HomeNewsWorldwide News11 out of 26 anti-virus products fail VB100 certification

11 out of 26 anti-virus products fail VB100 certification

10 October 2009

Of the 26 products tested 11 failed to achieve VB100 certification, all of the failures being at least in part due to incomplete detection of one or both of a pair of highly complex polymorphic file-infecting viruses.

The results of the RAP ('Reactive And Proactive') tests conducted at the same time showed a continuation of the trends and patterns seen in recent tests, with dual-engine products from Trustport and G Data showing particularly remarkable scores.

Virus Bulletin's Test Director John Hawes said: "This month's test was a real challenge for the products, with two separate variants of a particularly tricky polymorphic virus included in our core WildList set. We used large numbers of samples of each to thoroughly measure accuracy of detection, and showed that many products continue to have trouble with these nasties."

Hawes continued: "On a brighter note, there were some quite impressive scores in our RAP test, showing that some vendors are doing a good job handling the large volumes of new malware appearing every day. Looking at the long-term picture, we can also see some products achieving high levels of consistency month on month, which is also a good indicator of a solid, well-run lab. We're looking forward to seeing if these trends continue with a wider range of products in our first comparative on Windows 7, due soon."

VB's cumulative RAP quadrant gives a quick visual reference as to products' reactive and proactive detection rates - with the better performing products placed in the top right-hand corner:

Virus Bulletin's RAP testing measures products' detection rates across four distinct sets of malware samples. The first three test sets comprise malware first seen in each of the three weeks prior to product submission. These measure how quickly product developers and labs react to the steady flood of new malware. A fourth test set consists of malware samples first seen in the week after product submission. This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques.

The results of the October 2009 VB100 certification review can be seen here.

The full review, including detailed results tables, is available to Virus Bulletin subscribers here or in PDF format here.

A full description of the RAP testing methodology can be seen here .

Source: Virus Bulletin