Check your sources!

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Q Section, Dec 23, 2003.

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  1. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    Hello Everyone

    Today by accident we came across an anti-virus program we have not heard of previously. We looked over their professional-looking website and decided to contact them asking about the testing that had been done on the program. Their web-site said that the program had been tested independently by security laboratories.

    Upon receiving an answer from their tech services department we have learned that they do not know what are zoo virii and in-the-wild virii. The tech had not heard of these before. The tech mentioned that many govenments and large industries have purchased their software, though.

    A lesson - if you are checking software to purchase, ask many questions to check the veracity of the company!

    BTW - we are very happy using NOD32 and were not thinking of switching.
     
  2. Weber

    Weber Registered Member

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    Could you give us the address of their site?
    I'd like to check...
     
  3. Wayne - DiamondCS

    Wayne - DiamondCS Security Expert

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    Anti-virus scanners aside, you may (or may not) be surprised to know that most other scanners are actually made by individuals (as opposed to registered businesses), so in many cases you're not trusting your systems security to a known reputable business, but rather just one person - and that one person has to handle all aspects of the job (including sales, email support, forum support, research, development, website maintenance, finding samples, analysing samples, adding detection for samples, and so on). Whether they as individuals can complete all of those tasks thoroughly enough when there are so many new viruses/trojans/etc being released each day, well, I'll let you be the judge of that :)
     
  4. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    It is Command Antivirus.

    Thank you Wayne. Good advice!
     
  5. Technodrome

    Technodrome Security Expert

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    This is very strange since I use Command AV for many years (they certainly know about zoo viruses). They are in business since early 90s ( f-prot professional).

    Dunno about that tech...maybe he was smoking something. ;)



    tECHNODROME
     
  6. AgentX

    AgentX Registered Member

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    Yeah, I agree with Technodrome.
    CSAV has been in business for long. It's simply unbelievable that they don't know
    about zoo viruses and et cetera.

    BTW, do they still use the F-Prot engine?

    - AgentX
     
  7. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    This is what got our attention:
     

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  8. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    So we contacted them to inquire about their claim of "Independently tested by rigorous security laboratories."

    Their response is posted in our first post.

    We do not mean to knock any companies but the point is to check thoroughly all sources and information on mission-critical applications when appropriate.

    Best wishes and Merry Christmas!
     

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  9. Technodrome

    Technodrome Security Expert

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    They probably mean: ICSA, Check-Mark, VB, VTC, AV-Test.org etc. Command AV is ranked among the best in these tests.

    Who did you contact?

    tECHNODROME
     
  10. Technodrome

    Technodrome Security Expert

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    Yes. Command AV is still based on F-Prot engine.


    tECHNODROME
     
  11. Q Section

    Q Section Registered Member

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    We placed a call to their number and asked for sales. Sales answered and we said we had a little question about the anti-virus program. The woman answered and said "One moment please" as she said they transfer all anti-virus calls to technical services because they should be able to answer any questions about it and immediately transferred the call. The man who answered did not know much about the world of anti-virus. He was a native Yank and not someone in another country judging by the accent.

    Try it yourselves and see. Possibly it is a case of good product/poor management. That is all too common, is it not? Well anyway now we know some of the Wilders gang thinks it is OK so there we are. :D
     
  12. Prince_Serendip

    Prince_Serendip Registered Member

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    ;) Poor salespeople rarely know nor care what they are selling. Their mission is to move product.

    Here is a review by PC Magazine:


    For a complete history of Command's test results go to Virus Bulletin.

    Command AV has been around since OS/2 days, prior to 1998. It won high marks back then. Now, Virus Bulletin shows it to be a failure. It is by no means new, just not very popular nor much good I suppose.
     
  13. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    The vba awards can "fail" a product that has 100% detection in all categories of virus detection including the all important in the wild ,but disqualifies it for a single false positive in a clean file.Subsequently they can "pass" a product that detects no false positives in a clean file and that detects all in the wild viruses ,but fails to detect 100s of other viruses.Unless you are a vba subscriber you dont have access to all the information that would be required for a proper evaluation of a products performance,therfore the vba awards can be "misleading" to the average browser looking at the test results for each product.

    http://www.nod32.com.au/nod32/awards/vb0207.htm

    http://www.virusbtn.com/resources/wildlists/index.xml

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

    Technodrome Security Expert

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    Rubbish and amateur review. As always... ;)


    VB failures were due bugs on non-Microsoft system such as Linux or Novell. It’s popular as enterprise solution and less popular as retail solution (home use). If you carefully look at all those tests that I mentioned above you could see how good it is.


    tECHNODROME
     
  15. Blackcat

    Blackcat Registered Member

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    I have just switched to using CSAV on one of my boxes here and so far I am very pleased with this AV.

    It has a good, RECENT record over at Virus Bulletin and it has very good virus detection using the F-Prot engine.

    The report in PC magazine is an OLD one and older versions of this AV were known to contain certain bugs. Since then, Command AV has improved considerably and a new version 5 is just around the corner.

    My dealings with their UK support site has been very quick and they are very much 'on the ball' with their technical knowledge.

    I cannot give any insight to the 'shortcomings' of the US site support but I would be surprised that they would employ someone with such little basic knowledge.

    Overall, I would highly recommend CSAV as a primary or a back-up scanner and people should not be put off by ONE report of poor support.
     
  16. Karl_Menshy

    Karl_Menshy Registered Member

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    Just let me add a quick comment on the quality of CSAV support. I have never dealt with the marketing people, so maybe their quality differs ... ;).
    All my support questions have been answered very quickly and in a competent manner, always providing a real person to talk to in case problems are a bit more difficult to track down. All this without having hundreds of licenses in a corporate network, but being a single desktop user. CSAV support was one of the better experiences in the AV field. So I'd like to second what Technodrome and Blackcat said about the company...
     
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