Cloud security firm Panda Security has released Panda Cloud Office Protection (PCOP) version 6.7.

This new version provides significant technological and functional improvements to help organisations combat the growing number of cyber-attacks.

According to PandaLabs, Panda Security’s research laboratory, one of cyber-crooks’ preferred methods for attacking organisations, especially those with limited IT resources such as SMBs, is by means of zero-day malware capable of exploiting software vulnerabilities to infect systems.

Users of the latest PCOP can now roll-out Panda Cloud Systems Management (PCSM) automatically on their network. This way, PCOP customers will be able to trial PCSM to see its potential with a couple of clicks, without purchasing full PCSM licenses.

This new feature provides organisations with a fully integrated platform that combines security and management, enabling them to defend themselves against cyber-criminals and take control of everything that happens on their networks.

Manuel Santamaría, global product manager at Panda Security, said: "The number of cyber-attacks hitting businesses is increasing, as cyber-crooks look for easy targets and SMBs do not always implement appropriate security measures.

"On many occasions this is due to the fact that they find it too difficult to manage their network security or don’t have a dedicated resource for it".

The latest version of PCOP is said to incorporate significant improvements from previous versions, including anti-malware technologies to detect exploits and pickup zero-day malware, even before it is released.

This new anti-exploit technology detects and neutralizes malware such as Blackhole or Redkit that exploit zero-day vulnerabilities (in Java, Adobe, MS Office, etc.) to infect computers. Similarly, it monitors suspicious processes in real time and detects hundreds of new or as-yet unidentified malware strains every day, including unknown variants of existing viruses.

Santamaría added: "These new features aim to provide SMBs with even better protection, as our Collective Intelligence system enables us to detect more vulnerabilities than our competitors and protect our customers in real time, especially against the new malware variants that appear every day."

Additionally, with Panda Cloud Office Protection Advanced administrators will be able to schedule time limits for URL filtering feature, restricting access to certain Web pages during work hours, with the option for less restrictive browsing outside of this time.