Major antivirus vendors fail quality test

Antivirus vendors Kaspersky, F-Secure and Grisoft, maker of the popular AVG application, have failed to achieve the strict Virus Bulletin 100 antivirus certification.  

The trio are among 10 antivirus applications for Microsoft's Windows XP that failed to meet the test standards set by Virus Bulletin's June 2007 test. A combined 37 software products were submitted for testing.

The VB100 is known for its strict standards. The test subjects applications to a wide set of malware that spans historical and actively circulating threats.

Qualification requires that software detects all malware that circulates in the wild and does not mislabel any safe files or applications as malware, a phenomenon known as a false positive.

AVG is a popular security application in the consumer market because Grisoft offers a free basic version of the application.

The software has a reputation for solidity and good detection, but the version submitted for testing failed to detect the W32/Rbot virus.

Kaspersky also ruined its generally solid reputation by failing to detect the W32/Allaple virus, and F-Secure's consumer antivirus application missed the same online pest.

Kasperksy and AVG corrected the problem in later updates, Virus Bulletin researchers pointed out. All three vendors passed certification in last February's test for Windows Vista and a June 2006 test for Windows XP.

The same VB100 test re-established Microsoft's OneCare security suite as a capable application. The software achieved certification in June 2006, but failed last February's test on Windows Vista.

The failing products were:

• Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro 2007 5.1214.616
• Ahnlab V3 Internet Security 2007 7.40.1
• Doctor Web Dr.Web 4.33.3.04230
• F-Secure Protection Service for Consumers 7.00
• Grisoft AVG 7.5 Professional Edition
• Ikarus Virus Utilities 1.0.52
• iolo AntiVirus 1.1.9
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0.2.621
• NWI VirusChaser 5.0a
• Proland Protector Plus 2007