Tuesday, February 20, 2007
How to read security news: Microsoft antispyware criticized
The Register asked all the right questions about recent reviews of Windows Defender antispyware.
A couple of recent press releases claimed that Microsoft's antispyware product only caught half or less of the dangerous spyware on the Internet. My eyebrows went up: MS bought the software and at the time it was one of the best on the market. Had it gone downhill?
One news story was that Windows Defender had failed to block 84% of a sample of malware. The Register asked the question you should have, namely who picked the sample. It was the same firm that did the testing, namely Webroot. Webroot makes a competing antispyware product (a highly regarded one, by the way). You might prefer to look for a more independent study.
Enex Testlabs is an independent firm that tested several antispyware products. They reported that the Microsoft product only caught at best 53% of threats, far behind the 89% score of Spyware Doctor from PC Tools. Here you want to ask who paid for the testing. According to The Register, PC Tools did.
Well, you can't jump to conclusions here. For all we know, PC Tools knew they had the best product on the market and knew that by paying for an honest test they'd get great data for sales. Certainly I've never heard a word against their product.
The next question you want to ask is whether the best product is good enough. If you download software indiscriminately or incautiously visit a lot of web sites run by greedy people, 89% coverage is not enough. I still recommend running more than one antispyware package. Free ones can't afford to buy ads or tests but are often technically excellent: Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware are both good choices. To protect yourself, beware of random goodies: you might be avoiding porn and gambling sites, but there are a lot of useful-sounding toolbars and utility programs that come with spyware included, and the most dangerous places to visit are actually the ones offering "free games".
And in answer to your next question, I'm not getting anything except news and software from any company mentioned in this post.
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A couple of recent press releases claimed that Microsoft's antispyware product only caught half or less of the dangerous spyware on the Internet. My eyebrows went up: MS bought the software and at the time it was one of the best on the market. Had it gone downhill?
One news story was that Windows Defender had failed to block 84% of a sample of malware. The Register asked the question you should have, namely who picked the sample. It was the same firm that did the testing, namely Webroot. Webroot makes a competing antispyware product (a highly regarded one, by the way). You might prefer to look for a more independent study.
Enex Testlabs is an independent firm that tested several antispyware products. They reported that the Microsoft product only caught at best 53% of threats, far behind the 89% score of Spyware Doctor from PC Tools. Here you want to ask who paid for the testing. According to The Register, PC Tools did.
Well, you can't jump to conclusions here. For all we know, PC Tools knew they had the best product on the market and knew that by paying for an honest test they'd get great data for sales. Certainly I've never heard a word against their product.
The next question you want to ask is whether the best product is good enough. If you download software indiscriminately or incautiously visit a lot of web sites run by greedy people, 89% coverage is not enough. I still recommend running more than one antispyware package. Free ones can't afford to buy ads or tests but are often technically excellent: Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware are both good choices. To protect yourself, beware of random goodies: you might be avoiding porn and gambling sites, but there are a lot of useful-sounding toolbars and utility programs that come with spyware included, and the most dangerous places to visit are actually the ones offering "free games".
And in answer to your next question, I'm not getting anything except news and software from any company mentioned in this post.
# posted by Frederick @ 6:05 PM Email to a friend:
Haloscan: they provide trackback