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Popular AV Solutions Miss Most Malware

In its latest report on Internet security, Cyveillance Inc. a contractor for cyber intelligence based in Arlington (USA) states that conventional anti-virus software are still lagging behind cyber-criminals insofar as spotting as well as safeguarding against rapidly-evolving and fresh attacks from malware are concerned.

The security company, for its study, experimented with 13 well-known anti-virus applications -McAfee, Symantec, Sophos, Trend Micro, F-Secure, Kaspersky, AVG, F-Prot, Dr. Web, Nod32, Norman, Virus Buster, and eTrust-Vet and found out their percentage of detection spanning 30-days. A database of about 1,708 files known to be malicious was utilized for finding out the lag and detection percentages of these anti-viruses.

The ensuing results showed that well-known AVs just detect a mean of 18.9% of fresh attacks from malware. By the time it's the 8th day, the mean detection rate becomes 45.7%. The rate increases to 56.6% on the 15th day, 60.3% on the 22nd day, and 61.7% after the 30th day.

Furthermore, the report states that the best of AV applications consume a mean of 11.6 days for coping up with fresh malicious programs. And as this doesn't cover those malware signatures that remain unidentified even after day 30, Internet-users seeking protection are advised not to depend solely on anti-virus solutions, according to Cyveillance.

Said COO Panos Anastassiadis of Cyveillance in one press release, even after a period spanning 30 days a lot of AV companies remained unable to spot known attacks. Consequently, enterprises were critically required to become more proactive towards securing the Internet so that the chances of infection could be lessened, he explained. The release was published on Cyveillance's website on August 4, 2010.

Anastassiadis continued that to enhance self-defense, users mustn't visit disreputable/unknown websites; should raise their Web-browsers' security configurations; and must ensure malware block charts' presence for enhancing personal devices' security. He added that only via reactive and proactive means was it possible to accomplish a strong safety ground.

Meanwhile, according to the Cyveillance researchers, since cyber-criminals manage to get past many security solutions by planting freshly designed malware therefore, users must deploy that security software which copes up with these malware adequately.

Related article: Popular Firefox Inching Towards Malware’s Target

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