Every day of the year, including weekends and holidays, Panda Software provides at least one update to its security solutions to protect against the latest threats.

PC Magazine US has drawn up a ranking of the number of updates provided by security companies in January 2005 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1760884,00.asp), revealing that Panda Software has made 39 (non-beta) updates, as opposed to 7 from McAfee or 6 from Symantec.

According Luis Corrons, director of PandaLabs: “Reactive detection systems -such as traditional antivirus solutions- continue to be the most effective means for detecting and eliminating known threats. Nevertheless, today it is also necessary to have pro-active security systems such as our TruPrevent^TM Technologies to detect unknown threats. These are the perfect the complement to, reactive security solutions, as they immediately send PandaLabs every new suspicious file that they detect, which allows to provide a much quicker response in identifying threats and providing updates for our products. TruPrevent^TM Technologies have demonstrated unprecedented effectiveness when it comes to detecting new threats without generating false alarms”.

In corporate environments, permanent protection against new threats is a critical necessity, given the financial consequences of malware attacks. At the same time however, effective network protection should not be drain on the valuable time of the network administrator. Panda Software includes the Panda AdminSecure centralized administration module, which downloads and deploys (either automatically or manually) the daily incremental updates. This ensures that the network is constantly protected against new threats without the need for intervention from the administrator.

Panda Software provides users with daily, incremental update files.Pedro Bustamante, Chief Marketing Officer at Panda Software, explains how, “the incremental updates to our solutions means that users don’t have to re-download vaccines every day against existing threats, just those that have appeared since the last update”.

Panda Updates: the fastest and most complete protection

Panda Software is, in addition, the fastest company to offer complete protection with incremental updates, according to the “Anti-virus outbreak response testing and impact”(*) study, drawn up by AV-Test.org, in collaboration with Magdeburg University (Germany).

According to this report, Panda Software was the first company to provide completely effective detection of both the malware, and corresponding additional files.

Thirty security solutions were analyzed in the survey, checking -at least every five minutes- the effectiveness of their updates against new viruses that appeared between January and August 2004. "The time lapse between the discovery of a new strain of malware and the availability of the update to neutralize it is a key factor in whether a threat manages to spread successfully or not," explains Andreas Marx, CEO of AV-Test.org. "Given that problems can occur during the update process that prevent users from updating solutions as rapidly as necessary, there is a need for new protection strategies that provide users with adequate protection against malware," adds Marx.

This recognition from within the sector is also reflected in a study by Hispasec, a Spanish laboratory specialized in IT security technologies, which found Panda to be faster than other security vendors in offering protection against the Sasser virus and its B, C, D and E variants  (http://www.hispasec.com/unaaldia/2103/). In fact, Panda took ten hours less than the next fastest company in offering a vaccine to protect users.

Panda Software’s ability to react so rapidly is the result of the work of its PandaLabs team. According to Corrons, “Our main goal is to develop as quickly as possible the detection and disinfection routines to block and eliminate new strains of malware that appear. This is a race against the clock, and the result is critical to ensuring that the computers of users around the world are unaffected by this constant menace”.

(*) The "Anti-virus outbreak response testing and impact" was presented in the annual Virus Bulletin conference held recently in Chicago, and is available at: http://www.av-test.org

Since 1990, its mission has been to analyze new threats as rapidly as possible to keep our clients safe. Several teams, each specialized in a specific type of malware (viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, phishing, spam, etc), work 24/7 to provide global coverage. To achieve this, they also have the support of TruPrevent® Technologies, which act as a global early-warning system made up of strategically distributed sensors to neutralize new threats and send them to PandaLabs for in-depth analysis. According to Av.Test.org, PandaLabs is currently the fastest laboratory in the industry in providing complete updates to users. More information is available in the PandaLabs blog.