Panda Security Upgrades Cloud-Based Anti-Malware Service to Include Auto Updates

Updated: June 03, 2010

Dubbed Panda Cloud Antivrus Pro, the new edition works to protect computer users online and offline by extending the protections in the free product launched last year. The Free Edition is still available and also offers enhanced functions, while the Pro Edition sells for $29.95 and offers both automated updates as well as support benefits and other features. [Disclosure: Panda Security is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Minimal performance impact

Besides being a popular free cloud security service for home users (about 10 million consumers have downloaded the free version to date), Panda Antivirus pushes another attention-getting message: minimal impact on computing performance. That has helped bring the service into use among SOHO, SMB and even some enterprise users.

Panda Antivirus relies on a proprietary technology for automatically collecting and processing millions of malware samples in the cloud, rather than locally on the consumer's PC. The technology and method, called Collective Intelligence, can swiftly ID and thwart malware as it appears anywhere on the Internet and then update the clients with the fix.

Because the processing is largely done via cloud-based data centers, the client-bourn antivirus software uses a mere 15MB of RAM compared with the 60MB of RAM traditional signature-based antivirus products typically use. It also puts a loss less workload on the processor(s).

Panda Security is pushing the speed superiority of its Collective Intelligence platform in protecting PCs against both known and unknown malware. The company points to recent tests by AV-Test.org that compared leading antivirus programs. In those tests, Panda Cloud Antivirus outperformed the average zero day detection score of competitors by 42.5 percent, said Panda.