Security Software Agencies Unable To Keep Up With Malware

A new study by NSS Labs reveals that security software firms appear to confront problems in overcoming ever increasing malicious programs in the same pace as that of the malware explosions.

States NSS in its report that security software of leading vendors are understood to take 2 days on average for stopping a website created for attacking users' computers. PCWorld published this on June 21, 2010. Evidently, during the research, security investigators put security programs to test against new malicious software detected online.

Said Rick Moy, President of NSS, the company devised a test, which emulates the way people commonly surf on the Web. Inquirer published this on June 21, 2010. Apparently, during the course of the test, the investigators discovered several malicious websites that they accessed through a browser. Subsequently, records were made on when and how different security applications stopped the threats.

Stated Moy, the maximum risk facing organizations was from newly tailored malicious programs. Although security agencies share specimens of malware, yet if any malware goes undetected even for a brief duration via any of the agencies' scanner, then it can silently spread to infect systems and seize data.

Besides, NSS Labs tested ten security applications and selected the ones which performed the worst. It then categorized the suites into 3 classes: caution, neutral and recommend.

It labeled the Internet Security Business Edition of AVG and the Internet Security of Panda Security as "caution." More agencies that were similarly labeled included F-Secure, McAfee, Sophos, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, Symantec, Eset and Norman.

Nevertheless, a few security agencies use reputation systems for spotting a malevolent Internet site that normally has to do with scrutinizing the content of sites that are blacklisted.

On the whole, the agencies took 45.8 hours on average for stopping a website, provided it was possible to stop, the report disclosed.

In the meantime, the report further disclosed that over 50,000 new malware strains were being spotted daily.

It also stated that these findings ought to serve as an alarm for the community of security players, implying that in case it failed to keep pace, serious troubles were imminent.

Related article: Securities Push Up A Must For Web Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 6/29/2010