I'm happy to announce that we've finally published our first release beta version of Panda Cloud Antivirus, the first free cloud-based antivirus thin-client (yes, it's a free AV and yes, it's really a thin-client). It is available at www.cloudantivirus.com.

Panda Cloud Antivirus consists of a lightweight antivirus agent that is connected in real-time to PandaLabs’ Collective Intelligence servers to protect faster against the newest malware variants while barely impacting PC performance.

With Panda Cloud Antivirus we introduce a new protection model based on a thin-client agent & server architecture which services malware protection as opposed to locally installed products. By combining local detection technologies with cloud-scanning capabilities and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus provides some of the best protection with a lightweight antivirus thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.

Of course keep in mind that this is still beta code and as such we continue improving and tuning both the cloud architecture and detection techniques as well as the agent architecture, specially now during the initial phases. That's why we're calling out to betatesters out there to help us test this new protection model in different scenarios.

Feel free to download Panda Cloud Antivirus from Download.com.

Get it from CNET Download.com!

For submitting reports please use beta@pandasecurity.com.