Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0.1
March 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under Protection Tools
Panda released a new version of Panda Cloud Antivirus, version 1.0.1. This version is basically a cumulative-fix release which incorporates Hotfix-1, Hotfix-2 and some small additional improvements.
The most notable improvement is that we have gotten rid of the initial account registration which used to be mandatory for first-time installs. Panda Cloud Antivirus will not ask for account during install anymore. Only if you want to participate in the Cloud Antivirus Support Forums will you need to create an account.
I have Cloud Antivirus 1.0 already installed. Do I need to download & install this version?
Not really. This new version incorporates hotfixes which you probably already have installed anyway. To check if you have them installed, simply browse to “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users” (XP) and you should see a subdirectory called “HF_PCA_somenumber”.
I have the hotfixes installed but I still have some problems with Panda Cloud Antivirus. Should I install this version?
Yes you might want to give it a try. Below you can find some more detail of what this version fixes which is not included in the existing hotfixes. In order to install this version on top of the one you already have, first uninstall your current version, then reboot and finally download & install the new version from http://acs.pandasoftware.com/cloud/CloudAntivirus.exe.
What’s the changelog of this version 1.0.1?
- Preactivated version does not require account creation during install
- Fix for certain conditions of stuck quick & full scan
- Improved cloud-heuristic detection for unknown malware – From HF_2
- Improved prevalence algorithms for priorization of new malware – From HF_2
- Fix of problems scanning certain files in system directories – From HF_1
- Fix for loss of connectivity after malware disinfection involving LSP – From HF_1
- Improved cloud-heuristic detection – From HF_1
Tests Show Problems With AV Detections
February 7, 2010 by admin
Filed under Security News
Dateline: Moscow.
Here at a security press conference held by Kaspersky Lab, the company demonstrated how some malware detections are easily triggered by innocuous programs.
The problem arises when one vendor detects a threat. Samples are often passed on to other vendors, through multi-scanning services like VirusTotal. The fact that another vendor, particularly a respected one like Kaspersky, detects a threat is enough of a reason to take a serious look at the sample.
After suspecting such problems, Kaspersky created a test which demonstrated the phenomenon. They wrote a series of simple and innocuous programs, compiled them, created false detections for them in their engine, and then submitted the files to Virustotal. Only Kaspersky detected the files at this point.
But standard procedure with VirusTotal is that if at least one of the products detects a submitted sample, it is submitted to the others who didn’t detect it. The idea is that they can then analyze the file and create their own detection.
Instead, what they found was that other companies were creating detections for the false submissions from Kaspersky. The programs create some variables and perform simple mathematical operations on them. They don’t even touch the file system. Kaspersky provided me with the programs and the source code.
Click on these to see some of the detections:
- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/5aee7…1264831301
- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/0de6d…1264867956
- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/b2a11…1264867934
- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/7e79b…1264867923
- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/0b974…1264831241
- http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/0b974…1264867640
But it turns out that the fact that Kaspersky was detecting the threats was not the only reason the others were. The real problems were the aggressive heuristics in the products and that fact that only a static scan was performed.
And there is something suspicious about a program that appears to do nothing and then exits. Other vendors I communicated with on the matter said that the behavior was not surprising and that a live on-access detection on a system with their product installed would not be the same. For instance, F-Secure said that “[o]n the end users Windows box, these alerts would show up as a prompt, asking the user whether he really trusts the program. In addition, we have massive whitelist databases in our back-ends, so such prompts would only appear from new, unknown applications.”
I suspected that the compiler used to generate the samples might itself be an issue, so I asked Kaspersky about it. They used the mingw crosscompiler, a gcc version for Linux that generates Win32 binaries. It’s possible that the same source code compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio would have generated a different reaction in the anti-malware products, not that it should make a difference. But Kaspersky then creates a “hello world” program with the same compiler and settings and uploaded it to VirusTotal; hours later, even though there were no Kaspersky detections, 2 other products called the sample “suspicious”.
This problem is not entirely new; Hispasec Sistemas Lab of Spain, the company that operates VirusTotal, wrote about it a few months ago (original Spanish, Google translation to English). As they point out, the volume of samples coming into company labs is so enormous that the vast majority has to be handled by automated analysis processes, and perhaps they are designed to be a little more paranoid than humans.
Kaspersky Lab has written an Analyst’s Diary entry on the issue as well.
By Larry Seltzer from PCMag.com
Cloud Antivirus 1.0 Final Release
November 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under Protection Tools
Panda Cloud Antivirus Beta is finished. Version 1.0 is finally here!
First of many thanks to the millions of beta testers and specifically to those who have given us feedback and helped improve the product. We think we have fixed all the issues you have reported.
If you have any of the previous versions installed (Beta1, Beta2 or Beta3) do the following:
1- Uninstall your current version.
2- Reboot your computer.
3- Download version 1.0 from http://www.cloudantivirus.com and install.
4- If you already have an account from Beta3, you can use the same one. Otherwise the installer will prompt you to create a Cloud Antivirus account.
As a reminder, don’t forget to use the Panda Cloud Antivirus Technical Support Forum for posting any issues you might experience.
Thanks again for helping us create this great free antivirus !!! 
http://www.cloudantivirus.com/
Panda’s Cloud Antivirus leaves beta behind
November 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under Security News
First introduced in beta in April, Panda Cloud Antivirus graduates to a stable, public release and signifies a major security vendor taking aim at the freeware competition–instead of the other way around. Cloud Antivirus was notable on its beta release for being one of the few security options available to users that contained most of its protections in the cloud. This allowed it to protect users while consuming significantly fewer resources than many competing programs.
Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0 is notable as a free security solution for two reasons: Panda is a reputable security vendor, and the program achieves its goal of freeing up system resources. In a press release, Panda Security CEO Juan Santana described Cloud Antivirus as a game-changer. It’s not clear quite yet that that’s the case, but at the very least the program looks to fill a niche created by resource-conscious netbooks.
As light on resources as advertised, Cloud Antivirus offers strong reputation-based protection for those who want their security program out of sight and out of mind. A third-party efficacy evaluation wasn’t available at the time of writing, but in empirical testing the program only used 9 MB of RAM while idle, and only 56 MB of RAM when scanning. Many other security programs will run scans at 150 MB of RAM or more.
Despite keeping most of its database in the cloud, Panda Security’s Senior Research Advisor, Pedro Bustamante, noted during an interview in October that Cloud Antivirus isn’t disabled just because the host computer is disconnected from the Internet. “Panda has an offline mode that uses a small cached copy of Collective Intelligence on your local drive, it’s only the most recent threats on a real time wild list.” Collective Intelligence is the name that Panda gave its cloud system when it was introduced in 2007.
When you open Cloud Antivirus, the main window lets you know whether you’re safe or not with a big red or green icon. Cloud Antivirus works as other antivirus solutions do, offering a Quick Scan and a Custom scan for specific folder, files, and drives, but its ancillary features are exceptionally light. The Quick Scan took 13 minutes on my Windows 7 Lenovo T400 laptop.
Dragging an active Cloud Antivirus window, in Windows 7 at least, will turn it translucent.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)
You can opt out of contributing anonymous data to the cloud, but that also opts you out of automatic threat management. There’s a network connection proxy option should you need it, and a reporting feature that will show you what kind of threats have been detected and removed from your computer. You can filter the report by All, Last 24 hours, Last Week, or Last Month, and there’s a Recycle Bin pane from which you can recover a false positive, should you need it. Unfortunately, the Recycle Bin is hidden behind an obnoxious “flipping” screen that cheesily rotates when you need to access it.
If you’re familiar with the minimalist Microsoft Security Essentials, Cloud Antivirus is even simpler. I did notice some odd interface rendering around the minimize and close buttons in Windows XP, but not in Windows 7. There are other more serious concerns about the program. Most notably, it lacks a scheduler, and it removes user input from update functions. Scans are also limited: you can tell the program what to scan, but not what to look for, so forget about toggling heuristics or rootkits. Then again, the point of this kind of security is that it’s all wrapped into one.
Keeping in mind its limited feature set, and that we don’t have efficacy numbers at the time of reviewing, Panda Cloud Antivirus makes good security choice for those willing to take the plunge.
by Seth Rosenblatt from Cnet
Free Cloud Antivirus 0.08.81 Beta2 from Panda
July 4, 2009 by admin
Filed under Protection Tools
This lightweight antivirus application caters to your system without having to take up half of your PC resources. Panda Cloud Antivirus is based on cloud computing, and is only partially installed on your computer and keeps core files on a dedicated server on the Internet.
The graphical user interface is very easy on the eyes and is actually one of the top interfaces I’ve found for free antivirus software’s.
Features and Reliability
One of the key features of this antivirus software is that you don’t have to manually update it. Complicated configurations and having to download new signature files is pretty much a thing of the past this Panda Cloud Antivirus. However, this doesn’t mean you remain unprotected when disconnected from the network: this antivirus app features a local cache that keeps the program up and running, continuously working at 100%.
When I ran a quick scan, the scan itself lagged a little at first, however it quickly picked up after 30% of the computer had been scanned. For the most part, the speed of Panda Cloud Antivirus is dependent on how much free memory you have, how many apps are installed, folders, and a variation of stored data. You should expect a regular scan to take an average of 40-70 minutes to complete.
Once the program has been installed, if you ever wish to open up the task manager to check on the effects of Panda Cloud on your system you’ll be able to find it listed in your task manager under PSANHost and PSUNMain. One thing that I can say is that during the scanning there were very few apps that were noticeably acting sluggish, even the Internet connection and PC speed where up to par.
This new program should take up around 50 MB on the hard drive and eats around 17 MB of RAM when in use.
Conclusion
All in all, besides lightness as its main attribute, Panda Cloud Antivirus is quite a simple antivirus tool that can’t be scheduled to run automatic scans. It would also be beneficial for this antivirus software to include effective filters for web, email, or support to detect any spyware. However, as a software that’s very much still in beta, it’s what you’d expect.
Panda Cloud Antivirus was designed fo Windows XP and Windows Vista, with Windows 7 support in the near future.
[ Download Cloud Antivirus 0.08.81 Beta2 ]
By Joel Reyes from Make Use Of
