A New Anti Virus Using Linux to Wipe Off Windows Malware is Raising Thousands of Dollars on Kickstarter

Jumpshot is a fully automated solution for solving Windows PC frustration. You plug one of the Jumpshot USB sticks into a Windows PC, reboot it, and magically all Trojans and viruses on the system will be destroyed.

Jumpshot is currently on Kickstarter. While initial goal was $25k, it has raised over $75k and 49 days are still left in campaign.

Jumpshot will will be useful in following cases:

• You purchase a brand new Windows computer and want to get rid of the annoying pre-packaged junk software that came with it.
• Your Anti-Virus has failed to remove a virus and nothing seems to be able to get rid of it.
• Your PC performs sluggishly in comparison to friends and co-workers with similar computers.
• You want some insights on the health of your computer hardware and network connectivity.
• You're a savvy technogeek who gets called by friends and family with PC problems.

Jumpshot can do all this while booting into Linux from USB sticks. How will it work? Here is what Jumpshot team has to say:

Jumpshot runs in a custom Linux environment. With the help of some talented open source developers, Jumpshot will automatically load the correct drivers for the person's PC, no matter how old or decrepit it is. 

We then automatically attempt to connect to the Internet and prompt the user for assistance if we can't find a connection or find ourselves trapped in an captive portal (like you get at hotels). Once connected, we pull down the latest Jumpshot engine code which consists of about a dozen different components that run in parallel. As the Jumpshot engine loads, it automatically mounts and attaches itself to every hard drive on the PC that contains an installation of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8. 

Our engine then starts to interface with these Windows instances forensically through disk. This is what we're referencing when we use the friendlier term "PC sedation". The fact that we are able to make changes to a "sleeping" system's Windows installation through Linux is a key differentiator that sets us apart from the other guys. This allows us to easily wipe away malicious viruses, spyware, and bloatware which may be more stubborn and hard to clean due to the fact that the Windows system is actually running. 

Most of you will find it very similar to using a Live Linux USB stick pre-loaded with software like Clam Anti Virus to scan and kill viruses and malware.

How Jumpshot makes a difference? They will make it extremely simple for non-technical users to clean their system. The Jumpshot Linux distro will come across as a full screen kiosk and users will be able to browse the Web. They may add some apps to it in the future but to start, they are keeping everything as simple as possible. Users will also gets Karma points for every bit of malware they remove.

A typical Jumpshot 8 GB or 32 GB USB will include fully functional version of Jumpshot software which takes up less than 200MB, rest of the space can be used by the user. They may keep portions of Jumpshot free for all, but charge for certain new features or provide a subscription service and charge for expanded use for IT organizations.

Jumpshot is nice initiative and the fact that they are using Linux and other open source tools for Virus removal is great. But this can also be done by downloading a Linux distro and running it in Live mode to wipe off viruses on a system, for free. Of course if Jumpshot has a better engine then any existing Linux anti virus software, it will be a better product.