Thursday, June 09, 2011

Add Extra Layers of Protection with Cloud Based Antivirus


Antivirus software is a necessary evil, one that is all too familiar to Windows based PC users.  The problem with antivirus software is that it constantly needs to update it’s virus definitions in order to keep up with new treats.  For example, each time a hacker creates a new way to infect your PC the folks over at your antivirus company has to create a new way to stop that infection.  When the company figures out a way to stop the virus they have to send it out, by way of definitions, to update their customer’s antivirus software.  Each of these updates take time to download, take up space on your hard drive and require an active internet connection in order to work properly.  If you stumble across a virus while surfing the internet before your antivirus software is updated with the new definitions, you will find yourself in trouble.  The virus can disable your antivirus software and/or disable your internet connection and cause you some serious frustration.

To eliminate these requirements and quickly roll out updates, antivirus software companies are taking advantage of “the cloud“.  If you haven’t heard this term before you should Google it because you will be hearing about it much more in the coming months.  The cloud based antivirus works like this:  Incoming and outgoing traffic to and from your computer will be passed through an “anti-virus cloud” which will have the most current virus definitions before it comes to or leaves your computer.  Instead of your computer doing the work, the cloud will do it for you.  Your antivirus company will not have to send you updates anymore, instead it will simply update the cloud.
To date, there are only 3 companies that offer this technology:
  • Panda Cloud Antivirus – is a security service that protects your PC without affecting performance: It scans your PC for potential threat and then quarantine virus based on the info from remote knowledge base and only comes into action when it is necessary.  This is a light and fast antivirus service. It combats new threats without the need for updates, as it operates on the basis of Panda’s Collective Intelligence servers. You won’t even notice it is installed.
  • ThreatFire Antivirus - Threat Fire comes with many options that continually protects your PC against attacks by detecting malicious behavior, such as capturing your keystrokes or stealing your data, instead of only looking for known threats like normal antivirus software. ThreatFire offers database updates through its Smart Update component. ThreatFire’s patent-pending ActiveDefense technology will hunt down and paralyze those threats that are either too new or too clever to be recognized by traditional “signature-based” antivirus software.
  • Immunet Antivirus - uses it’s Immunet Cloud, which is a secure centralized malware detection network that instantly connects users to the intelligent Immunet antimalware engines. Free malware detections from Immunet are always up-to-date in the cloud, and require no downloads to the user’s desktop, delivering lightning-fast malware protection that won’t slow down your PC the way some traditional antimalware solutions do. The beauty of Immunet is it gathers strength daily as the community around it grows.

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