Shock: Some major anti-virus vendors fail VB100’s latest test

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 09 April 2008 17:07

Security

Security vendors such as McAfee, Sophos, Trend Micro, BitDefender and Avast have failed VB100’s anti-virus, anti-malware test on Vista SP1, while Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus, AVG, Kaspersky and, surprisingly, Microsoft’s OneCare, have passed the test with flying colours.

Some big security names have been tripped up in a recent Virus Bulletin VB100 test to see which security products provided the most protection against a range of ‘in the wild’ malware and virus threats.

In total, only 17 of 37 products tested failed to gain a perfect rating, underscoring that just because you have an Internet security product installed, you may still be vulnerable to malware and virus threats online.

Virus Bulletin says the VB100 award was first introduced in 1998, and that security vendor products must have demonstrated in VB100 tests that the software has a 100% detection rate of all “In the Wild” viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.

Full details of Virus Bulletin’s testing procedures are available online.

Secure Computing magazine quotes John Hawes, a technical consultant at Virus Bulletin as saying that: “Threats that several vendors failed to detect in this test have been circulating in the real world for some months now. It is disappointing to see so many products tripping up over threats that are not even new. Computer users should be getting a better service from their antivirus vendors than this."

But how revelant are the VB100 tests in the modern era? Paul Roberts of ‘The 451 Group’ says the VB100 test is “broken” – especially considering the test was for Vista SP1 compatible security products, something that apparently not all vendors are fully compatible with, as yet.

Roberts notes that “With all respect to the folks at VB, who provide a valuable service to the antimalware industry, part of this is marketing. Certifications like the VB100 add prestige and visibility to the magazine and help with subscriptions, and nothing drives attention in the press like a little controversy. Ordinarilly, VB100 ratings wouldn’t get a mention. With some big vendors falling down, these just might.”

Is Roberts right? Just how important is a VB100 pass or fail rating? And what’s the full list of companies who passed and failed? Please read onto page 2.