Sunday, May 20, 2007

Anti-Virus Applications Compared

Ryan over at CyberNet news mentions that virus.gr has posted an updated ranking of anti-virus vendor effectiveness.

New Antivirus Rankings…Kaspersky Still on Top - CyberNet News

The top three positions are held by various forms of Kaspersky:

1. Kaspersky version 7.0.0.43 beta - 99.23%
2. Kaspersky version 6.0.2.614 - 99.13%
3. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.308 - 99.13%

Active Virus Shield by AOL is a freeware version of Kaspersky. While the AOL label may turn a number of folks off it, at the heart is uses the same program files as Kasperky's self-labeled products.

Two other popular freeware anti-virus products also rated pretty respectively.

12. Avast Professional version 4.7.986 - 92.82%
13. AVG Anti-Malware version 7.5.465 - 92.14%

I'm a long-time fan of AVG Anti-Virus Free. The version tested was a $ bundle of both the Grisoft anti-virus and anti-malware products...so I'm sure it rendered a bit more coverage than AVG-Free alone.

I practice safe-computing so the efficacy difference in % between AOL's freeware version of Kaspersky and AVG free wouldn't be enough to make me desire to switch, but if I was installing an AV product on a friend or relative's system and wanted a bit more protection coverage, I would really give it strong consideration.

Virus.gr has the full article and anti-virus test list. It's well worth looking at. They also include some interesting test-notes to put it all into context. For more virus testing information, consider going to both the AV-Comparatives and the ISCSA Certified Anti-Virus Product page. Good research information.

Bonus Malware Tools

Comodo has now officially released its rebranded version of BOClean (freeware). Go get it as it is a popular and established anti-malware application.

RogueRemover (freeware) is a MalwareBytes utility to help remove rouge antispyware and antivirus programs that get installed. It doesn't target "malware" per se. Just a particular class of buggery anti-malware products that do more harm than good.

And I have already mentioned AVG Anti-Spyware (freeware) in this post. It is another rebranded product formerly known under the Ewido Anti-Spyware label.

Stay Safe

--Claus

2 comments:

FF Extension Guru said...

I use Avast, still not sure if I want to put something on my system that has AOL assoicated with it.

goldenhub said...

If you check the latest virus.gr site they have updated the list. AntiVir Free is placed at 9th place with 95% detection! From my own tests on malware from warez sites, AntiVir has the most powerful scanner for 0-day malware and encrypted polymorphic trojans, it detects more than Kaspersky and NOD32 combined!

Definitely recommend AntiVir Free.