SonicWall and Check Point Top Network World Clear Choice Test - Next Generation Firewalls - Best of Interop 2012

In the Network World Clear  Choice Test on Next Generation Firewalls, SonicWall was the top performer when it came to throughput (Part 1).  Check Point’s Check Point Security Gateway received the top score  in Part 2. Joel Snyder  did a deep dive looking at and testing Application Identification and Control.  Other companies in the Clear Choice Test, SonicWall (purchased by Dell from Thoma Bravo a couple of months ago), Fortinet, Check Point Software, and Barracuda Networks. This is a great two part article. (Scroll down for Best of Interop 2012 list)

David Newman wrote in Part 1 that   SonicWall    “Comes out on top in performance tests, but trade-offs remain”.  One of the Newman’s overall conclusions was that next generation firewalls are getting faster, and the tradeoff between speed and security is definitely getting smaller, but that these tradeoffs still exist.    

Network World used Spirent Avalanche traffic generator to measure content handling in a number of different configurations.  This was for Mixed Content HTTP handling and Static HTTP content handling.  Fortinet and SonicWall tended to have far superior performance in the tests over Check Point, and Barracuda Networks.  Newman includes a number of tables showing test results for throughput  in Part 1.

Seven features were tested as Part 2 of the Clear Choice Test:: Anti-Malware and URL Filtering, Intrusion Prevention, SSL Decryption, Next-Generation Application Identification, Basic Firewall Features, IPv6 Feature Set, and Next-Generation Visibility.  The final rankings and weighted average scores (top score possible, 5.0) were:

1. 4.1 – Check Point Security Gateway
2. 3.9 – SonicWall SonicOS
3. 3.8 – Fortinet Fortigate
4. 3.2 – Barracuda NG Firewall

Palo Alto Networks, the   company most associated with the phrase Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), was not in the Clear Choice Test on Next Generation Firewalls.  However, Snyder wrote,  “We stand by our original PA-5060 test headline back in August.  Palo Alto earns short list status.  If you are considering replacing your firewall to gain next generation features, Palo Alto remains a credible contender.”  The test methodology was a bit different last August. BTW,  not a lot of new information about Palo Alto Networks and their proposed initial public offering (IPO).

 

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/050712-firewall-test-palo-alto-258621.html

 Check Point’s product was superior when it came to Anti-Malware and URL Filtering, Intrusion Prevention, and Basic Firewall Functions.  SonicWall was the top product in SSL Decryption.  They tied on Next Generation Application Identification.

 “The Check Point Security Gateway has a fantastic management interface for application identification and control,” according to Joel Snyder.  He found  their product    much easier to use than the other products   tested.

SonicWall, "Would have had a higher score if its application identification GUI wasn't so poorly designed”  Snyder wrote.

“SonicWall has so many sub-divisions of every application, none of which were documented or made any sense to us, that we gave it a failing score when we tried to allow end users to see Facebook, but not post to it — one of vendor marketing's favorite examples of why a next-generation firewall is a good idea.  It was possible to block Facebook completely, but you can do that with a URL filter — you don't need a next-generation firewall." 

Some next generation firewall vendors take the position that with their products, you don't need the URL filtering capabilities provided by such vendors as Websense, McAfee and  Blue Coat Systems. Of course, they'll choose to differ!

According to  Snyder, “the defining characteristic of a next-generation firewall is the ability to identify and control traffic at the application layer.”  Network World    designed a suite of 40 tests in nine categories to see how well the firewalls would come out.  No product stopped all 40.  SonicWall was able to stop 26 for the top score.

About the Testing

In the first part of this test, vendors submitted their biggest, fastest boxes to David Newman's lab in California for performance testing.  Vendors were allowed to send a smaller, lighter device within the same product family to Joel Snyder's Arizona lab for features testing.There are links in both parts of the test providing details about test methodologies.

Part One – “Fast-forwarding firewall faceoff” was done by David Newman.

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/042312-firewalls-test-258120.html

  

Part Two of “Next-Gen Firewalls, Off to a Good Start” was done by Joel Snyder.

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/050712-firewall-test-258613.html

 

Joel Snyder, a Network World Test Alliance partner, is a senior partner at Opus One in Tucson, Ariz. He can be reached at Joel.Snyder@opus1.com .

Both parts of the test are well worth reading.  Read them in conjunction with the test that NSS labs performed and released during RSA San Francisco."SonicWall, Palo Alto Networks Top Performers in New NSS NGFW Study – Block Rate vs. Price per Protected Mbps".  

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/sonicwall-palo-alto-networks-top.htm

 

Best of Interop 2012 Awards  - Las Vegas

Below is the list of winners for Best of Interop 2012. These were announced during Interop  Las Vegas. 16 editors evaluated the 130 plus entrants for the Best of Interop Awards.

Best of Interop

NEC ProgrammableFlow PF6800 Controller

NEC Corporation of America

Security  Winner

McAfee Network Security XC Cluster

McAfee

Best Startup Company

V3 Systems

Cloud Computing & Virtualization Winner

Citrix VDI-in-a-Box

Citrix Systems

Collaboration Winner

Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Conversation            

Alcatel-Lucent

Data Center & Storage Winner

Panzura Quicksilver Global Cloud Storage System v3.0

Panzura

Management, Monitoring & Testing Winner

NEC ProgrammableFlow PF6800 Controller

NEC Corporation of America

Networking Winner

GS0072 Switch

Gnodal

Performance Optimization Winner

AppNav Virtualization Technology

Cisco Systems

Wireless & Mobility Winner

XpressConnect Enrollment System

Cloudpath Networks

http://www.bestofinterop.com/

 

May 2012 – Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, October 2011 through April 2012

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing October 2011 through April 2012.  The top 10 (some eyeballing necessary):

1. Coranti
2. Lavasoft
3. Auslogics
4. G Data
5. BitDefender
6. ESTSoft(?) (Could be Emisoft)
7. TrustPort
8. Avira Free
9. Avira Pro
10. Kaspersky ES

A bit of movement from the February report

1. Emisoft
2. Coranti
3. Auslogics
4. G Data
5. TrustPort
6. eScan
7. Avira Free
8. BullGuard
9. BitDefender
10. Ikarus

 All of the top 10 on the latest RAP Averages Quadrant  achieved greater than 90% on Reactive Detection and Proactive Detection.  Congrats!  

Neither Symantec nor Trend Micro are present on this RAP Averages Quadrant.  PC Tools, owned by Symantec, was. McAfee was barely over 60% on Proactive and under 80% on Reactive.  Iolo and UnThreat were at the bottom.  Kingsoft and Rising (perennial bottoms), appear to have disappeared.  UnThreat had the worst Proactive Detection rate by far, at around 40%.

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant chart at

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index

 

This test doesn’t seem to get a lot of press compared to Virus Bulletin’s VB100 awards.  Perhaps because it’s a little harder to understand.  More likely, no VB100 Award logo to put on the website!

Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

RAP Averages Quadrant

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.

About Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com

Virus Bulletin started in 1989 as a magazine dedicated to providing PC users with a regular source of intelligence about computer malware - its prevention, detection, and removal.  In addition, how to recover programs and data following an attack.

Virus Bulletin VB100 Awards - April 2012

Virus Bulletin has released their latest VB100 awards results for April.  Many more participants this time, since the test was done on Windows XP.  The last test was done on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

   

Not too much excitement.  Some “biggies” failed to receive a VB100 this go around.  F-Secure and Sophos both failed to receive a VB100 award. TrustPort, who typically does well, on Virus Bulletin’s RAP test, failed as well. Trend Micro has been a no show for years.   Symantec Norton has been a no show for the last several tests.  The usual freemium suspects, including Symantec’s PC Tools subsidiary, all participated. 

 http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/summary

 

Results from this should be looked at in conjunction with tests from other test groups such as www.av-test.org and www.av-comparatives.org .  Also, keep in mind it’s not how the company has performed on the VB100 test over years, it’s only the last couple of years that are relevant. 

VB100 Test Methodology

The purpose of the VB100 comparative is to provide insight into the relative performance of the solutions taking part in the tests, covering as wide a range of areas as possible within the limitations of time and available resources.  More details are available at

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/about/methodology.xml

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989.  The organization provides 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.  The Virus Bulletin website is at www.virusbtn.com

 

Is Facebook Really Worth $96 Billion in an IPO?

Facebook will be taking their IPO (Initial Public Offering) show on the road next week.  They’ll be visiting investment firms and banks to talk up the IPO and the figures developed by their “smartest guys in the room”.  Of course, these companies will be having their own smartest guys in the room listening to the pitch, looking at the numbers and trying to see if it makes sense.  Also, markets aren’t always rational.  Despite what the numbers say, when too many people are chasing too few shares and irrationality takes over, or when an IPO is priced  incorrectly, there could be a sizeable positive pop.

Moreover, blips in Q1 results are making some people nervous.  Q1 revenue was up 45% versus last year to $1.06 billion while net profit decreased 32% to $205 million.  Revenue growth in Q1 was up only slightly over Q4 2011. These are  not good things.  Other activities that have raised some concerns:

• Facebook agreed to pay $1 billion for Instagram, a company that makes it easy to share photos
• Facebook paid $550 million for patents filed by AOL and owned by Microsoft
• Facebook in March was hit with a lawsuit in March filed by Yahoo that alleged that Facebook   infringed on 10 Yahoo patents.  There are now 16 on the list. 

The figures Facebook filed with the US Securities Exchange Commission is to have an initial stock price   of $28 to $35 per share.  This would equate to a valuation of $70 billion to $88 billion. 

Sam Hamadeh of PrivCo thinks the IPO price will be between $38 and $40 per share.  "Facebook will mostly be given the benefit of the doubt ... but they still have a lot to prove," Hamadeh said.  "Especially after big IPO investors have been badly burned buying into the IPOs of Zillow, Groupon, and Zynga, all of which are trading well below their IPO prices.  They don't want to get burned again."

GreenCrest Capital’s Max Wolf believes that the financial numbers suggest a value of $60 billion.  This is 37%   less than the $96 billion Facebook is thinking of. 

Should Facebook go public at $28 share, initial investors like hi  tech investment fund FirstHand Capital would suffer an immediate paper loss.  They had purchased shares at $31 to $32 dollars and can’t sell their shares for six months after the IPO. 

BIA Kelsey’s Jed Williams stated that revenue would have to grow 41% annually over the next five years to justify Facebook’s   numbers.  This would suggest revenue almost 460% larger at the end of year five.

Morningstar believes that Facebook’s revenue would have to increase from 2011’s $3.7 billion with profit margins of 27% to $40 billion over the next six to seven years to justify the $96 billion valuation at time of initial public offering. 

According to Bloomberg - “Facebook is betting its growth prospects will persuade investors to pay 99 times earnings for its initial public offering, a higher multiple than 99 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.”

At the low end of the IPO range, Anup Srivastava, an assistant professor of accounting information and management, Kellogg School of Management has a base case scenario of $25 billion.  “This is based on the firm’s revenues reaching approximately $21 billion in ten years’ time from approximately $4 billion today, and the firm maintaining a high return on assets of approximately 20 percent.”

Different smartest guys in the room.  Different assumptions and models.  Different numbers.  And people are still trying to figure out how to value advertising revenue on mobile devices. The roadshow begins Monday.  Less than two weeks and then the IPO fun begins. I

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/03/BU3L1OD101.DTL#ixzz1twf3ZXjg

 

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/02/is-facebook-really-worth-100-billion-in.html

Check Point Launches ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall 2013

On May 1, Check Point Software Technologies announced   ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall 2013 as a free Internet security solution for consumers (the license agreement also makes it available for non-profits as well, but not for businesses).  With this offering, Check Point is jumping into the antivirus freemium model marketplace.  The best-known companies in this market include:

•  Avast – Top downloaded antivirus product on CNET’s www.download.com  site.  They’ve recently announced their intentions to go IPO (Initial Public Offering).  First in  installed base  global market share for antivirus (www.OPSWAT.com )
• AVG Technologies - Went public in February.  Third in OPSWAT market share.
• Avira -  Second in OPSWAT market share

Microsoft’s product is fourth in OPSWAT’s most recent report.

“Most consumers are unwittingly making themselves an easy target for cyber criminals,” said Bari Abdul, Vice President, and Head of ZoneAlarm, Check Point Software Technologies consumer business.  “They lack a strong 2-way firewall, are unwilling or unable to pay for security, or they just have left their security on the backburner.  People are putting themselves at serious risk by not having minimum security, which at least includes a firewall and antivirus software.  It’s basically like leaving your home with the doors unlocked.”

ZoneAlarm hasn’t created a lot of excitement in the marketplace with their internet security solutions.  This is even though they scored 4.0 stars for their Zone Alarm Extreme Security 2012 product from PC Magazine http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html  Their Zone Alarm Antivirus Plus Firewall 2012 only scored 3.0 stars.  http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html .  They had looked at the consumer security appliance market place several years ago, but didn’t enter it. 

This does present an opportunity to increase ZoneAlarm brand recognition over just their firewall.  "The way that we make money is that first we give it away for free to build brand awareness ... then convert customers to use paid for products,” said Abdul.  Check Point   offers five different flavors of  security solutions for home users -  (ZoneAlarm) Extreme Security + DataLock, Internet Security Suite, PRO Antivirus + Firewall, SocialGuard, and DataLock.  

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite and ZoneAlarm Extreme Security + DataLock would be the upgrades, offering additional functionality such as PC Tune-Up, Virtual Browsing, Private Browsing, Keylogger/Screengrabber Jamming, DataLock Hard Drive Encryption, and Parental Controls.  Depending on your bent, more comprehensive security, the uber suites, everything but the kitchen sink, Bloatware.  Nonetheless, everyone is doing it.  To see the various functionalities of the ZoneAlarm solutions:

 

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/compare-anti-virus-spyware-software.htm

Check Point's t ZoneAlarm antivirus products have not  been part of www.av-test.org group’s most recent testing.  Twenty-three consumer products were av-test's  March 2012 test and seven in their business test.  Nor is ZoneAlarm among the twenty companies whose products on the test group www.av-comparatives.org radar for testing. They did receive VB100 awards from Virus Bulletin in the most recent April test, however.  Time to man up on the others! 

    

Through growth and acquisition, Check Point offers a number of end security solutions:   Check Point Policy Management, Full Disk Encryption, Media Encryption, Antimalware and Program Control, Firewall & Compliance Check, Remote Access VPN, WebCheck, Check Point GO, and Mobile Access Software Blade.

Check Point has exported some nice talent.  Palo Alto Networks’ founder and Chief Technology Officer  Nir Zuk was a principal engineer at Check Point Software Technologies and was one of the developers of stateful inspection technology.  Palo Alto Networks will be having an IPO (Initial Public Offering) something this year.  They filed their intentions in April.  They’re known for their Next Generation Firewall Technology (NGFW).  Gartner and NSS Labs like their products.  

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/sonicwall-palo-alto-networks-top.html

 

It will take awhile to see the results of this announcement by Abdul and Check Point. There may be some discussion about this news in the headquarters of the leading antivirus freemium model companies. 

Best Free Antivirus Mash-up - PC Magazine, PC World, AV-Comparatives.org

August 1  -  Updated table at

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/08/summer-review-mashup-free-antivirus.html

 

PC World published  “Free Antivirus You Can Trust” on April 29.  The table below is a simple compilation  of scores from PC World, AV-Comparatives.org and PC Magazine, of  four free antivirus SW packages,  from Avast, Avira, AVG Technologies, and Panda, respectively.   

These were the top 4 free antivirus products in the "trust" article. The article in PC World has  a table ranking seven free antivirus packages.  The number of stars given range from 3.5 to 4.5.    

For each publication in the table below, the first column is the ranking. The second is the number of stars. For www.av-comparatives.org , the maximum number of stars that could be awarded was five

.

 

Sources for the Rankings

 PC Magazine – April 20 the Best Antivirus for 2012 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372369,00.asp

 

PC World - April 29, Free Antivirus You Can Trust http://www.pcworld.com/article/254121/free_antivirus_you_can_trust.html

 

AV-Comparatives.org -  March – 2012 On Demand Detection of Malicious Software   (about 18 products in this free report)

 http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_fd_mar2012_intl_en.pdf

In terms of global  market share, the top four antivirus  products as of  March 2012 (www.OPSWAT.com )

1. 16.3% - Avast
2. 11.7% - Avira
3. 11.0% - AVG Technologies
4. 10.1% - Microsoft

 http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-opswat-report-on-worldwide.html

For ratings of more antivirus packages (Neil Rubenking and PC Magazine)

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html

Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich – Yummy Way For Corporations to Reduce Federal Taxes

The “Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich” has been getting a lot more press lately just because of that darned deficit and that Apple uses this technique to help reduce their Federal taxes.  A hundred million here.  A hundred million there.  Soon, it adds up to billions.  Cupertino, California based Apple also routes some  revenue through Nevada, which ultimately saves state income tax they would have pay in California on investment income.  

The link below leads to a graphic showing  how this works using a pair of Ireland subsidiaries. In Apple's case, the subsidiaries are   named Apple Operations International and Apple Sales International. You then route profits  through the Netherlands.  Store the profits in the Cayman Islands/Caribbean or other  friendly tax havens and voila!  It is legal.  

A number  of US firms do this.  Look at a company's  annual report or their web site.  If they have offices/sites in these countries (Luxembourg as well), there’s a good chance that....  It’s great for software firms. It's worth clicking on the link below just to see the graphic explaining everything.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/28/business/Double-Irish-With-A-Dutch-Sandwich.html   

By managing its investments through a subsidiary in Reno, Nevada,  Apple avoids California’s 8.84% tax rate.  In Nevada, there is neither state corporate income tax nor capital gains tax. Apple did prepare a response for the NY Times, defending their practices and talking about their job creation in the US. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-response-on-its-tax-practices.html?_r=1    

All of the above is legal.  Apple and other companies are just aggressively making best use of applicable tax laws to help minimize the taxes they pay.  In fact, if you are a proponent of discounted cash flow models to help determine a firm’s valuation, minimizing taxes  helps increase  cash flow, which leads to a higher stock price or a higher valuation for an IPO (Initial Public Offering). .  

“The information on 10-Ks is fiction for most companies,” said Kimberly Clausing, an economist at Reed College who specializes in multinational taxation.  “But for tech companies it goes from fiction to farcical.”

According to the article, “In  2004, Ireland, a nation of less than 5 million, was home to more than one-third of Apple’s worldwide revenues, according to company filings."   Apple has not released estimates that are more recent.   Lots of iPods on a per capita basis!

One downside for companies using the above is that when money is sent overseas, it cannot be returned to the United States without incurring a new tax bill.  That’s why firms have been urging Congress to have a “repatriation holiday” that would permit US companies to bring some of their profits offshore back without owing large taxes.

Below is a link to the complete NY Times article.  It’s a great read.  You don’t need to be an accountant to understand it.  The link below will probably even work on an iPad!  Read while drinking an Irish coffee and having a Dutch pastry.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?ref=business

AV-Comparatives Survey on Smartphone Usage – April 2012

Interesting one-day survey by AV-Comparatives of over 1000 smartphone users globally about how they use their smartphone.  The survey itself comprised about 15 questions.  Some highlights are below.

• 70% of the respondents never even turn off their phone.  I couldn’t say whether this is good or bad for battery life!
• 7% of respondents receive over 100 SMS messages per day.  It would be interesting to see the data broken down by age range, since texting seems to be the communication method of choice for this generation.  It could be cost driven.  Or  because it’s a more silent way to communicate and you can control when you want to respond. 
• The median respondent spends (27%) something less than 20 minutes per day talking on their mobile (median means ½ the respondents are above a certain figure and ½ are below.  It’s different from average).
• The median respondent (30%)  spends somewhere between 21 and 60 minutes surfing the web on their mobile. 
• 32% open a spreadsheet about once a day on their phone while 48% never open one. 

I would surmise that the figures would be more similar by country and perhaps sex.  And that the greatest differences would be by age range.  A businessperson would probably tend to talk more on his/her mobile while a teen would tend to text more. A businessperson would have a greater need to look at a pdf file or a spreadsheet.

  

For the complete results (free), go to the AV-Comparatives website.

About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.Go to the AV-comparatives website for complete details about the organization, the many tests they perform, and to download copies of test reports.

www.av-comparatives.org

Facebook Announces Antivirus Marketplace – Welcomes Multiple Antivirus Vendors to their Facebook Security Family

On April 25, Facebook announced the Antivirus Marketplace.  The antivirus vendors that will be partners in this and be members   of the Facebook Security Family are -   McAfee, Trend Micro, Sophos, and Symantec, and Microsoft.  As part of this initiative, Facebook’s URL blacklist system, which scans trillions of clicks per day, will incorporate the malicious URL databases from these five vendors. According to Facebook, "Now, all of Facebook’s more than 900 million users will be protected by the combined intelligence of these industry leaders."

  

This doesn’t mean that the database will quintuple in size.  Undoubtedly, these databases have a great deal of overlap Trend Micro may offer a unique value add to the combined database given their market share in APAC.  Sophos is a pure business play, so their database may offer some unique additions.

    

Facebook’s Antivirus Marketplace will allow home users to download six-month licenses to full versions of anti-virus software at no charge from Microsoft, McAfee, Trend Micro, Sophos, or Symantec.  These companies will also be part of the Facebook Security Blog. 

There was no mention regarding frequency of updates.  There was also no discussion as to how these particular vendors were selected.  Four of the ten vendors were in OPSWAT’s  Security Industry Market Share Analysis (March 2012)  top ten with respect to market share.  Only Microsoft was in the top five. Avast (market share leader, and preparing to IPO), Avira (second), and AVG Technologies (third, and with a  grammatically interesting(?)  "We protects us" tagline,) were all left on the sidelines.  To learn about current worldwide and North America market antivirus market shares, go to -

.  

 http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-opswat-report-on-worldwide.html

What This All Means

For consumers - some additional protection while on Facebook,   free antivirus software for six months, another source to learn about threats.

For Facebook - a good business decision and good public relations as they work on protecting members of the Facebook community.  The “smartest guys in the room”  putting together the valuation for the Facebook Initial Public Offering (IPO),  may be able to add a bit of an uptick to the offering price.

This may be a good thing in light of Facebook’s   recent revenue announcement.  Facebook posted first quarter 2012 revenues of $1.058 billion, up 45% year over year from $731 million.  However, net income was down, at $205 million, from $233 million in the year-ago period.  Facebook cited seasonal trends and stock based compensation for the decline.  Also, Facebook updated their S-1 on Monday.  Like every S-1, not light reading, running over 160 pages.  

http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512175673/d287954ds1a.htm

 

For the companies that were  part of this announcement   - Symantec, Trend Micro, Sophos, Microsoft, and McAfee -  some additional revenue, good PR,  they may  become better buds with Facebook than those vendors not part of the announcement, an opportunity to upgrade home users to a paid version of their antivirus product, or a paid version of one of their internet security suites after six months.  Microsoft only has a free version.

This may help Symantec “a bit” to deflect some negative press resulting from their recent earnings announcement.  Their shares took a substantial hit Tuesday after they lowered their fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue outlook.  They cited weaker demand from its business customers.  Part of the hit may also be due to the fact that Symantec is   shifting their business model to one based more on subscription revenue, rather than the traditional model of selling licenses.

Some interesting discussions may be taking place at the antivirus/internet security vendors not part of the announcement.

To learn about OPSWAT, go to  www.opswat.com

SC Magazine Awards Europe 2012 Winners Announced

SC Magazine announced their SC Magazine  Awards Europe 2012 winners  on April 2 at a soiree held at the London Hilton.  Congrats to McAfee for being named Best Global Security company. For all winners - most excellent!  Awards were pretty spread out. There weren’t multiple winners.  Finalists represented in multiple categories were McAfee, Kaspersky, Blue Coat, Symantec, Websense, and Fortinet.

SC Magazine Awards Europe 2012 Winners

• Best anti-malware solution - M86 Security, M86 Secure Web Gateway 10.1
• Best content security - Accellion, Accellion Secure Collaboration
• Best network security – Varonis, Varonis DatAdvantage
• Best integrated security solution – Fortinet, FortiGate-300C
• Best IAM solution - Cyber-Ark, Cyber-Ark Privileged Identity Management (PIM) Suite
• Best remote access - Swivel Secure, PINsafe V3.8
• Best security management – Websense, Web Security Gateway Anywhere
• Best SME security solution - Kaspersky Lab, Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8
• Best enterprise security solution - Splunk
• Best security solution, financial services - Actiance, Vantage
• Innovation award – Trustwave, PenTest Manager
• Best encryption solution - Boole Server
• Best DLP solution – Symantec, Symantec Data Loss Prevention
• Best secure transaction solution – IronKey, Trusted Access
• Best mobile device management – MobileIron, MobileIron 4.5 Platform
• Best forensics tool - Absolute Software, Computrace
• Information security product of the year – Veracode, the Veracode Platform
• Information security consultancy of the year - KPMG
• Information security vendor of the year - Qualys
• Information security project of the year - Barclays Bank, ‘Faking it' social engineering awareness campaign
• Information security team of the year – Barclaycard, Barclaycard Payment Security Team
• Information security person of the year – Neira Jones, Barclaycard
• The Rising Star award - David Rook, Realex Payments
• Best global security company - McAfee

For a list of 2012 SC Magazine Awards 2012 Europe Finalists

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012-shortlist-sc-magazine-2012-awards.html

To view the 2012 SC Magazine US Winners

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/02/sc-magazine-awards-2012-winners_29.html

Significance of SC Magazine Awards   Europe 2012

• Third party validation by a leading dedicated security publication
• Third party validation by peers
• Marketing/promotional rights for a year, subject to licensing
• A number of potential marketing/branding/lead generation opportunities for the recipients

 According to SC Magazine UK - panels of industry judges from the highest levels of the information security profession pass judgment on the products and services put before them.  Another  panel of judges that includes the SC editorial team is employed to decide who should win one of the Professional Awards. 

Let the upgrading of the websites, revising  of pdfs, new banner ads, new lead gen campaigns, and modification of slide decks begin. When you visit websites, and they're displaying winners logos, pay attention to the year on them ;) .  These things can take awhile to get off of websites, boxes, presos, et cetera.

Mind the Gap.

http://www.scmagazineuk.com/sc-magazine-awards-europe--winners-announced/article/237994/

Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – March 2012

View April results at

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/05/whole-product-dynamic-real-world.html

Original Post

AV-Comparatives.org has released their latest Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – March 2012.  An informative document will be updated several times over the course of the year.  What’s even more interesting than  the results alphabetically by vendor  is going online and sorting by performance.  Isn’t that what it’s all about? The numbers below are "percent captured".

1. 99.8 – BitDefender
2. 99.8 – G Data
3. 99.4 – Kaspersky
4. 99.2 – BullGuard
5. 98.6 – Qihoo

The above constitutes a bit of reshuffling from the results published in November 2011.  Avast was the top performing free vendor, in the sixth position.  Tencent (85.0), McAfee (88.1), and Webroot (89.3) were the lowest performing vendors in the test.

October Results Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test

1. 99.6 – G Data
2. 99.6 – Kaspersky
3. 99.6 - Qihoo
4. 99.6 – Symantec
5. 99.4 – BitDefender

About AV-comparatives.org - www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.  For the March 2012 document, go to:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/dyn/avc_factsheet2012_03.pdf