June 2011 - Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, December 2010 through June 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing December 2010 through June 2011 data. The “top” three firms by virtue of where they placed in the Quadrant are Bullguard, Coranti, and TrustPort.

Achieving greater that 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 80% (the ante is upped from 70%!) on the RAP Averages Quadrant were (The order of these is from approximately left to upper right): AVG Technologies, Sophos, Sofscan, Kaspersky 6, F-Secure IS, Microsoft ForeFront, ESET, GFI, Qhoo, Kaspersky IS, Miscrosafe, ZeoBit, Avast, Lavasoft Total, G Data, F-Secure PS, eScan, Avira Free, Check Point, eScan, Bkis, Kaspersky Pure, Avira Pro, BullGuard, Coranti, and TrustPort.

TrustPort had the highest Proactive Detection with Coranti and Bullguard the highest (tie) Proactive detection. the changes in the top three versus the previous test. Avira Free and LavaSoft Total slipped a bit. Approximately 40% of the software in the RAP Averages Quadrant met the 80%/90% criteria.

On the previous test, those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Bkis, AVG, Symantec, Kaspersky, Avast, F-Secure, MicroSafe, eScan, ESET, ZeoBit, UnThreat, G-Data, Avira (Pro and Free), Check Point, TrustPort, Coranti, Lavasoft Total, and Kaspersky Pure. Avira Free had the top Reactive Detection. Coranti and LavaSoft Total had the highest Proactive Detection. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-2011-virus-bulletin-rap-averages.html

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 (October 2010 through June 2011) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

On another note, CA has sold off their securities business unit to Up Data partners: http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/06/20/ca-technologies-total-defense-inc-split.aspx

UK based Virus Bulletin 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. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com.