Panda Security has just launched version 1.1 of its Cloud Antivirus product, which comes with new behavioral-based protection layers, as well as other features. In addition to the free version, an enhanced PRO edition of the security solution is also available for purchase.
The first beta of Panda Cloud Antivirus was
released in April 2009 under the promise of a free antivirus with extremely low resource consumption and great detection rates. The product made use of new server-assisted (cloud-based) malware scanning and intelligence-gathering technology developed by the Spanish security vendor.
At the time, Panda's venture into an already crowded free antivirus market dominated by the three big A's – AVG, Avira and avast! - was viewed with skepticism and given few chances of success. However, looking back now, over a year later, not only did the product deliver on those initial promises, but it has generated a valuable brand exposure for its creator by managing to build a strong user base that is rapidly expanding.
Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.1 brings significant, new features over its predecessor, the most important of which being two behavioral-based offline protection layers. It's worth noting that this sort of malware-detection technology is generally only found in commercial security solutions, with the exception of avast! Free Antivirus 5.
The behavioral protection is handled by two separate components. First, there's a behavioral blocker, which,
according to Panda's Senior Research Advisor, Pedro Bustamante, is a system-hardening technology particularly effective against threats hidden in PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS and other non-PE files.
The second component acts as a local host intrusion-prevention system (HIPS), which analyzes the behavior of processes at runtime, killing any that tries to perform malicious actions. However, this protection mechanism is only available to users of the commercial PRO edition.
The new Panda Cloud Antivirus version also vaccinates computers against threats that abuse the Windows Autorun feature to spread. In addition, PRO users will also be able to secure every removable USB storage device inserted in their computer from future infections.
A number of changes, aimed at users who desire a more refined control over the application and who are comfortable with modifying advanced settings, have been made. There are now more options for managing exclusions, as well as restoring neutralized files.
Other enhancements and bug fixes also accompany this release. The scan interface has been tweaked to display more details, the false-positive rate has been improved through a better handling of known good files and the initial background scan has been optimized. Furthermore, the new version features localization for 20 languages.
The PRO edition of Panda Cloud Antivirus comes with a price tag of $29.95, which is close to that of similar products. In addition to previously mentioned features exclusive to this edition, PRO users benefit from automatic and transparent updates and 24/7 professional support in multiple languages.
With Panda Cloud Antivirus, the vendor wants to prove that a cloud-based malware protection model is a viable approach to combating today's complex threats, which routinely manage to evade traditional AV detection. However, the commitment demonstrated with this release strengthens Panda Security's foothold on the free-antivirus market and shows that the product is here to stay.
Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.1 can be downloaded from
here.
Find us on Google+
