Vista anti-malware products fail virus tests

Virus Bulletin tests looked at 37 different Vista-based security programs and found 17 failed, including big name products from McAfee, Sophos, and Trend Micro.

By John E. Dunn, Techworld

It's fortunate that Vista-specific malware is still in its infancy because a new test of anti-malware products running on the platform has found that many don't work as well as they should.

The latest independent Virus Bulletin tests looked at 37 different Vista-based security programs to see which could manage to reach the level of threat detection required for 'VB100' Certification. Out of 37 tested, 17 failed the tests, including big name products from McAfee, Sophos, and Trend Micro.

Before users rush to de-install Vista products from those companies, the VB100 sets an incredibly high detection bar of 100 percent of a subset of malware defined by a malware collection known as the 'WildList.' Programs must also, using default settings, avoid false positives - false flagging files as malware infected when they are in fact innocent.

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