I know this is off topic but I thought this might interest some of you. I get asked all the time about viruses from my students and clients so three years ago I started doing an IT security workshop with all my classes. One part of it is testing and trying out various antivirus programs. I personnally ran all the tests myself and then the students so we could make sure the results are consistent. So here's in short a hand out they received.
Dave's mega antivirus test:
• Most of the popular antivirus programs found today was used.
• Every antivirus program were fully updated prior to test and set to their deepest scanning settings.
• The exact virus count in the file is unknown but there are over 10000.
• The file contains many types of viruses, trojans, worms etc.
• Scans were done on a P4 2.8c with Windows XP pro sp2.
Antivirus Viruses found
McAfee VirusScan 8 9883
Panda Platinum Internet Security V8.05 9985
F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.41 9976
Kaspersky 4.5 9996
Kaspersky 5 9967
Avast.Professional.Edition.v4.6.623 9757
Bit Defender Professional Plus 8 9953
Eset Nod32 v2.12.1 9689
Grisoft AVG Pro.V7.0.143 9507
Trend Micro PC-cillin 2003 9938
Trend Micro PC-cillin 2005 10084
Symantec Norton 2004 10028
Symantec Norton 2005 10028
F-Prot 3.16a 9386 (+549 ‘suspicious’)
Etrust EZantivirus 2005 7.0.6.7 9580
Notes and comments:
• PC-cillin 2005 found the most viruses, AVG pro, EZ AV and F-prot found the least…
• Norton is ironic, much like viruses, it brings down to it’s knees even the fastest computers!
• Nod32 and F-prot where the fastest scanners, AVG was the slowest
Verdict: Although none of the Antivirus was perfect, some did stand out from the pack for their scanning ability, performance and ease of use.
Kaspersky 5: The tests revealed that when it comes to Trojans, exotic and rare viruses, Kaspersky is the leader of the pack. It found some that none of the others did. I ran the test several times and v.5 found less than v4.5 so it’s a little step backwards… The interface could use some improvement.
Bit Defender Pro 8 and F-Secure: Very good all around, they performed well but not great, yet they didn’t have any weak points either in any aspect.
PC-cillin 2005: It found more than any of the other antivirus programs; it performs very well but is a bit slow when scanning.
So there you have it, hope this makes your computers a bit more virus free!
Dave's mega antivirus test:
• Most of the popular antivirus programs found today was used.
• Every antivirus program were fully updated prior to test and set to their deepest scanning settings.
• The exact virus count in the file is unknown but there are over 10000.
• The file contains many types of viruses, trojans, worms etc.
• Scans were done on a P4 2.8c with Windows XP pro sp2.
Antivirus Viruses found
McAfee VirusScan 8 9883
Panda Platinum Internet Security V8.05 9985
F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.41 9976
Kaspersky 4.5 9996
Kaspersky 5 9967
Avast.Professional.Edition.v4.6.623 9757
Bit Defender Professional Plus 8 9953
Eset Nod32 v2.12.1 9689
Grisoft AVG Pro.V7.0.143 9507
Trend Micro PC-cillin 2003 9938
Trend Micro PC-cillin 2005 10084
Symantec Norton 2004 10028
Symantec Norton 2005 10028
F-Prot 3.16a 9386 (+549 ‘suspicious’)
Etrust EZantivirus 2005 7.0.6.7 9580
Notes and comments:
• PC-cillin 2005 found the most viruses, AVG pro, EZ AV and F-prot found the least…
• Norton is ironic, much like viruses, it brings down to it’s knees even the fastest computers!
• Nod32 and F-prot where the fastest scanners, AVG was the slowest
Verdict: Although none of the Antivirus was perfect, some did stand out from the pack for their scanning ability, performance and ease of use.
Kaspersky 5: The tests revealed that when it comes to Trojans, exotic and rare viruses, Kaspersky is the leader of the pack. It found some that none of the others did. I ran the test several times and v.5 found less than v4.5 so it’s a little step backwards… The interface could use some improvement.
Bit Defender Pro 8 and F-Secure: Very good all around, they performed well but not great, yet they didn’t have any weak points either in any aspect.
PC-cillin 2005: It found more than any of the other antivirus programs; it performs very well but is a bit slow when scanning.
So there you have it, hope this makes your computers a bit more virus free!
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