Fighting malware and spam

Latest Reactive and Proactive (RAP) test results

VB's RAP (Reactive and Proactive) testing provides deeper insight into products' ability to keep up with the flood of new malware emerging around the world, as well as their proactive detection capabilities - putting heuristic and generic technology to the test.

Latest VBSpam test results

In the latest VBSpam test VB's team tested a record 23 full anti-spam solutions, together with one reputation blacklist. The number of VBSpam awards earned also reached a record high of 22. Check out the products' relative positions in the VBSpam quadrant here.

Malware prevalence

Virus Name	Prevalence	Pct
Conficker/Downadup		10.7%
Autorun		8.2%
FakeAlert/Renos		7.0%
Agent		5.8%
Heuristic/generic		4.0%
VB		3.7%
Ircbot		3.6%
OnlineGames		3.5%

VB100

Virus Bulletin's unique VB100 certification scheme provides an unbiased picture of how anti-malware products fare in a competitive analysis. The stringent product testing methods combined with VB's commitment to reporting performances exactly as they are found makes the VB100 an award vendors strive to achieve.

Events calendar

VB Seminar

92% of UK organisations experienced some form of security incident over the last year. How effective is your IT security? Is your data being stolen? What's your contingency plan? Are you spending your money on IT security in the right way?

Join our one-day seminar on Thursday 25th November in London to hear from security experts on what you can do to minimise the impact of a security breach within your company. Register before 30 September for an early bird discount. More details.

VB2010 award nominations

This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the VB conference and by way of celebration the organizers plan to give six gleaming awards to members of the anti-malware and anti-spam industry in recognition of their work in the last 10 years. Make your nominations here.

VB100 – Windows Vista Business Edition Service Pack 2

With another epic haul of 54 products to test this month, the VB test team could have done without the bad behaviour of a number of products: terrible product design, lack of accountability for activities, blatant false alarms in major software, numerous problems detecting the WildList set, and some horrendous instability under pressure. Happily, there were also some good performances to balance things out. John Hawes has the details.

SSL certificate warnings – nuisance or value?

‘[SSL certificate] warnings are a nuisance for the same reason they may help.’ Chester Wisniewski, Sophos

Cut the Cutwail

After playing the cat-and-mouse game with AV companies for several months, the author(s) of Pushdo/Cutwail finally decided to change their advanced installer, in doing so changing the communication mechanism between the servers and bots. Kyle Yang reveals the details of the new protocol.

Apple pie order?

‘Over 40% [of computer users] think [that Macs are] only “somewhat” vulnerable.’ David Harley, ESET

Articles marked with the logo are only accessible to Virus Bulletin subscribers.

Virus Bulletin online magazine and website provide users with all the information they need to stay current with the latest developments in the anti-malware and anti-spam field.

‘In short, VB is an invaluable resource.’

VB Conference

The VB conference is a major highlight of the anti-malware calendar, with many of its regular attendees citing it as the anti-malware event of the year. The 20th Virus Bulletin International Conference (VB2010) will be held 29 September to 1 October 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. The VB2010 programme is now available to view online.

Register now!

‘Very useful and enjoyable, with unparalleled social networking.’

VB Conference

VGrep

VGrep is an essential tool designed to help clear up some of the confusion surrounding the naming of viruses.
VGrep can be used freely by registered users. More information on malware can be found in our extensive resources section.