Expert: Brian Benosky - 7/5/2010

Question
Hi Brian, I was wondering what you think of Panda Cloud Free AV and Cloud-Tech in general? Thank's

Answer
Hi Mike

I consider Panda Cloud Antivirus to be a very good addition for specific security arsenals.  No antivirus program is perfect, and Panda has a lot going for it, but if it were perfect, Panda would stop selling their regular Antivirus programs.  The program uses a small amount of space on the host computer, since definitions are "in the cloud".  This makes it an excellent choice for netbooks and older computers.  It also has very fast scan times and catches a high percentage of malware.  But I feel that Panda does not do a good cleanup of already infected computers.  Also, the program lacks some features that competitors, such as ThreatFire, have.  Read a comparison of the two programs here:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb-security/articles/59809.aspx

There is also another good option in Immunet, which uses the smallest footprint of them all:

http://www.immunet.com/free/index.html

I am also a bit wary of the privacy issues involved.  They say no personal information is transferred, but Your Servers are accessing My Computer to scan My Files.  I'm sorry, but I'm sure that there are holes that someone, somewhere, can exploit.
Again, if I were low on resources, cloud security would make sense.  But most computers, and even some netbooks, have no trouble handling today's virus scanners.  Basically, they are very adept at walking and chewing gum at the same time.  Hope that helps, and thanks for the excellent question!

Brian