“Comodo Challenges Symantec to Antivirus Showdown” plus 1 more |
| Comodo Challenges Symantec to Antivirus Showdown Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:24 AM PDT A recent article on free antivirus software quoted a Symantec product manager as saying that "free anti-virus is not enough: You need in-depth layered technologies, which only come from the more mature paid suites." Melih Abdulhayoglu, chief executive and chief security architect for Comodo Security Solutions, called the Symantec statement "unacceptable," "misinformation," and "blatant lies." Abdulhayoglu has now challenged Symantec to a showdown, or "an independent test to see which product can protect users better; A paid for Norton product, or a totally free Comodo." Symantec's response points out that independent tests already exist. "Norton is included in a variety of independent, third-party tests from testing labs like AV-Test and AV Comparatives. We encourage Comodo to contact these testing labs if they are interested in having their product included in these tests," the company said. Indeed, Norton Internet Security 2011 and other Symantec products have received top marks from West Coast Labs, Virus Bulletin, AV-Test.org, AV-Comparatives.org, and others. Of these, only West Coast Labs tested Comodo, certifying it for virus detection but not for virus removal. Products with a revenue stream do have an advantage here, because in most cases vendors must pay to have their products evaluated by the independent labs. Comodo's challenge didn't specify how the showdown would be funded. Some free antivirus products score very well in PCMag's own testing, but none have beaten the best commercial products. It's also important to note that Comodo's challenge to "protect users" very specifically refers to preventing malicious software from attacking a clean system, not to removing existing infestations. In a recent interview, Comodo's Abdulhayoglu stated "Our motto from day one is keeping a clean PC clean. This is a different market from cleaning up an infected PC." Symantec's products do both tasks, and according to most tests do them very well. PCMag's own testing of Comodo Antivirus 5.0 is still underway. Preliminary results indicate that indeed the product's ability to clean up existing malware problems is very limited. Between its signature-based detection, behavior blocking, and sandboxing technology it does appear to be quite effective at blocking attack by viruses and other malware. However, these same techniques may interfere with installation and execution of valid programs. Look for a full PCMag review of Comodo's latest free antivirus soon. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| ZoneAlarm caught using fake antivirus scare tactics Posted: 22 Sep 2010 10:38 AM PDT Check Point, a security company that offers various products to protect consumers and businesses, is imitating the tactics of fake antimalware programs. Over the last few days, ZoneAlarm users have been receiving a warning from their security software that tells them they are not protected against a new piece of malware. The warning is titled a "Global Virus Alert," shows "Your PC may be in danger!" in bright red, and urges the user to "SEE THREAT DETAILS" and "GET PROTECTION." The prompt is very poorly designed: it looks a lot like malware masquerading as an antivirus (in fact, we would say that newer fake antimalware prompts are more believable than ZoneAlarm's warning). Exhibit A: The alarmist Zone Alarm prompt Exhibit B: A warning from a fake antimalware product The only thing saving Exhibit A from simply being a prettier Exhibit B is the branding: assuming you know your firewall is from ZoneAlarm, you might guess the prompt is actually legitimate. But why would your firewall issue a virus warning? The strategy is the same used by fake antimalware writers employ: warn users about a threat and suggest they download your solution to fix the problem. It's really unfortunate that the designers of this prompt did not take the time to think about how their users might interpret it. Real antimalware software should never ever stoop to the level of fake antimalware software; taking marketing advice from malware writers completely undermines the advice tech-savvy users give their friends: ignore these types of messages. ZoneAlarm's customers are enraged, calling the notification a scare tactic, and many of them have opted to uninstall the software. A thread on the company's forums has now been set as a Sticky, amassing 60 posts and over 27,000 views at the time of this writing. "We thought we were being proactive with our virus message," a Check Point spokesperson told Ars. "After listening to consumer feedback, we realized that it was misinterpreted and have turned the pop-up message off... It was never our intent to lead customers to believe they have a virus on their computer. This was purely an informative message about a legitimate and serious virus that also included information about the differences in protection of various products, and how to get protection against it." Let this be a lesson to all security companies: the marketing department should not be allowed to make security warning decisions. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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