Security software tests requires more accuracy
Picking up the best product of the variety of products offered by vendors does not actually mean your machine is safe and you are good go. As far as all the security programs including antivirus software are tested, the one that kills off all the harmful things that may infect your computer through internet best should be the most trustworthy, right? That’s rather far from truth.
The industry of security products is growing; the software is becoming more and more complex therefore the test has to be the most up-to-date. The main problem here is that other technologies, designed to protect computers or other machines, are tested not as properly as they should be. Although the relationship between vendors and testing organizations depend on the success of the test and when the program fails to pass it the relations get tense, both sides agree that the testing regimes need to be overhauled to make the most of the product and guarantee a really good quality for the users.
Although now security software has many ways to detect and block malware, one of the most common tests involves a simple procedure of running a set of malicious software through a product’s antivirus engine, which includes indicators that enable systems to identify unwelcome software. This way of testing security software is quite old and doesn’t reveal all the capabilities and even disadvantages of the program. Maybe that’s the reason of Marks Kennedy’s words “I don’t think anyone believes the tests as they are run now…”
Moreover, malicious software created by hackers is threatening the effectiveness of signature-based detection. As far as new viruses and other harmful programs are created or the old ones updated everyday, vendors have added overlapping defenses to detect and, if possible, destroy the malware.
The program now employed by vendors is called behavioral detection technology. Basically it works only when a suspicious malware takes an action on a machine. The user may download some malicious programs without even knowing that, but the behavioral detection technology won’t do anything to stop it. The existence of the malware will be detected and stopped only when it’ll make some action, e.g. start sending spam. The attacks may also be stopped by firewalls and packet inspection techniques.
Computer may be infected with harmful software through different ways and this fact makes the comprehending test even more complex. For example, one test should be done if the system is infected by opening an email attachment and a rather different one if it was harmed through opening a website. The different models of attack involve different defenses, which should all be checked and guarantee the effect.
The tests that are run now are very easy, very cheap and take as long as five minutes.
There are more concerns when talking about malicious software, such as sample sets, the age of them and the relative threat that samples pose on the internet as they age.
While choosing security software for your system, first of all check out for some information about vendors. They all try to make well qualified products, but there are some that fails to pass the test more often than others. Choose the one has least failures. Such aspects as usability and popularity are also very important.
Although signature-based tests can not represent the way things are in the real world, they can indicate the reliability and consistency of vendor’s software.
Last month at the International Antivirus Testing Workshop in
Some new tests are already performed and although it uses between 30 to 50 malware samples, it is considered to be better indication of how a security software suits performs than those which uses more than 600,000 malware samples.
As a computer can face a high risk without any security software, are offered to use it at a minimum, and use the one that is available on the internet. Paying sums of money for questionable quality products is a method that will not necessarily work; you may get disappointed as well as after using a free program downloaded from the internet.
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