Anti-Virus Software With Multiple Engines

I am familiar with all mentioned in the article. However, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Qihoo to include it's reporting other anti-virus software and search tools as being malicious, deceptive marketing practices and various privacy issues so I would not recommend using this product.

AV Comparatives, AV TEST and Virus Bulletin make allegations of inappropriate behavior by Qihoo 360

...three of the worlds most renowned and trusted security testing bodies, AV Comparatives, AV? TEST and Virus Bulletin, stand united to censure security vendor Qihoo 360 after finding the firm submitted products for comparative and certification testing which behaved significantly differently from those made available to its users and customers. The three testing bodies will revoke all certifications and rankings awarded to the companys products so far this year, and going forward will insist on more open and fair dealings to ensure users are provided with the most accurate information possible. Investigations by the three labs found that all products submitted for testing by Qihoo had one of the products four available engines, provided by Bitdefender, enabled by default, while a second, Qihoos own QVM engine, was never enabled. This included versions posted to ostensibly public sections of the companys websites....

More information in these articles:

• Antivirus Company Qihoo Censured for Cheating in Lab Tests
• Qihoo 360 Accused Of Faking A Microsoft Patch
• Privacy Issues With China's Qihoo 360 Technology
• Online security firm accused of stealing user info
• The 1 Company You Need to Avoid in 2013
• Qihoo's "Backdoor" Suspicions Erupt In User Backlash
• The 360 Safe Browser is not as “safe” as you might think

Many other anti-virus solutions combine the Bitdefender engine with their own technology. For example, Emsisoft uses the Bitdefender anti-virus engine (on-demand file detection) including file-based signatures in their threat database as well as heuristics. F-Secure, SurfRight (HitmanPro), BullGuard, G DATA and several other security vendors all use the Bitdender engine.

• Anti-virus vendors that use Bitdefender Engine

I am familiar with all mentioned in the article. However, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Qihoo to include it's reporting other anti-virus software and search tools as being malicious, deceptive marketing practices and various privacy issues so I would not recommend using this product.

AV Comparatives, AV TEST and Virus Bulletin make allegations of inappropriate behavior by Qihoo 360

...three of the worlds most renowned and trusted security testing bodies, AV Comparatives, AV? TEST and Virus Bulletin, stand united to censure security vendor Qihoo 360 after finding the firm submitted products for comparative and certification testing which behaved significantly differently from those made available to its users and customers. The three testing bodies will revoke all certifications and rankings awarded to the companys products so far this year, and going forward will insist on more open and fair dealings to ensure users are provided with the most accurate information possible. Investigations by the three labs found that all products submitted for testing by Qihoo had one of the products four available engines, provided by Bitdefender, enabled by default, while a second, Qihoos own QVM engine, was never enabled. This included versions posted to ostensibly public sections of the companys websites....

More information in these articles:

• Antivirus Company Qihoo Censured for Cheating in Lab Tests
• Qihoo 360 Accused Of Faking A Microsoft Patch
• Privacy Issues With China's Qihoo 360 Technology
• Online security firm accused of stealing user info
• The 1 Company You Need to Avoid in 2013
• Qihoo's "Backdoor" Suspicions Erupt In User Backlash
• The 360 Safe Browser is not as “safe” as you might think

Many other anti-virus solutions combine the Bitdefender engine with their own technology. For example, Emsisoft uses the Bitdefender anti-virus engine (on-demand file detection) including file-based signatures in their threat database as well as heuristics. F-Secure, SurfRight (HitmanPro), BullGuard, G DATA and several other security vendors all use the Bitdender engine.

• Anti-virus vendors that use Bitdefender Engine

 

Thanks for the information and giving me a heads up on the controversy surrounding Qihoo. As you mentioned that you are familiar with all the programs mentioned in the article, can you suggest one from that list or do you know one which is not in the list but supports cloud scanning using multiple engines? Would it be wise to say that such programs can provide the first line of defense?

 

I was using BD total security till sometime but due to the high disk usage issue especially during an update, I am considering an alternative one which uses definitions from BD. Again a big thanks for providing the link to a list of all A/V software using BD definitions.

...As you mentioned that you are familiar with all the programs mentioned in the article, can you suggest one from that list or do you know one which is not in the list but supports cloud scanning using multiple engines? Would it be wise to say that such programs can provide the first line of defense?...

The user is the first and last line of defense and security is a constant effort to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. The end user needs to stay informed, constantly educate themselves about the latest malware threats as well as those recommendations by security experts on how to protect themselves and follow Best Practices for Safe Computing. Security begins with personal responsibility and includes a comprehensive approach.

With that said, SecureAPlus and HitmanPro uses the cloud...you may want to read the SecureAPlus Freemium Topic Discussion.

As Mr. Quietman7 just mentioned SecureAPlus, I will piggyback on his comment with my own experience...

 

In summary: Love it!

 

After a full/ lengthy initial scan at iinitial nstall, many apps require user confirmation, and, after initial setup, it works off a global whitelist, pretty much blocking anything from sources it is unsure of, but easily asks the user to block or allow, which I am perfectly OK with. (I'd rather it ask me as opposed to allowing it simply because something is not a known malicious download...)

 

My system runs at 1-2% cpu utilization, so it is certainly not some large system resource hog that I can tell. (I have used SecureAPLus on both an HP AMD A4 APU 2.0 GHz dual core laptop and my 7700K/Z270 based system, and each runs well with it....)

Panda AV uses the cloud.

Yes and with Panda Cloud Anti-virus you do not need to be connected to the Internet all the time in order to be protected. Panda stores a local cache copy of "Collective Intelligence" for offline operation. If you are disconnected from the net, it still works in the background, checking files against its local cache of the most common threats in circulation.
Arguments against cloud-based antivirus.

A malware could cripple the Internet connection and render the cloud antivirus useless
Exactly the same thing could happen to the traditional signature based antivirus. If a malware gets through the traditional signature defenses and manages to disable your Internet connection, you will not be able to get signature updates from your AV vendor and therefore will not be protected against the new malware variants, rendering your traditional AV just as useless.

Cloud-based antivirus do not protect while offline
While this might be true of some cloud-based antivirus implementations, in the case of Panda Cloud Antivirus it is not true. Panda Cloud Antivirus has a local cached copy of the Collective Intelligence cloud servers. This local cache is tasked with detecting (even while not connected to the Internet) malware that is in the wild, non-PE malware and other threats. Unlike traditional signature updates, this local cache update is a moving target of what the community sees as circulating out there in the wild. Therefore it is able to efficiently protect against the important threats.... Panda Cloud Antivirus has the best of both worlds; it includes local protection for offline and the most effective protection while online.

Sophos Cloud works in a similar manner.

Thanks a lot guys for your valuable feedback

You're welcome on behalf of the Bleeping Computer community.