Get used to the words "cloud computing" because it just might become popular jargon for antivirus software in the near future.
University of Michigan researchers developed cloud computing so that applications could be provided seamlessly over the Internet. No more software CDs and no more annoying messages from your computer asking if you want to install this update.
Farnam Jahanian, professor of computer science and engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, along with doctoral candidate Jon Oberheide and postdoctoral
fellow Evan Cooke, conducted the research that led to cloud computing.
"CloudAV virtualizes and parallelizes detection functionality with
multiple antivirus engines, significantly increasing overall
protection," Jahanian says.
Studies are showing that viruses and other similar destructive denizens floating through the Internet are becoming harder and harder to track and fend off while software from traditional vendors is becoming less and less effective.
Cloud computing moves antivirus software into a "network cloud," which analyzes suspicious files using multiple antivirus and behavioral detection programs simultaneously. It can also allow a large number of these malicious software detectors to act at once so they can screen more and more files.
This new technology could also be applied to cell phones and other mobile devices that aren't robust enough to carry powerful antivirus software.
Source: University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke
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