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August 08, 2008, 03:42 PM ET
Hey, Virus, Get Off of My Cloud!
Having a hard time choosing which antivirus program to use? Researchers at the University of Michigan have a suggestion: Don’t settle on just one.
Computer scientists at the institution have developed a new service, called CloudAV, that lets computer users send questionable software off to a separate server—where a dozen antivirus programs and behavioral-detection tools decide whether the material is safe or corrupted. CloudAV takes its name from “cloud computing,” a term used loosely to describe technology services conducted through an online network, not through software native to a particular user’s machine.
Why rely on the cloud if you’ve already got an antivirus tool sitting on your own computer? Well, as Ars Technica points out, virus-blockers use different methods to pick up on new malware, so “the best software on one day may not hold the title on the next.” A typical antivirus program, acting by itself, might let plenty of malicious software slip through the cracks, but CloudAV spotted 98 percent of the viruses submitted to it, the researchers say.—Brock Read
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