Anti-Virus Testing Project Vincent Martinez Christopher Creighton 7/28/09

Background Current: Sophos and Symantec Sophos: About 4500 Clients Symantec: Between Clients Symantec no longer supported Unknown number of other Anti-Virus Solutions

Sophos Issues Misleading terminology Failing to detect known viruses Failing to remove items from its quarantine Failing to move items to its quarantine Failing to offer automatic removal options for malware and adware Failing to allow files to be authorized Reporting non-malicious files as suspicious or malicious

Sophos Issues – Continued Preventing Windows from updating Blocking Thunderbird from sending and triggering on-access scans of large local mailboxes Causing fatal system errors (blue-screen) that sometimes cause the system to never recover Repeatedly causing alerts for the same virus after failing to quarantine the file resulting in local performance degradation Failing to install or update altogether Failing to protect itself from retro viruses

Desired Features Centrally Managed Easily Deployable Detection and Removal rate Ease of Use and Configuration Resource Footprint Types of Protection Frequency of Updates

Products Sophos: Current Lab Standard Avast: Recommended by IT Engineer G Data: Anti-Virus Analysis Groups Trend: Recommended by IT Engineer AVG: Removed from Evaluation

Anti-Virus Requirements Detailed in Anti-Virus Requirements Matrix √ = Feature Present X = Feature Missing Document Details Desired Features Avast > Trend > Sophos > G Data Avast Proposed for Removal

Testing Environment Hardware: Dell 745, 2x 160 GB Internal HDD with 4 partitions each Software: XP Pro and One Anti-Virus Client per Partition 3-Drive Hot Swap Bay for Scanning Infected Disks 1 TB External Drive for Backup Images

Testing Methodology Used Known Infected HDDs from Users Scanned Extensively with Each Solution Logs Gathered at End of Each Scan Logs Aggregated in Anti-Virus Testing Matrix Scan Results Summarized in Graphs

Detection Summary Test Case #6: –G Data: 511 Detections –Trend: 482 Detections –Avast: 477 Detections –Sophos: 459 Detections –AVG: 44 Detections AVG Removed Due to Low Detection Rate

Recommendations Real-World Testing is Needed Avast: Not Recommended –Tops the Feature List –Unusable Interface G Data: Recommended –High Detection Rate Trend: Recommended –Good Detection Rate

Recommendations – Continued G Data and Trend Require Further Evaluation User Test Groups Each Usability Reports From Users and Techs Effectiveness When Live: –Prevention –Detection and Removal –Related Ticket Volume