Are you happy with professional AV Testing?

TAG: here's some basic info about VB's ITW test for the 100% award:

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/about/100procedure.xml

Especially note the "Near Misses" paragraph: clearly a product can fail getting the 100% for a number of reasons without being a bad product, but the relevant info to know whether or not that is the case is in the detail reviews in the mag. VB encourages people to read the reviews themselves, although that detail info for current issues is only available to subscribers. A review of past archived issues available online, however, does provide some interesting info about products and the tests.

And just for informational purposes, since occasionally there are claims of VB bias for or against certain products, here's a link to the VB's advisory board:

Pavel Baudis, Alwil Software, Czech Republic
Ray Glath, Tavisco Ltd, USA
Sarah Gordon, WildList Organization International, USA
Shimon Gruper, Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd, Israel
Dmitry Gryaznov, Network Associates, USA
Joe Hartmann, Trend Micro, USA
Dr Jan Hruska, Sophos Plc, UK
Eugene Kaspersky, Kaspersky Lab, Russia
Jimmy Kuo, Network Associates, USA
Costin Raiu, Kaspersky Lab, Russia
Charles Renert, Symantec Corporation, USA
Péter Ször, Symantec Corporation, USA
Roger Thompson, ICSA, USA
Joseph Wells, Fortinet, USA
Dr Steve White, IBM Research, USA

http://www.virusbtn.com/magazine/overview/advisory/

 

Thanks Sig,
Interesting reading. I guess you must of checked out the price for a suscription. I will never get to read that small print though.
I Email DrWeb and asked them if they could fill me in on that.I always wondered why no one showed all the details of the VB Tests.
Regards
Tim

 

Yeah, by the time the current edition of the mag gets archived and the detailed test results and reviews are available online, people will be discussing the latest test.

The mag (and the price) apparently is geared to industry professionals, network security admins, AV folks, etc and the employer likely pays for the subscription, I figure. The rest of us either just read old editions online or hope that someone with a subscription discusses the details in a public forum.

 

Indeed some people really are happy with pro testing:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-10-2003/0001962399&EDATE=

 

I used to trust the Virusbtn. tests but since the last test in june I have serious doubts. For example how is it possible that AVG passes the test and KAV&Dr.WEb don't? There's something weird about those tests.They can be the greatest specialists in the world but if they tell me that AVG has better detection than KAV or Dr.Web I refuse to believe them. This is just out of question, there's no way AVG could detect more viruses then KAV and Dr.Web. And also, test results are very contradictory, av.'s having great results in a certain test, perform mediocre in tests made by others. So I think that anyone should try personally av progs and trust less those tests.

 

I've read that, and I've also read some Virusbtn. issues. But, far from making things clear, that surprised me even more. Products missing 20 viruses are given the VB100% award, while products missing 3 viruses aren't. It doesn't matter if they missed ITW viruses or other viruses, 90% is not 100%, however you take it. Probably this happened in the last test too, that's why AVG passed and the 2 russian av's didn't.