The Big Panda tries an evolutionary breakthrough
Last week, Panda Security releases its new Panda AntiVirus technology, called Panda Cloud Antivirus. What’s with the “Cloud”? From the Panda Security blog post:
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.
So basically it uses its cloud technology on its server to do computational and processes rather than using your computer. It means that instead of downloading & updating your anti virus definitions, the software will connect online to their “Panda Security’s Collective Intelligence malware and goodware online database”. Meaning, the resources used in your computer would be fairly small.
Panda Cloud Antivirus Resource Usage
Here are some screenshots on the processes when idle (which is pretty good & minimal):
However, on one occasion when I found my computer was behaving sluggishly, I found this:
Not sure what it was doing but thankfully it hasn’t happened again so far. I almost uninstalled the application when I saw it.
Panda Cloud Antivirus installation
The installation was pretty easy. Just download the Panda Cloud Anvitirus exe file and double-click it to install.
There weren’t much option to select before the installation which is good for those who don’t really understand much about anti viruses’ terminologies or can’t be bothered to find out what they mean.
Once installed, you’ll be presented with a very simple interface consists of: Settings (Internet settings), Scan (to scan your computer), Report, and Status of your system.
Panda Cloud Antivirus Scan
To scan, simply select the Scan option from the main menu and off you go.
When scanning, the CPU usage is quite high, just like any other antiviruses:
However, I was quite amazed with the result as it found a few Trojans in my computer. They were deleted automatically by Panda Cloud Antivirus.
The others are cookies from my Firefox. Not too sure why they were deleted. I guess the cookies were cookies from advertisement agencies?
Download Panda Cloud Antivirus if you want to give it a try or read more about it on Panda Cloud’s blog. The antivirus is free so it’s a welcome addition to compete with Avast, AVG, or Avira.
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thanks for the long review Michael..i was looking for an antivirus for my new laptop…the CPU spike was only temporary i think..maybe the antivirus needs to collect information on your computer or it scans automatically after the first installation making the CPU usage extra high
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Yup, explained by Salem on the next comment
Hello, Sean-Paul here from the Panda Security team. I’m happy to hear that Cloud Antivirus already helped you remove some malware! Please feel free to chat with us over at http://Twitter.com/CloudAntivirus if you have any further questions!
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Thanks for dropping by and looking forward for the next update!
I think I may know why you experienced terrible lag that first time. I pulled this from their blog:
“If you run an on-demand scan of your entire system right after installing Cloud Antivirus you will experience… slowness because both the initial Background Scan and the on-demand scan are running simultaneously”
Thanks for letting us know about it, Salem. I haven’t experienced any more lag so far, so it’s all good!
I haven’t heard of these people so I am not putting my computer security in their hands until I hear some more good things about it (only time will tell)
Its good to be safe than sorry, but if you’re using free antivirus software, there have been several files found on my computer (1 adware, 1 trojan, and a myriad of tracking cookies) that neither Avast nor CA Antivirus (which I can say is not worth its $29.99 price) detected. And they were legitimate files, according to VirusTotal.com
salem, I use AVG antivirus along with comodo firewall, spybot: s & d and malwarebytes as my security setup. They have been good to me and I haven’t had a problem (and they are all free)
Well the one in my screenshot was from a computer with the corporate version of AVG. Apparently AVG didn’t find anything but the Panda did
Never heard about cloud for the first time in antivirus world. Will definitely check this out!
Nice review.
BTW, i have made a post asking suggestions about any new theme. Can you give me the suggestion.
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Thanks Nihar
As for your theme suggestion, I’ve left a comment (2 actually) on your post
This is a good move dude
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Interesting approach. I believe McAfee has a cloud resource too, called Artemis. The problem is, if the signature base is in the cloud, what if you need to do a scan off-line (because your Internet access is down, because your network may be compromised by a worm, because some virus has already wreaked havoc and cut off your access, etc.)?
I was worried about the same thing; apparently, a local copy is kept for that reason, in the event that you should lose internet, although I’m fairly certain that it isn’t a complete backup.
Salem´s last blog post..my week in tweets (2009-05-17)
Hey Salem, you beat me to it
I was about to answer that there is a local copy kept when the internet access is down.
Although nowadays, a day without an internet is like a day without the electricity!
Sorry about that
I couldn’t resist, could I?
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If a local copy is kept, what’s the point in looking it up in the cloud? A local lookup will always be faster, even if you have the most dizzying fast Internet connection in the world. So, what’s the advantage of that instead of frequent updates? (Norton 2009 is said to be updating the virus database every 5-10 minutes!)
Think of it like this; every file thats scanned while you are connected to your computer is checked with the latest list of virus definitions available. The local cache only has the most recent definitions, however, and does not include any older threats, or anything deemed ‘outdated.’ Better safe than sorry, I suppose. Secondly, (Michael, correct me if I’m terribly wrong), I believe a portion of the actual scanning itself is done in the cloud; a signature is taken from the file, sent to the cloud, checked, and any positives are returned, hence the ridiculously small load on your computer.
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