RSSSecurity Vendors Team Up on Malware
By Ed Oswald | Published January 30, 2006, 11:08 AM
Five security vendors said Monday they were joining forces to improve spyware detection software, as well as standardizing methods to create a single benchmark from which consumers and enterprise customers could judge the effectiveness of various software programs.
These standards would be the first collaboration between McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, ICSA Labs, and Thompson Cyber Security Labs. Eventual plans call for cooperation in antivirus research, sharing of best practices, and working on guidelines for the dissemination of antivirus information.
The group said that the volume of malware continues to nearly double year over year, and cooperation is needed to limit confusion among the consumer over what solution best fits their specific needs. According to ICSA Labs' Larry Bridwell, consumers neither understand spyware or the effectiveness of tools meant to prevent it.
"This agreement is an important first step in maturing the industry to the point where it can effectively combat the proliferation of spyware on behalf of customers, providing a safer and more efficient online environment for everyone," Bridwell said.
Standards in testing the effectiveness of spyware solutions will lead to better software and smarter choices by the end consumer, the group says.
"The successful industry practices previously established for sharing virus information demonstrate the effectiveness of cooperation among Internet security experts," said Vincent Weafer, senior director of development, Symantec Security Response.
"By standardizing methods for sharing spyware samples and testing anti-spyware solutions, customers win."
Hello guys! Open your eyes and look at the latest tests:
AV-Test.org, December, 2005
Average Response Time
Between 0 and 2 hours->Kaspersky
Between 4 and 6 hours->Trend Micro
Between 8 and 10 hours->McAfee
Between 10 and 12 hours->Symantec
Virus.gr, December, 2005 (113334 virus samples used)
1. Kaspersky Personal Pro version 5.0.390- 99.46%
5. McAfee version 10.0.27 - 94.80%
10. Norton Professional version 2006 - 85.17%
16. PC-Cillin 2006 version 14.00.1341 - 77.84%
Three biggest loosers come together and make revolution?! It seems, they are ready to make coalitions only while Kaspersky succesfully fights any malware, crimeware, pornware, adware, spyware ...
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|KAV is awesome, but I prefer NOD32 because it isn't as much of a resource hog.
You made a great point though; they are some of the least effective anti-virus solutions on the market. Until they can raise their detection levels to that of KAV or NOD, I'm not particularly interested in what their coalition has to say.
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|Does not include Sunbelt Software.
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|Lets see, MS has their little group, Google recently started another, now we have yet another.
Here's an idea for em, everybody work together. How do they expect to get anything done with all these different groups.
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|Amazing what competition from MS will do.
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|Interesting; I wonder if they invited any of the freeware antispyware vendors to the party.
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|So all their new leet tech could be given away for free?
Nevah!
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|That's probably the main reason they did this. Working together to make sure the free offerings don't perform better and steal the market.
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|Checkmate. That's exactly what I was thinking. They want to pool their resources because the freeware vendors have been at it so long, they're already lagging behind. Funny how they didn't seem to care about spyware & malware a few short years ago, but now that they see there's more money to be made, they want to "provide a safer and more efficient online environment for everyone."
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|Good concept, too bad the site is a placeholder for now.
Why not launch with more downloadable resources?
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|why launch downloadable things when they can have you go to CompUSA and spend your life savings on their latest "super-mega-save-your-pc-from-satan" suites.
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|Wait, I thought it was "Badware" now.
Did I miss another renaming ceremony?
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|They didn't like having the word "Bad" in the name "Badware" suggesting their software was somehow "bad", so it was changed to "Gayware".
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|OMG, your killing me over here. Super funny :-)
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|Just to let you know, "mal" in Spanish, means bad!! Thus ends the free Spanish lesson for the day.
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|Just to let you know, "mal" in English, means malicious!! Thus ends the free English lesson for the day.
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|"mal" in English, mind you, means "bad" "wrongful" or, "ill". It also stands for "malcontent", so take that Practice!!
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