Panda Anti-Rootkit, the new free security tool from Panda Software for detecting and removing rootkits, has won a PC Magazine USA comparative review and has been awarded the “Editor’s Choice” seal of approval by the magazine.
The PC Magazine review included anti-rootkit solutions such as AVG AntiRootkit, Sophos Anti-Rootkit and F-Secure Blacklight, although Panda Software proved to be head and shoulders above the rest. According to PC Magazine: “Panda Anti-Rootkit definitely digs deeper than any other anti-rootkit tool we’ve seen, and it offers a full and detailed report of exactly what it foundâ€.
The reviewers highlighted the capacity of Panda Anti-Rootkit to detect and eliminate both known rootkits as well as unknown samples using behavioral analysis. They were also pleasantly surprised by the speed of the Panda Software solution, “even though it’s checking processes, drivers, the Registry, the file system, and any Alternate Data Streams it can findâ€.
The reports created by the Panda Software solution after each scan also came in for praise from PC Magazine: “For each item, this report specifies precisely what it deemed suspicious and also indicates the relationships between items. You can save the report for later analysis—a nice touch.â€
PC Magazine concluded by saying: “This truly useful security utility is the only free anti-rootkit that removed all the samples in our testing. It clearly deserves our Editors’ Choiceâ€.
Rootkits are programs aimed at hiding files, processes or system registry entries. Even though they are not malicious by themselves, they are increasingly used by cyber-criminals.
By using rootkits, trojans and other types of malicious code can be hidden on computers. In that way, they can operate surreptitiously without the knowledge or consent of the user and without interference from the antivirus solution. As a result, a computer could be sending spam, launching attacks against other computers, or hosting a trojan waiting for commands to collect confidential data and perform online fraud without the user knowing.
Generally rootkits are not visible to traditional antivirus and anti-malware solutions, as they are hidden by installing themselves as kernel modules, low-level hooks, and patching undocumented functions of the operating system.
Rootkits are not in themselves malicious, but they are frequently used by hackers to hide malware or other malicious action.
Unlike other anti-rootkit tools that merely reveal hidden objects, Panda Anti-Rootkit identifies known and unknown rootkits and gives the option of removing them (including their associated registry entries, processes, files and ADSs).
The Panda solution includes an exhaustive scan monitor to monitor drivers and processes on system startup. It scans at a lower level than any other similar utility, and so detects latest generation rootkits.
Panda Anti-Rootkit can be downloaded free from: http://www.pandasoftware.com/about/press/antirootkits
