Anti-virus giants fail Vista test

Anti-virus companies including McAfee, Trend Micro and Sophos, have come under fire for failing to detect known threats to Windows Vista Service Pack One. According to independent testing body Virus Bulletin, 17 out of 37 anti-virus products all failed to secure Windows Vista SP1 during its VB100 certification testing. To earn VB100 certification, products must be able to detect 100 per cent of viruses and must not generate any false alarms when scanning a set of clean files. Virus Bulletin said McAfee VirusScan, Trend Micro Internet Security and Sophos Anti-Virus all failed to detect threats known to be circulating in the real world. "Threats that several vendors failed to detect in this test have been circulating in the real world for some months now," said John Hawes, Virus Bulletin's technical consultant. "It is disappointing to see so many products tripping up over threats that are not even new - computer users should be getting a better service from their AV vendors than this." Microsoft released the SP1 update for all versions of its Windows Vista operating system last month. Virus Bulletin claims that the results of its latest VB100 tests should help people decide which products are best suited to the task of providing solid protection for Vista. However, Paul Roberts, senior analyst at The 451 Group, questioned in his blog whether the Virus Bulletin results mattered. He said: "With all respect to the folks at VB, who provide a valuable service to the anti-malware industry, part of this is marketing." "Certifications like the VB100 add prestige and visibility to the magazine and help with subscriptions, and nothing drives attention in the press like a little controversy. Ordinarily, VB100 ratings wouldn’t get a mention. With some big vendors falling down, these just might." Read the results of the VB100 certification of products for Vista.