Virus Bulletin June VB100 Awards

Virus Bulletin has released their latest VB100 awards results. Thirty-two antivirus internet security solutions received a VB100 award. Eleven antivirus internet security solutions failed to make the grade. Not in the test were some major vendors - McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro. The tests were done on Windows Server 2008.

Among those receiving the VB100 award, in market share order: Avast, Avira, AVG Technologies, BitDefender, Eset¸ F-Secure, and Kaspersky. Coranti did not receive a VB100. They were one of the top three products in the latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing December 2010 through June 2011 data. G Data also failed to receive the award. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-2011-virus-bulletin-rap-averages.html

OPSWAT Market Share Combined With VB100 Success Rate

The following table is a combines vendor market share from the OPSWAT June Market Share Report and company success rate obtaining VB100 awards. To be included in the table they have to have (obviously) received a VB100 award in June and been in the OPSWAT June report.

The companies in the below are listed on the basis of market share. The number of tests the companies below participated in vary. A strong argument can be made that it's only the most recent tests that are relevant. Nonetheless, a number of companies do like to promote their extended track record when they market their VB100 success rate. These were the only companies in the 20 from the relevant OPSWAT table that made the cut. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-2011-opswat-report-on-worldwide.html















Data for the success rate came from http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/test?recent=1

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. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com.

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.

Titanium Maximum Security 2012 – Trend Micro Beta

Beta testing for internet security 2012 and antivirus 2012 solutions are rolling along. Trend Micro currently has three consumer products in beta, Titanium Maximum Security, Titanium Internet Security, and Titanium Antivirus. You can learn more about these, and register to download beta product at their beta portal. https://www.trendbeta.com/pages/main

Consumer Products in Beta

# Titanium Maximum Security 5.0 EB 2
# Titanium Internet Security 5.0 EB 2
# Titanium Antivirus+ 5.0 EB 2

One of their differentiators over several of their competitors is that they use cloud technology to stop viruses and spyware.

Trend Micro is promoting the following features for their Titanium Internet Security beta (non of which can be described as new)

Antivirus, Antispyware, Anti-phishing, Web threat protection, Antispam, Data theft protection, Parental controls, and System tuner.

For their Titanium Maximum Security product, Trend Micro is promoting the following features (non of which can really be described as new)

Antivirus, Antispyware, Anti-phishing, Web threat protection, Antispam, Data theft protection, Parental controls, System tuner, Social networking security (Facebook, Twitter & more), Mobile protection (Android, iOS, Symbian & Windows), Secure erase/e-file shredder, Remote file lock, and 10 GB of secure online storage with sync & sharing.

Trend Micro Also Has a Dozen Business Products in Beta

* Threat Intelligence Manager 1.0
* Trend Micro Mobile Security 7.0
* SecureCloud 1.2
* Portal Protect 2.1
* Trend Micro Control Manager 5.5 Service Pack 1
* OfficeScan 10.6
* Intrusion Defense Firewall 1.5
* Deep Security 8.0 ETAP
* InterScan Web Security Virtual Appliance 5.5
* Advanced Reporting and Management for IWSx 1.5
* ScanMail for Exchange 10.2
* InterScan Messaging Security Virtual Appliance 8.2

Third Party Testing

Trend Micro hasn’t participated in Virus Bulletin (www.virusbtn.com) VB100 testing since 2008 http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=3

Titanium Internet Security 2011 received certification from av-test.org, scoring 3.5, 3.5, and 5.5 out of 6.0 for protection, repair, and usability. http://www.av-test.org/certifications.php This was for the Q1 2011 test using Windows 7.

Trend Micro did not participate in av-comparatives.org’s latest testing. www.av-comparatives.org

Titanium Maximum Security 2011 scored 3.5 out of 5.0 (tied for seventh out of 20) in PC Magazine testing. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/04/best-internet-security-suites-2011-pc.html

Trend Micro Titanium AV scored poorly with PC Magazine with 2.0 out of 5.0. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-antivirus-software-for-2011-pc.html . Webroot AV with Spysweeper topped all products with 4.5 out of 5.0.

The usual suspects, McAfee, Panda, Avast, Avira, AVG Technologies, Webroot, Kaspersky, G Data, F-Secure, among others, will be announcing their betas over the coming months.

It'll be interesting to see if any of the vendors come out with anything completely new in their feature set or whether the focus will be on filling perceived gaps versus their competitors.

Also in Beta

Norton Internet Security 2012 and Anti-Virus 2012 beta http://us.norton.com/beta/index.jsp

BitDefender Total Security 2012 http://beta2012.bitdefender.com

Internet Security 2012 – Norton Beta

Norton Internet Security 2012 and Norton Anti-Virus 2012 are in beta. Those internet security 2012 and anti-virus 2012 beta are starting to pick up.

Norton (Symantec) regarding their Internet Security 2012 and Anti-virus 2012 betas

• Fastest performance ever
• Industry-leading protection
• Easier to use Control Center and features

Other features promoted in Norton Internet Security 2012

• 4 layers of protection
• Customizable Control Center
• Identity Safe alerts have moved to the Norton Toolbar
• Bandwidth management
• Download Insight 2.0 tells how stable a download is before computer is put at risk

PC Magazine gave Norton Anti-Virus 2011 3.5 stars out of 5.0. They gave Norton Internet Security Suite 4.5 stars out of 5.0 http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/04/best-internet-security-suites-2011-pc.html.

Symantec is 8 for 10 in the last VB100 evaluations they’ve been in. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=4 . Their 2011 internet security suite received Q1 2011 certification from av-test.org http://www.av-test.org/certifications.php

To check out Norton Internet Security 2012 beta or Anti-Virus 2012 beta, go to http://us.norton.com/beta/index.jsp

The usual suspects, McAfee, Trend Micro, Panda, Avast, Avira, AVG Technologies, Webroot, Kaspersky, G Data, F-Secure, among others, will be announcing their betas over the coming months.

Also in Beta

BitDefender Total Security 2012 http://beta2012.bitdefender.com

June 2011 OPSWAT Report on Worldwide Antivirus Application Market Share

OPSWAT Inc. has published their report on “Security Industry Market Share Analysis”. The results may not mesh completely with the results published by the vendors themselves (surprise!). The data OPSWAT used was collected between March 23, 2011 and May 15, 2011.

Worldwide Market Share Leaders – Companies

The top 3 companies with respect to worldwide market share were

• Avast Software – 12.37% (1st in March report)
• AVG Technologies – 12.37% (3rd in March report)
• Avira – 12.29% (2nd in March report)

Avast had around a 4% drop between the March and June report. Ouch! Microsoft showed a similar gain over the last reporting period.

The table in the document lists the top 15. Microsoft leads in North America vendor market share with 17.07%. Other companies in the top 15 in the worldwide market share table include, Microsoft, Eset, Symantec, Kaspersky, McAfee, and Panda.

Worldwide Market Share Leaders - Product

• Microsoft Security Essentials – 10.66% (was 3rd in March report)
• Avira Antivir Personal – 10.18% (was 2nd in March report)
• Avast Free Antivirus – 8.66% (was 1st in March report)

The table in the report contains the top 15. Microsoft leads in North American Antivirus product market share with 15.68%. This was a substantial increase over March’s 10.2%.

The report also contains information about Windows Operating System Deployments, and Instant Messenger market share.

Large Number of Vendors but Consolidated Industry

According to OPSWAT, in North America, fifty-one different antivirus vendors were detected. The top five of those vendors combined to control 62.80% of the antivirus market. The worldwide market is slightly more distributed, with sixty-two vendors and 58.25% of the antivirus market controlled by the top five vendors.

Opswat Market Share Reports

Opswat market share reports are available at http://www.opswat.com/media/reports

About OPSWAT

Founded in 2002, OPSWAT provides soft¬ware engineers and IT professionals with development tools and data services to power manageability and security solutions. www.opswat.com

Internet Security 2012 – BitDefender Beta

Start your internet security, antivirus, malware engines. BitDefender has released Beta2 for Internet Security 2012.

Enhancements include: Autopilot, Scan Dispatcher, Rescue Mode, Online Backup (improved), Integrated Cloud Services, Social Networking Protection, File Sync, Flexible interface, and Streamlined installation. http://beta2012.bitdefender.com/ for complete information.

New Feature - An enhancement to a product that the customer likes and/or can use.

Bloatware – An enhancement to a product the customer does not like or cannot use.

Streamlined installation - This is kind of an annual. Vendors can announce this every year.

Rescue mode – Different vendors have different spins on implementing this.

Online backup – This has become a checklist feature. It’s either included with the product, with more memory available for a few dollars more, or is introduced as a separate (free) product that can be upgraded.

The usual suspects, McAfee, Trend Micro, Panda, Avast, Avira, AVG Technologies, Webroot, Kaspersky, G Data, F-Secure, eScan, among others, will be announcing their betas over the coming months. To view PC Magazine’s take on the best Internet Security suites of 2011, go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/04/best-internet-security-suites-2011-pc.html . For PC World’s view of the Internet Security 2011 universe, go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/pc-world-pc-magazine-and-aboutcom.html

Download the product, find a wifi connection while having something to eat around Claude Debussylaan and put BitDefender beta through its paces.

AV-Comparatives Retrospective Test (static detection of new/unknown malicious software) – May 2011

AV-Comparatives has released an update to their latest Retrospective Test (static detection of new/unknown malicious software) – May 2011. Twelve vendors are included in the report. Only two vendors achieved the Advanced Plus (three star rating). In order, they were Avira and Kaspersky.

The top four vendors for proactive detection of new malware were G Data, Eset, Avira, and Kaspersky.

Vendors declining to participate in this test were in alphabetical order, Avast, AVG Technologies, K7, McAfee, PC Tools, Symantec, Trend Micro and Web Root. Twelve is probably the lowest number of vendors tested recently by AV-Comparatives.

Av-Comparatives goes into great detail in their document as to why these vendors may have passed on participating on this particular test. Among the reasons: real life capabilities would not be adequately represented in the test due to the absence of (a) a live Internet connection or because URL blocking was not considered. There's always the "if you know you may not perform well in a specific test...." Go to page 4 of the report for additional details.

In order to get comparable results, AV-comparatives tested all products with the highest settings, unless there were advised otherwise by the vendors. In the cloud functionality, was not used during this test. To view the report, go to
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_retro_may2011.pdf

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. www.av-comparatives.org

Note that there are other testing organizations as well. Individuals and companies evaluating AV and Internet Security SW should also look at the others, at reviews, round-ups, and group tests performed by reputable testing organizations, and technology publications. For information on testing best practices, people can go to the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization website (AMTSO), www.amtso.org

AV-Comparatives Releases Preliminary Results For Their 2011 Whole Product Dynamic Test

AV-Comparatives has released their preliminary results through April 2011 of their Whole Product Dynamic Test. The companies with the top three products (preliminary results) are in order – Symantec, BitDefender and Eset. Avast in eighth, was the top free product. Seventeen companies were in the test. http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart2.php Results will be published in July. The latest revision for this test came out in April.

Notes for how the test was set up are available at http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/dyn/wpdt-general.pdf

In the August – November 2010 Whole Product Dynamic Test, F-Secure, Symantec, Avira, and Kaspersky had the top four products and received an advanced “three star" rating for the test. F-Secure fell to sixth and Avira to tenth in the preliminary Whole Product Dynamic Test for 2011.

About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization. They provide independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. www.av-comparatives.org

Updata Partners to Acquire CA Technologies Internet Security Business Unit

On May 12, Computer Associates announced that they had entered into an agreement with Updata Partners, a technology-focused growth equity firm, to sell them the Internet Security Business Unit of CA Technologies. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110512-720864.html This transaction does not affect CA Technologies enterprise security business. This business is focused primarily on identity and access management software. The new company, marketing the security products sold by Computer Associates, will be called Total Defense, Inc.

While Computer Associate. remains a major enterprise security player, how good is/was their antivirus and internet security endpoint products?

CA’s endpoint solution did not appear in the Opswat Security Market Share Analysis Report. Symantec, AVG Technologies and Avast came in first through third, respectively in North America antivirus market share in this report. http://www.opswat.com/media/reports/MarketShareReportMarch2011.pdf

In Gartner’s December 2010 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Computer Associates fell into the niche category.

Computer Associates Internet Security Suite 2011 failed to receive certification in av-test.orgs Q! 2011 test on Windows 7. They scored 2.0, 3.5, and 4.0, respectively on Protection, Repair, and Usability. http://www.av-test.org/certifications Their 2.0 score for protection was the lowest score among the more than twenty products tested.

Computer Associate’s business product had failed to receive a Virus BulletinVB100 award in three of the last seven tests they had entered. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=39. Their consumer product was six for twelve in the last tests they had entered. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=46

Their business endpoint solution scored around 60% on proactive detection and around 65% on reactive detection on Virus Bulletin’s October 2010 through April 2011 RAP test. This is not a stellar result. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/rap-index.xml

Security products being retained by Computer Associates include products involved with cloud security, secure access, secure identity, secure information, and security management. http://www.ca.com/us/it-security-solutions.aspx

Candidates to go after CA’s endpoint business – Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, and Trend Micro immediately come to mind. They all have enterprise strength endpoint solutions. This is less the case for Sophos, but Sophos’ primary focus is the business marketplace.

Sophos recently purchased Astaro. Astaro has security solutions in the areas of security gateways, gateway extensions, management tools, and hosted services. http://www.astaro.com

It will be interesting to see if Total Defense is any more successful selling Computer Associates’ endpoint security products than Computer Associates has been.

Computer Associates is a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization. www.amtso.org .

Updata Partners invests in market-leading software, internet, and business services companies. We concentrate on growth and technology as the central value drivers in our investments, and work closely with management to position businesses for breakout success. www.updatapartners.com

na zdraví and proost to Updata in their venture. afscheid

Interop Las Vegas 2011, Best of Interop – IV

Traffic was good but not packed, at Interop Las Vegas on Wednesday. The Gigamon presentation was well attended over the course of the day. Their big giveaway was an Apple Airtouch.

“Virtual” seems to be the second work bubbling up at Interop Las Vegas, after the word “cloud”. It seems to be an unwritten requirement at the show.

Sound bites from some of the internet security vendors. ESET pushed their consecutive number of VB100 awards (and got testy when asked if awards and results more than three years old really made a difference). Test results they were showing were 1+ years old. Comodo was pleased with their survey results. GFI and Comodo both talked about how user interfaces were as important as “capture rates”. Trend Micro had their presence in the Cisco booth, talking about the Cisco ASA 5500 and their own content security software.

Watchguard mentioned their 2-year relationship with AVG Technologies and having AVG technology under the hood for their security appliances. Watchguard uses a different vendor for email gateway security.

The name of the game among a number of vendors was WAN acceleration. Secure web gateways were being shown on the floor as were NGFW’s, next generation firewalls.

On Wednesday, the energy level picked at 3 o’clock for the pub-crawl. Sizable amounts of alcohol seemed to be consumed.

The “vendor” party was held Wednesday evening. It had a sort of 80’s theme, and was held in Haze, one of the clubs at the new Aria Casino. It got crowded after 10. Some of the cocktail servers were channeling Devo with red flowerpots on their heads. Madonna songs played frequently.

The Best of Interop 2011

InformationWeek Analytics had 135 finalists for the Best of Interop awards. Below is a listing of the winners. For the complete article, a list of the finalists, and more information, go to http://www.bestofinterop.com/winners/

• Best of Interop (Overall) and Cloud Computing Category Winner - VMware - VMware vCenter Operations Standard 1.0
• Collaboration - Vidyo Inc. - VidyoMobile
• Data Center & Storage - Alcatel-Lucent – Alcatel-Lucent Data Center Switching Solution Blueprint
• Infrastructure - NEC Corporation – NEC ProgrammableFlow Switch
• Network Management, Monitoring and Testing - BreakingPoint Systems, Inc. - BreakingPoint FireStorm CTM
• Performance Optimization - Talari Networks - Mercury T750 APN Appliance
• Security - Barracuda Networks, Inc. - Barracuda Flex
• Wireless & Mobility - Citrix Systems - Citrix Receiver for the iPhone
• Best Start-Up - Ciphertex Data Security

You would have to say that traffic was overall, okay. Perhaps akin to that of people strolling along Claude Debussylaan. The lunches are probably better at Bolenius than inside the exhibition hall at Interop Las Vegas.

Interop Las Vegas 2011 – III

It was a low-key day at Interop Las Vegas the first day the exhibition hall was open. One thinks that that this year’s Interop may be a bit slow when they have drawings for iPads at the keynote. The giveaway du jour at this year’s event is remains the iPad, similar to RSA San Francisco, several months ago.

Traffic on Interop Las Vegas exhibition floor seemed okay, though not stupendous. Rows began with 500, rather than 100. Interesting… Best tchotchke? A car giveaway is going on. The iPad giveaway seems to be fairly common. Shirts are not as prevalent as they once were.

McAfee put out a press release about their cloud security platform but were referring people to their parent company, Intel, to learn about it. Perhaps it was discussed during the presentations. Riverbed Technology and Akamai announced a partnership. Results of this partnership will not be seen until 2012. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/10/akamai_riverbed_cloud_optimizer/ . Trend Micro? No booth but they were talking about their cloud offering in the Cisco booth and will be giving a session on “The Evil Hack in the Sky, Cloud Security”, on Wednesday. Blue Coat Systems is leading three sessions, “The New Age of Wan Optimization” (Thursday), “Breakthrough Wan Technologies” (Wednesday), and “Cloud, Video and Internet: Redefining the Requirements for WAN Optimization” (Wednesday). Blue Coat also had a pair of press releases on Tuesday, “Blue Coat breaks the Barrier for Public Cloud Optimization” and “Blue Coat Defines Next Generation WAN Optimization”.

Workouts people could have at the show for prizes? Virtual boxing, putting, riding a mechanical bull, and racing miniature racecars.

Internet Security vendors ESET, Comodo, McAfee, and G Data were all within close proximity of one another on the floor. No barbs were being thrown. ESET had the largest booth and tallest employee. Comodo seemed to be talking partnerships.

If you had to pick one booth for having the hired booth staff that most epitomized Las Vegas? Securence.

Wednesday should be the busiest day on the show floor in the afternoon with the 3:00 to 5:00pm pub-crawl.

They keynote panel on Wednesday “How to Avoid Post Cloud Traumatic Stress Disorder”. Representatives from Citrix, Terremark Worldwide, and Rackspace Hosting will be on the panel. http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/keynote-speakers.php

Interop Las Vegas 2011 - II

Attendees and vendors have started to flow in to Las Vegas for Interop Las Vegas 2011. Should have placed “something” on the Mavericks. Monday is the big set-up day for exhibitors. The exhibition part of Interop is Tuesday through part of Thursday with Thursday afternoon being when the “trading of the tchtotchkes” among vendors will occur. For those who haven’t tired of that yet.

In perusing titles of presentations to see what the key topics will be, “cloud” does appear to be one of them. Of course, having its own track does give cloud an advantage. http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/cloud-computing.php .

The first keynote at Interop Las Vegas on Tuesday also points in the direct of cloud, cloud computing, and cloud security being hot topics. “Change the Rules of Networking to Enable the Cloud” is the topic by Hewlett Packard’s Dave Donatelli. Microsoft’s Zane Adams will be speaking on “Public Cloud: The Transformational Opportunities Ahead" on Tuesday. http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/keynote-speakers.php .

Correction to previous blog. Symantec does not have a formal booth presence at Interop Las Vegas. Under Huawei Symantec, yes. http://www.huaweisymantec.com/en/ . Comodo, voted the top free Internet Security Suites in a decidedly unscientific poll by download.com will be present in booth 757. That’s 2/3 of a very popular number in Las Vegas. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/03/comodo-internet-security-suite-tops.htm . The Czech Trade Promotion Agency has a booth presence at Interop Las Vegas to promote international trade and cooperation between Czech and foreign companies. Booth 1965-D.

No IPO (initial public offering) sharks seen today. The only visible sharks were the ones in the Mandalay Bay Shark Exhibit. The first Interop Las Vegas package arrived under the door Sunday evening. There will be more.

Interop Las Vegas 2011

“How is a $20 bill like a shirt (during Interop Las Vegas)? Neither one gets changed the whole week.” So complained a waitress about the lack of generosity of some of the attendees during Interop Las Vegas. More than one individual may learn that seeing the Matt Damon, Kevin Spacey movie, “21” does not make one a card counter. Hopefully, people won’t get confused that “The Lion King” has actors portraying lions and other African mammals while “Cheetah’s” has cougars.

Interop Las Vegas, smaller in size from its peak from the .com bubble burst a decade ago, remains one of the pre-eminent technology trade shows in North America. Less focused than RSA San Francisco 2011, they will still attract a sizeable crowd during its run, May 8 through 12th http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/

Over 350 companies and around 15k attendees will be taking over Mandalay Bay and some of the other casino/hotels during the week of April 8 at Interop Las Vegas. At, RSA in San Francisco, presentations had to include the words “cloud” and “virtual” in order to get any attention. It will be interesting to see what the buzz phrases are during Interop.

The security track at Interop Las Vegas will be Information Security and Risk Management Other tracks include - Cloud, Data Center, Enterprise 2.0, Future of Work, Networking, Storage, United Communication, Video Virtualization, Wireless and Mobility.

While Interop Las Vegas has much more breadth compared to RSA, there will be a number of security companies attending. These include companies involved in internet security, Symantec, McAfee, Barracuda, for example. Sophos and Kaspersky will not be in attendance. The only “avast” that will be heard will be at Treasure Island at the other end of the strip. To see a list of companies whose foci include security http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/2011/exhibitor-list/#products-services-tab

The focus of this blog during Interop week is still TBD. It will not be on IPO, initial public offering, or loans. The best tchotchkes and the companies giving them out may be listed. Companies who are the most aggressive in hiring “las Vegas” type booth help may be listed. Interesting talks may be covered. Some of the keynotes may be discussed. As always, there are parties at night. Much above avg parties. After all, this is Vegas, Baby! Speakers from Cisco, IBM, Citrix, Internet pioneer Vincent Cerf, and others. No Bill Clinton like RSA had. http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/keynote-speakers.php

What happens in Vegas.....

Best Internet Security Suites 2011 – PC Magazine

The table below lists the Best Internet Security Suites of 2011 as reviewed by PC Magazine and Neil Rubenking. The ratings are from high to low and then reverse alphabetical order (just to be different). http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373529,00.asp

The last figure in each row reflects the number of stars awarded by www.av-comparatives.org in their February 2011 "On-demand Detection of Malicious Software". This figure has the following caveats; Antivirus products were used, not internet security suites; where there is a blank, that company’s antivirus product was not tested by AV Comparatives.

Best Internet Security Suites 2011 – PC Magazine

4.5 - Norton Internet Security Suite 2011 2
4.5 - Norton 360 Version 5.0 2
4.0 - Webroot Internet Security Suite 2011 Tested
4.0 - Kaspersky PURE Total Security 3
4.0 - Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 3
4.0 - Astaro Security Gateway
3.5 - Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 1
3.5 - McAfee Total Protection 2011 3
3.5 - BitDefender Total Security 3
3.5 - Avast! Internet Security 6.0 2
3.5 - Ad-Aware Total Security
3.0 - PC Tools Internet Security 2011 1
3.0 - Outpost Security Suite Free 7.0
3.0 - G Data TotalSecurity 2011 2
3.0 - F-Secure Internet Security 2011 3
2.5 - Trustport Internet Security Suite 2011 3
2.5 - Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.0
2.5 - Bullguard Internet Security 2011
2.5 - AVG Internet Security 2011 1
2.0 - eScan Internet Security Suite 2011 3


PC Magazine reviews each of the products in the table in detail. People looking for a solution should look at these individual reviews. They contain detailed (and extremely knowledgeable) qualitative data about the products as well as results of malware tests that were done by PC Magazine. Many of the companies also offer more than one internet security suite. Another reason to visit their web sites.

Individuals interested in only an antivirus solution can go to “Best Antivirus Software of 2011 – PC Magazine” at http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-antivirus-software-for-2011-pc.html for a ranking of these solutions.

Individuals interested in a table showing internet security suite rankings that combine PC World, PC Magazine and about.com rankings can go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/pc-world-pc-magazine-and-aboutcom.html

To see an evolving compilation of Best Antivirus 2012 reviews, go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html

People should also review (it's also free to download) the AV Comparatives document. It contains a great deal of content about the testing, detection rates, missed samples, false positives, and scanning speeds (and more). People may also want to go to www.av-test.org and www.virusbtn.org to look at additional tests. To learn about test standards, you may wish to visit the Ant-Malware Testing Standards site at www.amtso.org .

Internet security suites vary greatly in what features they provide. They could include, for example, identity protection, backup and restore, free online storage, PC tuneup, free email, chat, and phone support, parental controls, password managers, data encryption, file shredding, remotely lock files, extend protection to smart phones, and authenticate hotspots. These examples are from Norton, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro. http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/titanium-internet-security/ , http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/pure

There is more to a product review than just counting the "likes" on a Fan Page ;) . Sometimes the wisdom of experts is better than the collective wisdom of crowds, with all due respect to James Surwiecki.

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. For more information, go to www.av-comparatives.org

2011 SC Magazine Awards Europe - Winners Announced

The 2011 SC Magazine Awards Europe winners were announced Tuesday evening, April 19. The awards gala took place at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Sophos and McAfee were both double winners on Tuesday evening. McAfee was also a double winner in the SC Awards US 2011 event held in San Francisco in February during (but not part of) the RSA security show. It remains to be seen whether representatives of the winning organizations will be given invitations to the upcoming royal wedding.

Best anti-malware solution

Sophos - Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition

Best content security

Websense - Triton

Best network security

McAfee - Network Security Platform

Best integrated security solution

ArcSight - Logger 5

Best DLP solution

Safend - Data Protection Suite

Best encryption solution

PGP by Symantec - Remote Disable and Destroy (RDD)

Best IAM solution

CA Technologies - Identity Manager

Best remote access

Becrypt - Trusted Client

Best security management

McAfee - ePolicy Orchestrator

Best SME security solution

Qualys - QualysGuard Express

Best security solution, financial services

Actiance - Vantage

Best enterprise security solution

Good Technology - Good for Enterprise

Best secure transaction solution

Thales - payShield 9000

Best secure virtualization solution

Check Point - Check Point Security Gateway Virtual Edition

Innovation award

ActiveBase - ActiveBase Security

Information security consultancy of the year

KPMG

IT security value added reseller of the year

Brookcourt Solutions

MSSP of the year

Dell SecureWorks

Information security product of the year

Actiance - Unified Security Gateway

Information security project of the year

British Gas - Keep Mum

Information security team of the year

Barclaycard - Barclaycard Payment Security team

Rising star award

Ross Leaning, executive advisor, KPMG

CEO of the year

Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO, Qualys

Information security person of the year

Mark Brown, chief information security officer, SABMiller

Information security vendor of the year

Sophos


The short list for SC Awards Europe 2011 finalists is at http://www.scmagazineuk.com/awards-shortlist/section/348/

Judging

The judges for the Technology and Industry Awards are drawn from the senior ranks of the information security profession. The Professional Awards are judged by a separate panel drawn from the SC editorial team

What the SC Magazine Awards Europe 2011 Mean for the Vendors

• 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

Symantec was a winner in four categories for the awards in the US. McAfee was nominated in fourteen categories and won in two of these.

A listing of the SC Awards 2011 US winners is at

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/sc-awards-2011-us-announced.html

April 2011 - Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, October 2010 through April 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing October 2010 through April 2011 data.

Achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Bkts, 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. The order of these is from (approximately) left to upper right.

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 Kaspersky AV, AVG Technologies, Kaspersky IS, Avast, eScan, ESET Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G-DATA, TrustPort, Zeobit, Check Point, Avira Free, and Coranti. Coranti received the highest score for Proactive Detection and TrustPort for Reactive Detection at about 98% and 91% respectively. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/virus-bulletin-rap-averages-quadrant.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 April 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.

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. 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.

AV-Comparatives on Demand Detection of Malicious Software – April 2011 (Latest Revision)

AV-Comparatives has released an updated to their latest On Demand Detection of Malicious Software report – April 2011. Twenty vendors are included in the report. Advanced Plus (3 star ratings) were achieved by seven vendors. In order, they were TrustPort, F-Secure, BitDefender, Avira, eScan, Kaspersky, and McAfee.

G-DATA, TrustPort, and Avast ranked one, two, and three, respectively, with the percentage of least samples missed. All were under two percent.

Of the vendors best known for free antivirus protection, Avira received Advanced Plus certification (3 stars) Avast received Advanced Certification (two stars) and AVG Technologies, Standard Certification (one star). According to the report, by request of the respective vendors, these vendors’ free versions of software were used, avast Free Antivirus, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, and Avira AntiVir Personal.

AV-Comparatives consulted with vendors with respect to what settings to use for the test. For the complete report, go to the AV-Comparatives web site. There you will find details on samples used, testing methodology, scanning speed results, and more.

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. www.av-comparatives.org

Note that there are other testing organizations as well. Individuals and companies evaluating AV and Internet Security SW should also look at the others, at reviews, round-ups, and group tests performed by reputable testing organizations, and technology publications. For information on testing best practices, people can go to the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization website (AMTSO), www.amtso.org

March 2011 OPSWAT Report on Worldwide Antivirus Application Market Share

On March 8, OPSWAT Inc. published their report on “Worldwide Antivirus Application Market Share”. The results may not mesh completely with the results published by the vendors themselves (surprise!). The data used by OPSWAT for their market share report was collected between November 16, 2010 and February 15, 2011.

Worldwide Market Share Leaders – Companies

The top 5 companies with respect to worldwide market share were

• Avast Software (16.2%) – was in first in June report
• Avira (13.2%) – was in second in June report
• AVG Technologies (11.5%) – was in fifth in June report
• ESET Software (10.3 – was in eight in June report
• Symantec (9.5%) – was in third in June report

The table in the document lists the top 15. Symantec leads in North America vendor market share with 16.2%.

Worldwide Market Share Leaders - Product

The top 5 products with respect to antivirus product market share were

• Avast Free Antivirus (11.6%) – was in first in June report
• Avira AntiVir Personal Free Antivirus (11.0%) – was in second in June report
• Microsoft Security Essentials (7.0%) – was in fourth in June report
• AVG Antivirus Free (6.8%) – was in third in June report
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus (6.4%) – was in eight in June report

The table in the report contains the top 15. Microsoft leads in North American Antivirus product market share with 10.2%

Other tables in the report include the above but focusing on North America percentages rather than global.

The order of the top 3 may be surprising to some people since on CNET’s download.com site. The typical weekly download order for the top three products is AVG, followed by Avira and Avast. Download.com isn’t the only download site for these vendors.


The press release for the above can be viewed at
http://www.opswat.com/media/news/opswats-q1-market-share-report-names-symantec-as-the-north-american-market-leader

The report can be downloaded at

http://www.opswat.com/media/reports/MarketShareReportMarch2011.pdf

So who is kicking butt in security?

http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/cdn/2011/03/18/so-who-is-kicking-butt-in-security/62889/

Some interesting bullet points from IT World Canada and a recent NPD Group report (www.npd.com)

• Symantec and McAfee grew collectively at just under eight per cent in North American retail (sales unit volume) last year
• Kaspersky grew by a whopping 165 per cent, Webroot did well at 85 per cent and Trend Micro had a great year at 71.1 per cent. growth
• Some other players such as Panda Security and AVG Technologies regressed

About OPSWAT – www.opswat.com

Founded in 2002, OPSWAT is the industry leader in software management SDKs, interoperability certification and multiple engine scanning solutions. With both manageability and multi-scanning products, OPSWAT offers simplified and comprehensive SDKs that reduce time and costs for your engineering and testing teams

Comodo Internet Security Suite Tops CNET Poll of Consumer Free Antivirus, Internet Security Suites

May update - While Comodo Internet Security Suite may have topped this poll, the product failed to receive certified in www.av-test.org Q1 2011 certification test running on Windows 7. This was one of five products to fail certification. Others were CA Internet Security Suite, McAfee Total Protection 2011, Norman Security Suite, and PC Tools Security Suite 2011. http://www.av-test.org/certifications.php

In a poll of nine consumer free antivirus and internet security suites by CNET, Comodo Internet Security Suite topped the competition, followed by, Avast Free Antivirus 6, and Ad Aware Free Internet Security. . The poll ran for several days in late February and Early March. http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20036621-12.html

The percentages are from CNET’s poll. The next number is PC Magazine’s Neil Rubenking’s rating (out of 5.0)

1. 42%, 2.5 - Comodo Internet Security 5.0*
2. 18%, 3.5 - Avast Free Antivirus 6
3. 12%, 4.5 - Ad Aware Free Internet Security 9
4. 11%, 4.0 - Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 1.3*
5. 08%, 3.5 - AVG Free Antivirus 2011

The above has no correlation with the number of weekly downloads on CNET’s site. The usual weekly order has been (primarily North America) is AVG Free Antivirus, Avast Free Antivirus, and Avira Antivir in the top three spots.

About the Poll

About 137k votes were cast. It appears as if people could vote only once. The poll was a combination of antivirus products and internet security suites. Some companies were actively soliciting votes from users and their fan pages.

Product Reviews and Rankings

*Below are links to PC Magazine reviews of the products. Note that the version numbers do not always mesh with the versions in the survey (*). Also below is a link to a blog listing PC World’s top 5 free antivirus products of 2011.

• Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security 9.0 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373984,00.asp
• AVG Antivirus Free Edition 2011 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370108,00.asp
• Avast Free Antivirus 6 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381362,00.asp
• *Comodo Internet Security 4 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363256,00.asp
• Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.3 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364844,00.asp and http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371589,00.asp


Free vs. Fee: Free and Paid Antivirus Programs Compared – PC World Antivirus Review (note that these are antivirus products, not internet security suites)

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-vs-fee-free-and-paid-antivirus.html

Avast Introduces Avast 6 Product Line

Internet Security provider Avast! released version 6 of their latest internet security offerings during the last week of February. This includes on the consumer side, their free consumer product, Avast Free Antivirus 6, Avast Pro Antivirus, and Avast Internet Security. Avast is now promoting 149 million product registrations for their solutions (each company seems to define "registration" and "registered user" differently).

What’s New with Avast 6?

• avast! WebRep - Provides website reliability and reputation ratings according to community-provided feedback.
• avast! SafeZone - Opens a new (clean) desktop so that other applications don’t see what’s happening – perfect for banking or secure ordering/shopping – and leaves no traces once it’s closed.
• AutoSandbox - Prompts users to run suspicious applications in the virtual Sandbox environment.

Utilizing virtual desktops has been growing in corporate environments as a means to protect users and the network. This technology appears to be migrating to the consumer marketplace now, as well.

What Avast is promoting in Avast Free Antivirus 6?

• AutoSandbox – Avast says that this is the first automatic virtualization feature in a major antivirus package. AutoSandbox identifies suspicious applications and automatically prompts users to run them in a safe virtual environment
• WebRep – Avast claims that this is first reputation guide for malware and website content incorporated into a free antivirus application.
• The product also includes Web and Script shields, protecting users at the http and browser level, and site blocking

Why Upgrade to Avast Pro Antivirus or Avast Internet Security?

Avast introduces SafeZone, their version of virtual machine technology with their Avast Pro Antivirus and Avast Internet Security Suite 6 solutions. As mentioned above, SafeZone creates a virtual desktop within the computer. According to Avast, it prevents private data from going outside via malware and blocks out applications such as malware.

For safety while shopping or banking online, Avast pushes the upgrade to Avast Pro Antivirus. Safely shop or bank online. Upgrading to Avast Internet Security adds identity and data protection, an advanced firewall and spam protection to the mix.

For a detailed comparison between what is in the paid two consumer products, go to http://www.avast.com/internet-security#tab4

What are reviewers saying about Avast Free Antivirus 6?

CNET gave Avast Free Antivirus 6 4.5 stars out of 5. Rosenblatt’s conclusion:
“When it comes to your security, Avast Free Antivirus 6 gets a lot right. It's got a usable, uncluttered interface, solid although not stellar benchmarks, and a set of features that keeps it at the forefront of Windows security. Using the Internet safely is no longer just about not getting phished and downloading only known-safe files, and the improvements in Avast 6 address modern security risks comprehensively. Although we'd like to see stronger efficacy benchmarks in the future, Avast remains one of the best free security options around and is well worth downloading.” http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html .

PC Magazine's Neil Rubenking gave Avast Free Antivirus 6 3.5 stars out of 5. His bottom line comment - "Avast! Free has some dandy new features, and it's a great-looking program. However, the new features didn't shine in my testing. It needs to do a better job cleaning up the threats it detects. Since its' free, you can give it a try and make your own decision."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381362,00.asp

PC World rated Avast Free Antivirus 5 their top free solution in a December article with 4.5 stars out of 5.0. They rated Avast Pro Antivirus 5 3rd to Norton and BitDefender with a score of 4.0 out of 5.0 (tied with G Data). http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-vs-fee-free-and-paid-antivirus.html

What are the test organizations saying about Avast 6?

As of March 1, nothing. Interested parties should go to the respective websites, for details on any testing that has been performed. Available test results are using version 5.

Virus Bulletin (www.virusbtn.org) – Archived results for Avast are available at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/results?vendor=VE9 Pay attention to exactly which product was tested. Avast has received VB100 awards for the last 12 tests they've entered.

Avira's free solution was the best performing "free" product in Virus Bulletin's latest RAP test, followed by Avast and AVG Technologies, respectively.

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

AV-comparatives (www.av-comparatives.org) - Any test results performed on prior versions of Avast! products can be viewed at www.av-comparatives.org . Pay attention to exactly which product was tested.

AV-test.org (www.av-test.org) - Any test results performed on prior versions of Avast! can be viewed at http://www.av-test.org/ . Pay attention to exactly which product was tested.

ICSA Labs (www.icsalabs.org) - Results can be viewed at https://www.icsalabs.com . Pay attention to exactly which product was tested. ICSA Labs tested Avast's free product (earlier release)

https://www.icsalabs.com/products?tid[]=4216&tid_1[]=4259&x=34&y=8&=Apply