Antivirus that lives in the Cloud …

 

Now a days , everything seem to be adopting itself for cloud computing … the latest edition is an antivirus by PANDA ANTIVIRUS … they call its Cloud Antivirus … which according to panda , lives in the cloud and , consumes least memory … yet provides the best protection against everything threat that internet posses to average joe !!! … But still its in BETA … and so only time can say who much successful it will be in reality … but good thing is , panda thinks to keep it free even after releasing its final version … at present its available only for XP and Vista ( too bad for me , as user of 7 and Jaunty Jackalope ) … but they are planning to release version for windows 7 too

till then , read this article from my favorite site about cloud antivirus …

With threats like Conficker fresh in the public's mind, security remains a top concern for Windows users. Panda Security, publishers of Panda Internet Security and Panda Antivirus, is set to take antivirus where it hasn't been yet: into the clouds. Panda Cloud Antivirus beta bets that nearly three years of development can pay off into a better protection system for users. To that end, Panda's willing to make the client free for personal use--even after it leaves beta testing.

 

the program uses Panda's proprietary cloud computing technology, which they call Collective Intelligence, to detect viruses, malware, rootkits, and heuristics. It takes advantage of "millions of users," according to Panda, to identify new malware almost in real time. Panda says that Collective Intelligence can classify new malware in under six minutes, and that it handles more than 50,000 new samples per day. The Cloud Antivirus works by classifying threats into executables that must be scanned immediately, and non-executables that are checked at a lower priority--usually when the computer is idle.

In exchange for using consumer data to build the Collective Intelligence database, Panda decided to offer the Panda Cloud Antivirus for free, said Pedro Bustamante, senior research adviser at Panda Security.

The new program reportedly takes up around 50 MB on the hard drive and eats around 17 MB of RAM when in use. That compares well against the industry average that Panda provided of 60 MB, and Bustamante said that they're aiming for 12 MB of RAM when in use.

Cloud computing may make sense from a system resources point of view, but what happens to system security when the computer isn't connected to the Internet? "The model we've implemented is to break down the traditional antivirus to client and server, so when the user is not connected they keep a local cache copy of Collective Intelligence, including detections for what Collective Intelligence sees is spreading through the community," he said.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is for Windows XP and Windows Vista, with planned support for Windows 7 when it's released. Bustamante added that it will stay in beta as it's being accepted by users, although they hope it will leave beta by the end of this summer.

from CNET …

Njoy …

Panda Anti-virus : ID theft Trojans on 1 in 100 PCs ???

 

Perhaps as many as 10 million PCs are infected with sneaky programs designed to steal sensitive financial information, anti-virus vendor Panda Security reports.The company found that just over 1 percent of systems belonging to the 67 million people who tried out its free ActiveScan test site last year were infected with malicious software designed to help thieves steal sensitive information about victims. If 1 percent of the world's 1 billion computers are infected, that would mean that this kind of software is on 10 million PCs worldwide, the company reports.

These identity-theft-focused Trojan programs are becoming more sophisticated and more common. Panda's detection rate jumped 800 percent between the middle of 2008 and the end of the year, according to Carlos Zevallos, a security evangelist with the security company. "The report shows a very sobering number," he said. "We don't want it to seem that it is a hopeless battle [but] all businesses innovate, and crime ware is a business."

Identity theft is a big problem. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission estimates that 9 million U.S. residents have their identities stolen each year through a variety of techniques, including dumpster diving, skimming credit card numbers at legitimate businesses, and phishing.

According to Panda, these Trojan programs are a now a serious threat too. Victims of the Trojans are usually tricked into installing the software themselves. They may think they're installing a new plug-in in order to view a video. Once the software is installed, it typically sends messages to a central command and control server.

Although banking Web sites have added a lot of features over the years to prevent hackers in another country such as Russia from logging into online accounts, these banking Trojans can be really hard to stop, Zevallos said. "They essentially have complete control of your machine, so they can send a request from your machine and the Web site will not know that it is not being initiated by the user."

Trojans can take screen shots of everything on your screen and search the machine for credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, resumes -- anything that could be used in identity theft. Today's Trojans can even download software updates from their criminal masters.

Today's most common financial Trojans go by names like Cimuz, Sinowal, and Torpig.

Most of these programs come from China or Russia, but Panda says that a growing number are coming from Brazil and Korea too.

In the past few years, hackers have become very good at cranking out new, slightly altered, variants of their malware, designed to evade anti-virus detection. So anti-virus products will detect identity theft Trojans, but not all of them. Panda said that 35 percent of the infected PCs that it spotted last year were already using up-to-date anti-virus programs.

from … infoworld

Njoy …

Free AntiVirus for One Year !!!

There is one company called CA , ( ahh , its the same company makes ERWin , a very popular database modeling software ) is offering one year free subscription to their Antivirus product .. "CA Antivirus 2008" ... its pretty good antivirus with a very good price --- "free" ...





If you're unprotected, viruses can invade through email, downloads, instant messages, and even Web pages. From there, they can erase your files, damage your hard drive, and destroy the information you value most: photos, music, documents, and more. CA Anti-Virus provides comprehensive protection against viruses, worms and Trojan horse programs ....

All you need is to go to their registration page and get registered to get your Serial Key ....

njoy ... and have a safe system ..

How to Remove LINKSCANNER from AVG !!

People who are using latest version of AVG antivirus (AVG 8) , must be knowing the new feature called LINK SCANNER. Basic purpose of it is to scan all the search result of supported internet search engines like google,msn,yahoo! and provide an evaluation of a safety of that found sites.
But here is the catch , when ever we do any type of search on our favorite search engine this scanner scans "ALL" search results for safety of link and so it takes a "little" longer time then usual and hence it makes us feel like internet is little slow which is not the true reason ( because its that link scanner that makes browsing slow!!!) , here I would like to mention that other AV softwares like McAfee and Norton too provide same tool but lots better performance then AVG ( may be it's b'coz they "CHARGE" for their product ??)

So some people like me want to disable that annoying feature of AVG. Well it can be done from its settings , but you have noticed that if we disable it by that way then AVG will keep on showing annoying "Exclamation Icon" at taskbar.. right??


Well here is the way to Disable that scanner permanently !!! ( i found it on some website)

but before that notice that if you have already previously installed AVG then you have to remove it and reinstall it by following steps...

For ease of use download/copy setup file it to "C" drive.

now open menu Start -> Run

and they type , c:\avg_free_stf_*.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf

/REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch

The installation will be started, and AVG will be installed without the LinkScanner component.

By the way , for your information guys , there is a controversial statement is made for this LINK SCANNER feature of AVG. It says , it Fakes Traffic to searched sites. Means it uses some part of costly bandwidth just to check reliability of that website and in long term it increases the cost of bandwidth. Well its not concern for general people but still its an issue to be looked upon ( Read More about this issue .)

Need Free Anti-Virus??

Now a days we hear about viruses/malware here 'n there , and it makes us always think about safety of our system. Specially when our all important information is stored on hard-disk and having no protection at all !!!
Here are some of the BEST "free"anti-viruses that are available that I like to use ...

• AVG Anti-virus free edition :-

AVG Free offers very good and free protection against viruses and spyware. As a bonus, its real-time Link-Scanner technology keeps you from clicking search links to dangerous sites. It’s an excellent choice if you need free protection against both viruses and spyware. But some people may find its LINKSCANNER feature really annoying ,because it makes you feel like you internet connection really slow and also sometimes it takes hell long time for searching internet sites.
It is perhaps the most most most famous free antivirus.

where to get it .... AVG 8 free edition (46Mb)

• Avira Antivirus Personal Edition :-

AntiVir is relatively popular and you can see why: It's blazing fast, even though it seems to be less than thorough at scanning all the files on the drive. But Avira has at least one terrible feature: Annoying full-screen pop-ups at random intervals advertising Avira's paid software apps. Configuration is about average, and advanced options are available if you dig for them. Overall detection rates look good, making AntiVir a good third choice if the two below don't work for you.

where to get it .... Avira Antivirus Personal (24Mb)

• Avast! Home edition :-

Want an antivirus that looks like MP3 player ?? Then Avast! is for you. Because it has what you need , an interface just like fancy MP3 player. But i think it makes this antivirus little more complicated to configure "thorough scan". So better be careful when configuring this thing. Overall its very good antivirus against detection of new viruses. Good thing is , new version includes ANTI-SPYWare protection.

where to get it .... Avast! Home (26Mb)