According to Info Tech
Line reviews , using up-to-date anti-virus software is the cornerstone of
computer security, not to mention simple common sense. Anti-virus software is
so universally ineffective that it's just a waste of money.
In the study, which was conducted by the University of Tel Aviv
in Israel, 40 anti-virus products were tested against 80 fresh, uncatalogued
threats from malicious software code. What percentage of this malware did the
anti-virus technology initially detect? Nearly zero.
The study then assessed if the 40 products got any better at
detecting these threats over time, as their databases were updated. They were
all re-tested over a span of weeks, but the anti-virus software showed little
improvement. It took an average of four weeks for malware to become detectable,
and overall performance remained quite low. In particular, a dozen poorly
detected malware files were still not detected by half of the products even
weeks later.
Drawing on these results,
the Imperva study does recommend a pair of free antivirus products -- Avast and Emisoft --
over commercial products, though the firm does point out that these programs
are particularly susceptible to false positives.
So what does this mean for your computer security planning?
Certainly, it shouldn't signal an end to your use of anti-virus software, and
even Imperva does not recommend eliminating anti-virus tools from your security
toolkit. Moreover, this is a single study, and there are questions about its
validity. Kaspersky Labs, whose own anti-virus product was included in the
study, had this to say about the testing methodology:
[There is a] significant drawback in Imperva's testing
methodology which makes it impossible to take these test results seriously.
When scanning for potentially dangerous files, the Virus Total service used by
Imperva's specialists does not use the full versions of antivirus products, but
merely relies on a standalone scanner. This approach means that the majority of
protection technologies available in modern antivirus software are simply
ignored. This also affects proactive technologies designed to detect new,
unknown threats.
We've long recommended anti-malware software -- commercial or free
-- and continue to say that any protection is better than none, as long as it's
consistently updated.
For more details visit http://www.infotechline.net
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