Panda Launches ëInfected or Not?í Campaign to Highlight the Prevalence of Malware

In 2006 Panda Softwareís award winning PandaLabs received more malware than in the previous fifteen years combined. PandaLabs now receives up to 1500 unique examples of new malware everyday, compared with an average of 400 per month prior to 2006. In response to this massive increase in malware prevalence, Panda Software is launching an awareness campaign, providing easy access to their new online scanning tools via www.infectedornot.com.

Panda NanoScan and Panda TotalScan are currently at the Beta stage of development, and are due for release in May 2007. These brand new tools are freely available to use right now and contain some of Pandaís latest mega-detection technologies. NanoScan is a rapid, light scanner that currently detects over 750,000 active viruses, spyware, Trojans and other malware within just one minute. TotalScan is a comprehensive scanner that can detect over 819,000 active and latent malware threats, and takes between five minutes and an hour depending on the users scanning preference.

Although at the Beta stage, both scanners are stable, and incredibly effective at detecting malware. Users of non-Panda anti-virus and Internet security products can download from www.infectedornot.com without compromising their existing protection, and can use the Panda tools to gain a second opinion on their existing security.

Based on the real-time statistics available on www.infectedornot.com, over the 24 hour period prior to writing, 65.38% of all the PCs without antivirus software that were scanned were infected with malware. Amongst PCs with antivirus software installed, the figure only dropped to 51.71%.

Mark Watkinson at Panda Software UK, said: ìThese new mega-detection scanning tools represent a significant leap forward for combating the problem of malware. They are freely available and will alert PC users to the very real threat of malware. The statistics do not lie, even with popular anti-virus packages installed, PC users are not guaranteed to remain protected against new and innovative malware. There is no cost for using www.infectedornot.com and after the beta campaign we will be making both Panda NanoScan, and Panda TotalScan fully available online on the Panda website. I urge users to make the most of this service. Just donít be surprised if it finds malware!î