Virus Bulletin - 35% of Security Suites Failed on Vista

The security tests conducted by Virus Bulletin (an independent malware journal and website) have revealed that out of 54 security suites tested, 19 were found inefficient for VB100 status (Virus Bulletin's certification).

The software was assessed on Windows Vista Business Edition SP2 with a variety of security simulations and malware. The testers noticed a marked failure of some software to deal with heavy attacks.

John Hawes, Virus Bulletin's Anti-Malware Test Director, stated that the most notable thing of August 2010 was the level of inability of several products to perform under. While their tests put unusual strain on products, it was crucial that security software must continue to work under pressure and should not get failed due to massive attacks, as per the reports by V3 on August 12, 2010.

Further, stumbling blocks for the products in this test included failure to detect some computer viruses known to be circulating in the wild and fake alarms on clean files from big software houses such as Adobe, Corel and Roxio. Besides, the test team faced problems regarding product design and stability.

In addition, Hawes added that flaky behaviour would not infuse a sense of security in users, and developers should ensure that their quality control was systematic and comprehensive in order to keep their users protected, as per the news by Virus Bulletin on August 12, 2010.

Moreover, it is worth noticing that it is not the first time when security issues have been raised about Vista. In 2008, it was stated that almost 70% of Windows Vista on home systems were infected with malware.

As per the security experts, out of every 1, 000 Vista systems, 639 were infected by malware at some point of time during their research period against 586 infections for PCs running Windows 2000. In comparison, Microsoft's Windows XP was the worst performer with an infection rate of 1, 021.

However, Microsoft has refuted the claims stating that it is user's lack of awareness that lead to a high level of infection.

Related article: Virus Infects Through USB Drives

» SPAMfighter News - 8/20/2010