Welcome to the Panda Cloud Antivirus Beta
Today we’re releasing the public beta of Panda Cloud Antivirus, which is the first free cloud-based antivirus thin-client. It consists of a lightweight antivirus agent that is connected in real-time to PandaLabs’ Collective Intelligence servers to protect faster against the newest malware variants while barely impacting PC performance.
Thanks to Panda Security’s Collective Intelligence malware and goodware online database, Panda Cloud Antivirus detects more malware than traditional signature-based solutions which take longer to detect the most recent, and therefore most dangerous, variants.
With Panda Cloud Antivirus we introduce a new protection model based on a thin-client agent & server architecture which services malware protection as opposed to locally installed products. By combining local detection technologies with cloud-scanning capabilities and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus provides some of the best protection with a lightweight antivirus thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.
Our objective is to release a solution based on this new protection model which helps solve the malware problem by improving user experience. After almost 20 years fighting viruses and malware we have changed our mentality at Panda. We would like to open ourselves to you and show you how we pretend to do things. In this blog we’ll explain in depth how this new model works in order to help improve it with you, our users.
As for the beta objectives, we’re interested in collecting information from betatesters, evaluators, testers, etc. that can provide feedback on how the new protection model works under different scenarios in order to help us verify it as a valid model and to adapt it to real life.
Of course keep in mind that this is still beta code and as such we continue improving and tuning both the cloud architecture and detection techniques as well as the agent architecture, specially now during the initial phases. We’ll progressively release new versions which you’ll be able to use as we improve the overall protection and user experience.
Feel free to download Panda Cloud Antivirus if you haven’t done so yet. For suggestions please use the form located at www.cloudantivirus.com and for submitting bugs please use beta@pandasecurity.com.
Safe surfing,
Pedro Bustamante
Senior Research Advisor
http://research.pandasecurity.com
@Tim I’ll pass it on internally to see if the suggestion is taken into consideration
This might be better discussed in private, but the basis of my argument is that the kids that are used to having a Panda in their system tray will graduate and lead companies that will want Pandas in their system tray.
I work for the business side of the College, so the cheaper you make it for us, the more likely they will get “hooked” and spend their millions on your security solution after they become successful.
If you want to give my college a free license for eternity because of my actions, feel, umm, free. I know some nuns and people with general good karma.
If not, I can always have everybody download the beta now, and get the free license later. ;D
But like I said, this is probably better discussed in private.
@Tim We have better suited products for networked computers that I’m sure you’ll like as they are following the same path that Panda Cloud Antivirus is leading. Please contact me at pedro.bustamante@pandasecurity.com.
Pedro, we’ve been working on updating 100 PCs. If you price your solution at what that cost us in labor (anywhere from half an hour to two), I’m sure I will be able to beat my boss over the head until he agrees to pay it.
But I like my boss, so can I still get it free?
it really works awesome, thank you panda Cloud Anti Virus
Have installed Panda Cloud on my laptop, and my grand daughters machine, and am drooling at the prospect of getting it on my Windows 7 machine.
Will you, can you, when will you make it compatable for WIN-7 ?
The wait is excruciating !!!
I have installed Panda Cloud on my Asus Eee PC 901. Very impressed with increased speed and response from my mini PC!
Two questions:
1) Is there a plan to provide root kit scanning capability?
2) As new versions of the program are released will the program issue a prompt to download or is there a way to manually check?
Many thanks!
Gav
Looks like beta 2 is up
@Gav Hale Beta2 has just been released and it has improved active rootkit detection. Yes as new versions come out you will get a prompt from the program with a link to download the new version.
More info about Beta2 here:
http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2009/06/30/cloud-antivirus-beta2-released/
hi i install te new antivirus and looks very good, but i see that there is no firewall for the cloud antivirus.
I think that a good antivirus must have the antivirus protection and a very good and cuztomizable firewall. because the windows firewall is not so good.
Is there going to be a cloud antivirus whith firewall?
@DAVID VEGA Yes eventually we’ll integrate other protection technologies in the future such as behavioural analysis and firewall.
It sounds good that Panda Cloud Antivirus have introduced a new protection model based on a thin-client agent & server architecture which services malware protection as opposed to locally installed products.
I would like to know if there will be changes in the interface of this amazing program once it lives the beta stage.
My question refers to privacy. Panda Cloud seems like a great alternative to paid Antivirus that slow up a computer and take up a lot of space, but how can people be assured that their files are being kept safe and private if they are being sent to and analyzed by a server?
@Jeffrey Murray The short answer is that users can opt out by unchecking the “automatic management of suspicious files” checkbox..
The longer answer is that in the vast majority of the cases the files are not sent to our servers to be analyzed. Only small checksums and signatures of Portable Executable files (.EXE, .COM, etc.) are checked against “the cloud”. In the rare situation where a PE file on your computer being checked that (a) does not exist in our database, + (b) is tagged as suspicious locally and + (c) you have the checkbox of automatic management of suspicious files checked, then and only then is the file sent to our servers for further analysis.