Panda Security, the Spain-based antivirus software, today released a new free antivirus program called Panda Cloud Antivirus. The “Cloud” appellation comes from its sending data about files to Panda servers on the Internet for scans, instead of using your PC’s resources.
Cloud Antivirus will send a file’s signature and heuristic data (see below) up to Panda servers, which evaluate the info to decide whether the file is harmful or not. Panda’s servers take in files from user submissions, honeypots and other sources to construct its signature and scan database, but the free client won’t send the actual file from your PC.
Panda Security Press Release: “Panda Security, a leading provider of IT security solutions, today announced the global beta release of Panda Cloud Antivirus, the industry’s first and only free cloud-based antivirus thin-client with 50 percent less impact on PC performance compared to the industry average. Consumers can download the free product from http://www.cloudantivirus.com.
With Panda Cloud Antivirus, Panda Security is introducing a new protection model that utilizes a thin-client agent and server architecture which processes and blocks malware more efficiently than locally installed signature-based products. By moving the entire malware scanning and determination process to the cloud and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus is able to provide advanced protection against new and unknown viruses with a lightweight thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.
Traditional antivirus products for PCs rely on multiple locally installed technologies which intercept each file at different layers (entry vector, file system and execution) and scan them using various techniques (antivirus, heuristics, intrusion prevention, behavioral analysis, etc.). This process results in heavy usage of local PC memory and CPU resources, negatively impacting performance.”
Download your free copy here.
