Microsoft's own antivirus software, Live OneCare, is not capable to fully shield Vista users against viruses, and one of security firm McAfee's antivirus software packages also fails to protect users, according to independent research released Friday.
Security news Web site Virus Bulletin, backed by a team of security researchers based in Oxfordshire, U.K., tested 15 antivirus software solutions used by corporations and designed specifically for Microsoft Vista . The antivirus sollutions were released to the market two months ago.
The researchers tested each of the antivirus products to see if it would stop a set of viruses known to be currently in the wild. In order to be awarded a pass, the software had to detect all the viruses with no false positives.
But out of the 15, four failed:
- Microsoft Live OneCare 1.5
- McAfee VirusScan Enterprise version 8.1i
- G DATA AntiVirusKit 2007 v17.0.6353
- Norman VirusControl v5.90.
The other 11, including software from CA, Fortinet, F-Secure, Kaspersky, Sophos and Symantec, detected all the viruses.
Joe Telafici, vice president of operations for McAfee's Avert Labs, told ZDNet UK that, in his opinion, Virus Bulletin had not used its latest antivirus updates, causing the failure. He said McAfee would issue further results with the updated antivirus signatures.
Microsoft pledged to improve Live OneCare. "We are looking closely at the methodology and results of the test to ensure that Windows Live OneCare performs better in future tests and, most importantly, as part of our ongoing work to continually enhance Windows Live OneCare," a company representative told ZDNet UK.
On the subject of Vista, the Microsoft representative added: "It's important to remember that no software is 100 percent secure. Microsoft is working to keep the number of security vulnerabilities that ship in our products to a minimum, through our Security Development Lifecycle process, and that work is paying off. The release of Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system to use the Security Development Lifecycle from start to finish and was tested more, prior to shipping, than any previous version of Windows."
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