Having recently ditched Norton because it sucks (what other virus app has so many knowledge base entries on support.microsoft.com because of system problems??), I started researching other antivirus apps.
I realized that reviews in magazines was not going to help. I also realized using the EICAR test was not going to help (big deal.. EICAR is a file to test virus apps to make sure they work.. of course they work! but how well?). The only real way to test an antivirus app is to shove a virus in its face and see how it deals with it.
To help in my research, and for your own knowledge and peace of mind.. I'm asking that you download the file below and unzip it. It contains three trojan horses, and these are not brand spanking new either as far as I'm aware.. so if your antivirus app does not stop you from unzipping these, then you might want to consider finding something else.
http://www.samhulick.com/virii.zip
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility for any damage to anyone's computer as a result of downloading the file above. The instructions are clear: UNZIP ONLY. DO NOT RUN OR OPEN OR ATTEMPT TO EXAMINE ANY OF THE FILES THEREIN.
Let me know which antivirus software you use and what the results of this test were.
My personal results: (all apps were updated w/ their latest virus DB)
Bitdefender Home Edition: works great, detected all three trojans and disallowed any access to them.
avast! (free version): caught Dc61.exe, but didn't know that the other two files were viruses.
NOD32: thumbs down. didn't detect anything at all. guess it's not as good as people say it is!
UPDATE: I've been informed that NOD32 is anti-virus only, not anti-trojan. That concept seems kind of silly to me... trojans are similar to viruses, they spread & infect other computers..but sometimes they're more dangerous because they allow a 3rd party to gain control over your computer.
UPDATE:
McAfee 4.5.1 SP1: only caught kernel32.dli.. missed the other two! YIKES. And to think we run this crap here at work.
UPDATE 2/16:
Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004 and Bitdefender 7.2 seem to be pretty solid. PC cillin catches all three viruses, but it seems just the older version of the software. The newer one (now called Internet Security 2004) does NOT pick up all three.
Also, I've updated the virii.zip file.. it contains a total of seven viruses/trojans now. Panda actually missed one of them (Bitdefender still caught every single one), however, even the pretty reliable RAV antivirus online scanner missed the same one Panda missed. This is kind of bad..because normally if a virus is not picked up, but I THINK it might be dangerous, I'll use the RAV online scanner to verify. No matter how much a better interface Panda has over Bitdefender, or how much more informative it is, you can't ignore the importance of an antivirus software's ability to recognize as many viruses as possible.
Stay tuned for my review of Panda vs. Bitdefender. (other antivirus apps will not be compared because they failed my initial tests)
UPDATE 2/18:
I bought Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004.
Bitdefender had a serious bug where its autoprotect would just stop. Not good. So Panda wins! By the way, you can get Panda Platinum 7.0 for FREE if you're an IT professional. CHECK IT OUT!
I realized that reviews in magazines was not going to help. I also realized using the EICAR test was not going to help (big deal.. EICAR is a file to test virus apps to make sure they work.. of course they work! but how well?). The only real way to test an antivirus app is to shove a virus in its face and see how it deals with it.
To help in my research, and for your own knowledge and peace of mind.. I'm asking that you download the file below and unzip it. It contains three trojan horses, and these are not brand spanking new either as far as I'm aware.. so if your antivirus app does not stop you from unzipping these, then you might want to consider finding something else.
http://www.samhulick.com/virii.zip
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility for any damage to anyone's computer as a result of downloading the file above. The instructions are clear: UNZIP ONLY. DO NOT RUN OR OPEN OR ATTEMPT TO EXAMINE ANY OF THE FILES THEREIN.
Let me know which antivirus software you use and what the results of this test were.
My personal results: (all apps were updated w/ their latest virus DB)
Bitdefender Home Edition: works great, detected all three trojans and disallowed any access to them.
avast! (free version): caught Dc61.exe, but didn't know that the other two files were viruses.
NOD32: thumbs down. didn't detect anything at all. guess it's not as good as people say it is!
UPDATE: I've been informed that NOD32 is anti-virus only, not anti-trojan. That concept seems kind of silly to me... trojans are similar to viruses, they spread & infect other computers..but sometimes they're more dangerous because they allow a 3rd party to gain control over your computer.
UPDATE:
McAfee 4.5.1 SP1: only caught kernel32.dli.. missed the other two! YIKES. And to think we run this crap here at work.
UPDATE 2/16:
Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004 and Bitdefender 7.2 seem to be pretty solid. PC cillin catches all three viruses, but it seems just the older version of the software. The newer one (now called Internet Security 2004) does NOT pick up all three.
Also, I've updated the virii.zip file.. it contains a total of seven viruses/trojans now. Panda actually missed one of them (Bitdefender still caught every single one), however, even the pretty reliable RAV antivirus online scanner missed the same one Panda missed. This is kind of bad..because normally if a virus is not picked up, but I THINK it might be dangerous, I'll use the RAV online scanner to verify. No matter how much a better interface Panda has over Bitdefender, or how much more informative it is, you can't ignore the importance of an antivirus software's ability to recognize as many viruses as possible.
Stay tuned for my review of Panda vs. Bitdefender. (other antivirus apps will not be compared because they failed my initial tests)
UPDATE 2/18:
I bought Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004.
Bitdefender had a serious bug where its autoprotect would just stop. Not good. So Panda wins! By the way, you can get Panda Platinum 7.0 for FREE if you're an IT professional. CHECK IT OUT!
Facebook
Twitter