Private Internet Access (PIA) is introducing its first antivirus product.
PIA Antivirus requires a paid subscription. It is available as a $5 add-on with a new bundled subscription. You must log in using the same credentials as your VPN account to access and use the app.
Below you can find the required system specifications and features. If you have purchased antivirus software via one of our bulk subscriptions, you can find more details here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/antivirus.
Additionally, you can download the application for your Windows device here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/installer/av/win
Note: PIA AV subscription can only be purchased through a new account bundle. Thus, it is not available as an add-on for existing accounts.
System Requirements
PIA Antivirus is available only on the Windows platform.
Operating system
- Windows 7 or later
Hardware
- 500 MB of free disk space
- 2 GB RAM
Internet connection
- Required
- A high-speed connection is recommended
Features
- Onboarding: During this sequence, you can select your privacy level.
- Dashboard - Real-Time Protection: Default ON. The name is self-intuitive. You are protected and receive real-time alerts regarding potential threats and actions.
- Dashboard - Prevention Engine: Default ON. You can protect yourself from zero-day threats. More details here.
- Dashboard - Web Shield: Default Deactivated. Users can protect themselves against malicious websites and downloads. This feature behaves more or less as the PIA's MACE feature. This feature is currently turned off, but will be added in the future.
- Dashboard - Virus Definition updates: It is mandatory for you to always be up to date with the latest Virus Definitions. The Virus Definition databases are continuously updated with new virus definitions. This will protect our users even against the newly created malware.
- Scans > Quick Scan: Scans only the important folders, especially the Windows-specific ones.
- Scans > Complete Scan: Scans everything.
- Scans > Custom Scan: Scans whatever the user is selecting
- Scans > Schedule Scan: Schedule a scan for a certain day & hour. By default, the app pre-defines two Scheduled Scans - on Tuesday and Friday.
- Quarantine: In this menu, the quarantined files will be listed. You can see all the needed details (infected file, virus name, date & path. Also, the users are able to delete the quarantined entries.
- Security Reports: In this menu, you are able to see all the results of your previous scans.
- Settings > General > Language: You can change the language. Currently, we don’t have language parity with the VPN app.
- Settings > General > Notifications: You can activate/deactivate the app’s background notifications.
- Settings > Security: In this section, you are able to see the status of the AV main features, to activate or deactivate those, to set specific storage limits on hard drives, and even manipulate the period of time we’re storing the security reports.
- Settings > Privacy > Cloud Security: You can deactivate sending data to the Cloud AV. If the Cloud Security is turned off, the users are exposed to potential threats as the PIA antivirus app no longer communicates with the Virus Databases for virus identification and solutions.
- Settings > Privacy > Privacy Level (Basic): The application will communicate directly with the cloud servers without any further notice.
- Settings > Privacy > Privacy Level (High): You will receive a notification each time the app communicates with the cloud servers. This will offer full transparency and will empower the customers to fully control what data should be sent or not.
- Settings > Account: In this tab, you will be able to see basic details about your subscriptions. You’ll still need to access the PIA CCP for manipulating your subscription details or changing status.
- Settings > About: In this tab, you will be able to see the current app version, definition version, and links to PP and EULA.