Do a Cloud Scan for Malware and Try for a Prize [Tech News]

[Valampuri]

Is your PC infected with malware? Panda Security says it is, and they're putting their money where their mouth is. Submit to their free online scan and be found totally malware-free, and your company could bring in a cool $7,500. Or, if you're a consumer and you clear the scan, you might win an iPod nano.

Sound too good to be true? I took the challenge and, unfortunately, I brought home no iPod trophy. Happily nothing serious was located, but the scan did locate more than 100 tracking cookies I thought I had already deleted. (There are two scan options: one takes a few minutes, the other a few hours.) The bigger point, though, is that "malware" can have a fairly broad definition.

Ryan Sherstobitoff, who serves as Panda Security's chief corporate evangelist, told us that the free scan offering, ActiveScan 2.0, came about after the company noticed the extent to which consumers and small businesses were infected with malware major and minor.