Immunet Protect- Free cloud based AV

[norky]

Has anyone tried Immunet Protect? It seems to be a free cloud based av like that panda one.

http://www.immunet.com/protect

[trjam]

here the inventor use to be with Symantec, 32 bit only.

[333halfevil]

I just tested it, and although it has been released for one day, it has a long way to go

[acr1965]

Is this pic accurate? 64 users and protection from 3+ million threats? Anyone try this against real malware yet? I see Immunet says it can run alongside Norton, McAfee and AVG 8.5.


http://support.immunet.com/index.php...SummarPage.jpg

[333halfevil]

Originally Posted by acr1965

Is this pic accurate? 64 users and protection from 3+ million threats? Anyone try this against real malware yet? I see Immunet says it can run alongside Norton, McAfee and AVG 8.5.


http://support.immunet.com/index.php...SummarPage.jpg

I just tested it against many rogues, worms etc. It detected none of them so we shall wait and see.

[kwg]

Once you have Immunet installed it ties you into the Immunet Cloud and allows you to build communities of friends and family. When Immunet Protect detects a threat on your system it automatically makes available protections for it to everyone in your community and to the global community protecting them instantly.

Keep in mind that reliable cloud protection depends on the reports of a large user base. How effective can cloud protection be when the product was released just yesterday, presumably with practically no user base. At least Panda had a huge user base right away when it initiated cloud protection.

I don't understand the purpose of communities, except as a marketing tool. Verizon Wireless does something similar with its Friends and Family program. Shouldn't protection be made available to every Immunet user and not just to those who happen to be friends or family (and, apparently, to those in the community to which your friends and family happen to belong)?

[TonyW]

Originally Posted by 333halfevil

I just tested it against many rogues, worms etc. It detected none of them so we shall wait and see.

From what I can see, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to submit missed detections/false positives. However, it is still beta after all so perhaps this will change as time goes on.

[raven211]

Originally Posted by 333halfevil

I just tested it against many rogues, worms etc. It detected none of them so we shall wait and see.

Just reading this I consider it incomplete - not because it's new and doesn't detect, but in terms of features, and the developer is more lacking behind than being new with his release.

The features I'm talking about are - for example compared to Prevx and/or Symantec (yes, even though he was a part of the company previously - I just find that ironical for some reason... ) - things like asking on unknown files, strong heuristics/behavioral protection, etc. Referring to your findings, it definitely seems to be missing this.

[andyman35]

From what I read here it appears that they've gone about this project the wrong way.A community cloud-based AV is fine if,like Prevx or Panda there is a huge community.However it seems to me that starting from a tiny user base like this product,a strong behavioural or heuristics should have been implemented to compensate for lack of numbers initially.It appears that it relies upon signatures for the most part at present,which is insufficient.Perhaps they'd have been better going down the Hitman Pro route and rented a third party cloud.

[pbust]

If you slap a sniffer on a machine being scanned by this product, you see what seems like hash-based DNS queries (1-to-1 sigs?).

Anybody else has any information on how they are detecting over the cloud using the "community" aspect?

[Atomas31]

Well, when I see the screenshot I wonder how a brand new antivirus with only 64 persons connected to the cloud can have over 3 200 000 threads on his database

[Atomas31]

I read there website and I was wondering : Does Immunet Protect works kind of like Drivesentry does or more like Panda Cloud does? From what I read it seems to works similar at some point like Drivesentry

[Pleonasm]

More background on Immunet...

Current methods for protecting individual PCs from viruses aren't working. So a startup today launched a new, cloud-based approach that is designed to protect whole groups of PCs and users at the same time.

The new, venture-backed company, Immunet, is offering a free application called Immunet Protect that can be downloaded and passed around to friends or business partners for free.

"The way we're fighting viruses today isn't working," says Oliver Friedrichs, a former Symantec executive who is now Immunet's founder and CEO. "Fewer than 50 percent of infections are detected and stopped by the AV products that are out there. That means when I go surfing on the Web, the chances are 50-50 at best that my AV software will prevent me from getting infected."

Playing on the popularity of Internet communities and social networks, Immunet leverages the computers of a user's friends, family and the broader Internet community to speed antivirus protection.

"Every time someone in this collective community encounters a threat, everyone else in the community gains protection from that same threat in real time," Immunet says. "You no longer have to rely on the isolated security of your current antivirus vendor. You will be able to protect your friends and family while being better protected yourself."

Immunet Protect uses a combination of cloud computing, collective intelligence, and user communities to make virus detection and protection more efficient, Friedrichs says. When the software detects a new threat, it triggers an immediate reaction from all of the other Immunet Protect packages in the community, blocking the threat regardless of which AV tool the participants are using. The data is then passed into the cloud, where it can be used by other communities.

"The more users that have it, the better the protection will be," Friedrichs says.

Friedrichs emphasized that Immunet Protect can run alongside current AV products. In fact, he says, it's designed to harness the data from security products that are already in place.

"Immunet Protect collects security judgments on what is, and what is not safe from its community," Immunet says. "These aggregated judgments are coalesced in the cloud, and, if they are sound, made available to the rest of the Immunet community immediately. "

Prevx applied the collaborative concept to the host intrusion prevention system years ago, but the technology did not revolutionize the market, notes Mike Rothman, principal analyst at Security Incite, a security consulting firm.

"Prevx took a similar approach in developing a community oriented network to define malware, but it didn't work very well," Rothman observes. "That could have been for a lot of reasons, and clearly the guys behind Immunet are smart, so maybe they can get this community approach to work."

Rothman also wondered about Immunet's business model, which so far doesn't have a paying product. Friedrichs says Immunet Protect will remain free, even well into the future, but that the company will add additional features or capabilities down the road that may cost extra. The company is targeting consumers first, and will move to the business market later, he says.

Source: Startup Launches Free, Collaborative Antivirus Package

[raven211]

My first reaction after reading the whole thing was: what a load of bull that was spit out about Prevx.

[Pleonasm]

Originally Posted by raven211

My first reaction after reading the whole thing was: what a load of bull that was spit out about Prevx.

Raven211, I agree -- and I disapprove of all such distasteful tactics.

[firzen771]

Originally Posted by raven211

My first reaction after reading the whole thing was: what a load of bull that was spit out about Prevx.

what exactly was said (in summary) i dont really feel like reading through everything

[andyman35]

Originally Posted by raven211

My first reaction after reading the whole thing was: what a load of bull that was spit out about Prevx.

Very poor show from them disparaging a rival product,a product that just happens to be far superior too.

[ronjor]

On Wednesday, start-up Immunet announced its first product, Immunet Protect, a program that checks downloaded files against a directory of malicious software, such as viruses and Trojan horses. The company joins a handful of others in turning much of its detection capabilities into a service offered over the Internet, or the "cloud." Yet, the real difference, say its founders, is the software's ability to protect digital communities--those users connected together via social networks such as instant messaging, Facebook or Twitter.

Article

[firzen771]

Originally Posted by andyman35

Very poor show from them disparaging a rival product,a product that just happens to be far superior too.

ye i got that part... but any info a little more specific?

[raven211]

Originally Posted by firzen771

ye i got that part... but any info a little more specific?

"Prevx applied the collaborative concept to the host intrusion prevention system years ago, but the technology did not revolutionize the market, notes Mike Rothman, principal analyst at Security Incite, a security consulting firm.

"Prevx took a similar approach in developing a community oriented network to define malware, but it didn't work very well," Rothman observes. "That could have been for a lot of reasons, and clearly the guys behind Immunet are smart, so maybe they can get this community approach to work." "

[firzen771]

Originally Posted by raven211

"Prevx applied the collaborative concept to the host intrusion prevention system years ago, but the technology did not revolutionize the market, notes Mike Rothman, principal analyst at Security Incite, a security consulting firm.

"Prevx took a similar approach in developing a community oriented network to define malware, but it didn't work very well," Rothman observes. "That could have been for a lot of reasons, and clearly the guys behind Immunet are smart, so maybe they can get this community approach to work." "

ah thanks and wow that doesnt sound true at all...

[PrevxHelp]

Originally Posted by raven211

"Prevx applied the collaborative concept to the host intrusion prevention system years ago, but the technology did not revolutionize the market, notes Mike Rothman, principal analyst at Security Incite, a security consulting firm.

"Prevx took a similar approach in developing a community oriented network to define malware, but it didn't work very well," Rothman observes. "That could have been for a lot of reasons, and clearly the guys behind Immunet are smart, so maybe they can get this community approach to work." "

We apparently aren't innovative enough to have gathered a whopping ~1000 users relying on hashes for detection We aren't too worried about criticism from "Mike Rothman" at Security Incite - "their" company/website (http://securityincite.com/) doesn't exactly reek of credibility (and he even admits no longer being independent or an analyst from Security Incite in his highly professional blog post titled "Holy Crap! I took a job...").

It may be worth looking at the positive press we've received from Gartner/Yankee Group/other internationally-recognized organizations.

Also a note to anyone testing this - one of our employees installed it and it dragged the system down to terrible levels, even after uninstallation which left their processes loaded with self protection so completely removing it required booting from a rescue CD to disable their drivers

[333halfevil]

Originally Posted by PrevxHelp

We apparently aren't innovative enough to have gathered a whopping ~1000 users relying on hashes for detection We aren't too worried about criticism from "Mike Rothman" at Security Incite - "their" company/website (http://securityincite.com/) doesn't exactly reek of credibility (and he even admits no longer being independent or an analyst from Security Incite in his highly professional blog post titled "Holy Crap! I took a job...").

It may be worth looking at the positive press we've received from Gartner/Yankee Group/other internationally-recognized organizations.

Also a note to anyone testing this - one of our employees installed it and it dragged the system down to terrible levels, even after uninstallation which left their processes loaded with self protection so completely removing it required booting from a rescue CD to disable their drivers

I thought that only happened to me

[raven211]

I have been warned.

[andyman35]

Originally Posted by PrevxHelp

We apparently aren't innovative enough to have gathered a whopping ~1000 users relying on hashes for detection We aren't too worried about criticism from "Mike Rothman" at Security Incite - "their" company/website (http://securityincite.com/) doesn't exactly reek of credibility (and he even admits no longer being independent or an analyst from Security Incite in his highly professional blog post titled "Holy Crap! I took a job...").

It may be worth looking at the positive press we've received from Gartner/Yankee Group/other internationally-recognized organizations.

Also a note to anyone testing this - one of our employees installed it and it dragged the system down to terrible levels, even after uninstallation which left their processes loaded with self protection so completely removing it required booting from a rescue CD to disable their drivers

Might I suggest you make it compulsory for all employees to have a copy of Revo Uninstaller to hand in future.