Forwarded From: Simon Johnson <simon.johnson@shake.net>
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/techno/4001410.htm
Virus protection doubts
By GARTH MONTGOMERY
The Australian
8sep98
VIRUS protection software is not as good as vendors claim, an independent
study has found.
Anti-virus companies responded to the Shake Communications study by saying
their products never guarantee complete protection.
The study, titled Comparison of Virus Scanning Programs, took 20 leading
virus programs through more than 16,000 known viruses, including
executable files, Word macro viruses, Excel macro viruses, Microsoft
Access viruses, Lotus 123 viruses and Trojans and bait files.
Shake found few anti-virus programs performed consistently across all
categories.
None offered 100 per cent detection of, nor protection against, the
viruses.
Shake used viruses from the Wild List – a voluntary organisation used by
most vendors – the Internet, virus writers, and other public and private
sources.
Network Associates, maker of McAfee Virus Scan, demanded a retest with its
latest code after being dissatisfied with the version Shake tested.
But Shake technical director Simon Johnson said there was very little
improvement when the latest McAfee engine was retested against the same
viruses.
All packages scored reasonably well in detecting executable viruses. Virus
Scan ranked seventh with 92 per cent success.
Virus Scan scored only 69 per cent against macro viruses for Word, Excel,
Access and Lotus 123, with zero detection in the latter two programs.
Network Associates did not return phone calls from The Australian.
Symantec antivirus research centre regional director David Banes said
Shake had done a good job. Norton Anti Virus scored third with 94 per cent
detection of executable viruses, and fourth with 79 per cent detection of
macro-viruses.
"This is a very thorough study but it only measures virus-scanning," he
said.
"Other issues such as multilingual ability, global support and updates are
very important in the purchasing decisions of multinational companies that
need serious back-up."
Mr Banes said Norton Anti Virus was backed-up by Symantec's ability to
disassemble a virus sent in by a company, and build the new definition
into the next product.
"We have weekly updates sent to our users and generally a one-hour
turnaround on technical support," he said.
Cybec's Vet scored 14th with 72 per cent detection of executable viruses,
and eighth with 74 per cent detection of macro viruses.
-o-
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Received on Wed Sep 9 08:37:49 1998