As businesses assessed the damage and began digging out, the picture wasn't as gloomy as they might have feared - WSJ, on the tsunami that killed thousands
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Microsoft gets good marks from an insecurity firm
AN INSECURITY OUTFIT has given Microsoft's free Security Essentials some good marks.
AV-Test said the Vole's software was on a par with stuff you have to shell out good money for, which is praise indeed, although you can buy some very grim anti-virus software.
The outfit looked at the Voleware and evaluated it in three categories - protection, repair, and usability.
The tests were carried out in April through June this year using the software's default settings on 32-bit Windows 7.
"Protection" covered static and dynamic malware detection, including real-world zero-day attack testing, according to the firm. In the case of "Repair", it checked system disinfection and rootkit removal in detail, AV-Test said.
"Usability" testing included assessing the system slow-down caused by the tools and the number of false positives. AV-Test said its standard is that a product has to reach at least 12 points total in order to receive certification.
In the end Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 got 4.0 for Protection, 4.5 for Repair, and 5.5 for Usability. The maximum score that it could have received in all three categories was 6.0.
AV-Test didn't equate the Vole's scores to letter grades, but we will. On a six point grading scale including 1.0 as Incomplete, we'd call those scores a C for Protection, a C+ for Repair, and a B+ for Usability, with an overall grade of C+. In other words, a little better than average. µ
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MSE didnt stop a Meredrop payload deploying on a user I help. It was a couple of months ago in the early days of Zeus2+3.
Drastic measures were called for since it was impossible to be sure what had been dropped or whether it had been detected.
Security software will never guarantee safety, the cops are always playing catch up with the robbers.
@Leon - Hate to piss on your bonfire mate, but gmbh means "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung"... basically means the same as Ltd in the UK!
avtest is considered independent, and is pretty respectable.
Yes, GmbH owns av-test and Avira is a great product (and rates very highly on av-test... who would have guessed that?)
I think http://av-comparatives.org/ might be a better place to get reviews of AV products.
It is nice that Microsoft makes this "Security Essentials" available for free, but it would be even better if they would code their software using a bit of care so that so many security holes are not eagerly waiting to be exploited by malware.
So, making Security Essentials a free download -- for verified "genuine advantage" (TM) versions of Windows only -- is really the minimum level of required effort, given the continued vulnerability issues related to Windows use. Unfortunately, it only addresses around 90% of virus issues, and it only takes one virus to bring down your computer, network or steal your identity. A fly swatter can only swat so many flies. But there is always Linux...
Doesn't sound great to me. Linux does better than that from its basic design.