National Bookstore joins drive versus internet risks

CEBU, Philippines – Bookstore giant, National Bookstore joins the campaign for safe computing for the Filipino family through a partnership with BitDefender, a provider of innovative anti-malware security solutions.

“BitDefender is proud to partner with National Bookstore – aiding their commitment to provide security solutions within parents’ reach," said Vitor Souza, BitDefender Global communications manager.

Souza said parents can now easily protect their children from various Internet dangers such as websites with pornographic or violent contents.

The main objective behind this partnership Souza said is to provide parents with a solution to protect their children from the dangers of the Internet, particularly violent and pornographic contents, which today are very easily accessible to anyone through the world-wide-web.

BitDefender Internet Security 2009 and BitDefender Total Security 2009 provide parental control features which enable parents to limit and schedule when their children can go online during the week to research for homework or to play games.

Parents can also block email messages and websites, which may have inappropriate content, based on certain keywords and/or web addresses.

Additionally, parents can also determine who their children can chat with over instant messaging (such as Yahoo Messenger) by assigning a “white-list” of allowed friends, preventing online bullies or stalkers.

Aside from parental control features, BitDefender also provides other useful security features such as antivirus, anti-spam, anti-phishing (blocking of attempted identity theft), Instant Messaging encryption, file vault (allows the storing of personal information or sensitive files), wi-fi monitor, and firewall.

Also BitDefender has unique and useful features such as gamer mode, which reduces the system load and avoids requesting user interaction during games, and laptop mode, which helps to prolong battery life.

"BitDefender's Parental Control features resolve the dilemma of how to avoid harmful content and potentially dangerous communication with strangers, helping parents set healthy and safe parameters for their children,” Souza added.

BitDefender is distributed in the Philippines through local firm IPSYSTEMS Inc (www.ipsystems.ph).

Significantly, the partnership between National Book Store and BitDefender is also aimed at promoting the convenience of purchasing original software as opposed to pirated ones, in a country where the piracy rate is at 69 percent according to the BSA 2008 report.

This is an extension of BitDefender’s “Bit Piracy Campaign” an anti-piracy movement, which began in November 2008 through several road shows and seminars held in colleges and universities.