are pleased to offer this basic new level of identity awareness that ID Watchdog has brought to the table and we are pleased to offer this feature free of charge to our clients."

The new security feature will be available (it can be toggled on or off) to all new and existing AVAST users within the United States as they update their antivirus protection. Program updates occur frequently, typically once per month.