Free antivirus panders to cloud craze

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

Original article: Panda introduces cloud-based free antivirus from CNET News.com