October Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant (April through October)

Virus Bulletin has published their latest Reactive and Proactive (RAP) Averages Quadrant for April through October 2010.

Those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Avira Pro, Ikarus, Emsisoft, Webroot, Coranti, Check Point, Kaspersky, ESET and Trustport (moving approximately left to right for Proactive Detection). The stellar performer was Trustport which had the highest Reactive Protection overall and the second highest score for Proactive Detection. Avast! and AVG Technologies were close to being in this group but fell below the 70% rate for Proactive Detection.

The anti-virus, internet security 800 pound gorillas will probably not be trumpeting their results on this particular test.

This test measures products' detection rates across four distinct sets of malware samples. The first three test sets comprise malware first seen in each of the three weeks prior to product submission. These measure how quickly product developers and labs react to the steady flood of new malware emerging every day across the world. A fourth test set consists of malware samples first seen in the week after product submission.

This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques. A detailed description can be viewed at. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/vb200902-RAP-tests

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant (April through October 2010) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/rap-index.xml . Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989. They provide PC users with a regular source of intelligence about computer viruses, their prevention, detection and removal, and how to recover programs and data following an attack. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com . The site is a great source of information on malware and spam. They are a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, www.AMTSO.org.