Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Our company tested Panda Global Protection 2009 as part of a series of tests of various security suites. The program installs with little difficulty, and is very easy to use. After we installed Panda on out Pentium IV 2GHz test system, about a dozen programs run in the background protecting your computer.
All features of Panda are available when not logged into Windows XP/2000 as an Administrator. You can choose which features of Panda require a supervisor password, nice for a corporate environment. The labels for the controls are somewhat cryptic. "Self-diagnosis" is not explained, viruses are called "known threats". Enabling spyware and malware scans is hidden under "Advanced Settings" under "Known Threats". Scanning for "Unknown Threats" uses Panda's heuristic and behavioral analysis systems to proactively defend against rogue programs not covered under antivi... uh, "known threats". There is a check-mark to "Enable protection against vulnerabilities" that isn't explained.
The performance benefits are a mixed bag. You will notice that boot-up and shutdown will take 20 seconds longer (on our Pentium IV 2GHz system). This is acceptable to us because Panda is aggressively scanning the computer. Also, except for occasional slowdowns explained below, Panda is very efficient in the background and our 2GHz system barely noticed the background protection.
Now, we did notice intermittent slow downs on our 2GHz test system - the computer would slow down noticeably, and even the mouse pointer would turn into an hourglass.
We turned off the Panda firewall and enabled our company standard Agnitum Outpost firewall. After 1/2 an hour, we looked at the logs and we were shocked at what we found.
Panda seems designed to secretly access the internet on a regular basis and send out LOTS of data. And I mean, LOTS. Over a 25 minute period Panda appeared to transmit 768K of data from my computer to Panda's servers.
We had turned off auto-updates, and turned off all options for sending usage data back to Panda. But although Panda had no reason to go outside and play, Panda SENDS LOTS AND LOTS OF DATA OUT FROM YOUR COMPUTER ACROSS THE INTERNET on a regular basis, almost once every 90 seconds.
We logged access to the following domains, each one originating from a Panda program. These were the only domains we are certain originate from the Panda software:
- cache.pandasoftware.com (accesses every 3-5 minutes)
- proinfo.pandasoftware.com
- platis.updates.pandasoftware.com (remember, updates were OFF)
- pandalabs.pandasecurity.com
- acs.pandasoftware.com
- c5.edgesuite.com
- a1913.g.akamaitech.net
- a1945.g.akamaitech.net
- filterdb.iss.net
- bannerfarm.ace.advertising.com (this was a surprise!)
- (a series of IP addresses I won't publish)
These were all OUTBOUND connections.
Hands down, cache.pandasoftware.com was the most prolific. No less than 3 minutes, but no greater than 5 minutes, Panda sent between 13K and 116K of data to that URL.
Panda also made regular accesses to our DNS servers.
Evidently, the Panda software thinks it's entitled to made these accesses and interprets blocking them as an attack. With an internet connection, when an Outpost firewall alert came up for the above domains and if we clocked "Block", the screen suddenly went black and apparently had either locked up or crashed. No amount of coaxing could get the computer to keep going, so we had to power off and on.
The privacy statement for the software can only be viewed during install. The software's privacy statement is not on the install CD nor is it on your hard drive after installation. If you don't print or save the text, you don't get to see it after install.
Panda's privacy statement is dangerously to the point: "for the purpose of contracting and using the program, the licensee may have to give PANDA certain personal data", "The licensee accepts that PANDA may use such information as part of the services provided in relation to the product, and that he/she may receive marketing information. The licensee acknowledges and accepts that PANDA may provide updates or additions to the software which automatically download to his/her computer."
As you can see, "certain personal data" is not spelled out. But after reading the rest of Panda's privacy statement, it is frighteningly clear that the agreement allows for the collection of any data from your computer, and the program may be modified by Panda in any manner they see fit for any reason without notifying you. They don't even try to hide what they are doing.
I called Panda Tech Support (they waived the $19.95 per incident for us) and it only took five minutes to reach a polite and friendly tech support person that was located in the USA. We asked for an explanation for all the internet access. We were first told that even with auto-updates turned off, Panda checks an online database of updated antivirus information whenever it scans. Although the support person was openly concerned and did try to find out what all the internet access was about, his up-line support offered him no further clues as to what Panda is sending from our computer to theirs.
As a result of all this effort, I'm happy to report that Panda Global Protection 2009 uninstalls flawlessly.
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