Microsoft OneCare can't handle malware

MICROSOFT'S Live OneCare came last in a security test conducted by Austrian researchers.

The AV Comparatives Web site shows the results of the top antivirus products against a list of nearly half a million individual pieces of malware.

Out of 17 AV programs, Vole's OneCare came last, well behind the winner G Data Security's AntiVirusKit (AVK), which found 99.5 per cent of the malicious code.

OneCare took care of just 82.4 per cent of the malware.

Other big names such as Symantec's Norton antivirus and McAfee's VirusScan posted 96.8 per cent and 91.6 per cent each.

Only Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and ESET's NO D32 antivirus caught every variant of the 12 polymorphic families. OneCare managed 15th, detecting every version of only two families, and missing seven of the polymorphic families completely.

It is the second damning report of Microsoft's foray into security software. Last week Aussie security company PC Tools released research that claimed Windows Defender detected just 46 per cent to 53 per cent of spyware. µ