AVG now passes West Coast Labs Level 2 Test

I just saw this on the CheckMark Site. This is a first for AVG. Kaspersky has passed like 14 times, and CA Antivirus has passed many times as well. How important is this Test? I didn't see any testing on Avira Antivir for Level 1 or 2. I guess they just never submitted to it.

 

level two is the testing to see if it can clean the malware it finds and leave the infected apps still functional. Fairly important for an av.

 

getting the certification costs lot of money. if you read what is tested etc. you will notice that passing the tests is a minimum standard, as they are mainly based on old wildlist samples only and with re-retesting possibility (if i remember fine). For getting the level 2 it is just needed to be able to clean i think ~20 known viruses listed on the wildlist. correct me if i am wrong.

 

It seems as if they have to clean a few more than twenty pieces of malware

 

no - just look how many disinfectable viruses are in the wildlist.
seems like only 8 (?) viruses are used for that (http://www.westcoastlabs.org/cm-wildlist.asp).

Those samples here (in parenthesis the year when they started to be on the wildlist):
W32/Elkern.A............[2001]
W32/Funlove.4099........[1999]
W32/Kriz.4050...........[2000]
W32/Magistr.A...........[2001]
W32/Magistr.B...........[2001]
W95/Spaces.1445.........[2000]
W97M/Ethan.A............[1999]
W97M/Thus.A.............[1999]

P.S.: for passing the level 1 checkmark of august it is needed to detect the 655 samples listed on the wildlist of June.

 

Now that is another question but i believe there are more than twenty. But I have been wrong before and am sure it will happen again.

 

yes - see my previous edited post .

 

I stand corrected. You are never to old to learn. Thanks IBK for the info. that is very interesting.

 

It looks like they have added Polymorphic viruses section. Hopefully they will test more then 1.


tD

 

This still has to be a good thing for all the AVG Free users though right?

 

yes, having this minimum standard certification is good for marketing. But passing those tests is not a very difficult task, it just cost lots of money to get the certification to expose.
(imo)

 

lol. but your tests are good for AVG rofl

 

yes, if users would understand that also a "Standard" or e.g. 92% is good. You will find that nearly all AVs are able to pass ITW-test based on the old/limited wildlist, but that many are not able to reach at least e.g. 80% of a full malware set. I am in no way saying that AVG is bad - in contrary, I say AVG is according to own tests not bad, as it reaches at least the Standard level. just read reports what standard level in av-comparatives means .
anyway it is not a matter about which test results are good for an av vendor or not. you just should know which test shows you what. If you are a 'normal' home-user and you read "Checkmark certificated" (and are mainly from USA), you will think "wow, this product is superb". But if all AVs are able to reach this (if they agree to pay for this certification/test) and pratically every well-known AV has it, you need to know further details/tests of an AV to decide if it is better than others or not.

 

IBK, what do you think about the claims that AVG has much better detection in real life situations?

 

I think AVG is trying to position themselves for the future. If you look at the tests, they rated low in, OtherOS viruses/malware and Script viruses/malware. This is where Ewido may be of help in the future for a suite. Hey, at least they try and are a part of the only tests that are of any worth in this industry. Keep a eye on them as time goes by.

 

Ibk,
dude any thoughts on the new 7.5 version which is suppose to have heuristics and ewido as AS module..
i think it should help AVG do better in tests(incld urs)

 

nothing - anyone could claim this.

dunno yet. but i see that avg starts to add more of the samples they missed in last tests.