Erratum: Windows XP comparative review: McAfee VirusScan

After re-testing, McAfee's VirusScan product gains a VB 100% award.

Unfortunately an error occurred in Virus Bulletin's Windows XP comparative review (see VB June 2002, p.21): the results for Network Associates' McAfee VirusScan were replaced by those for NAI VirusScan. The correct results for McAfee VirusScan are reproduced in the table below.

The samples missed by VirusScan were mainly in the polymorphic set, where the offending items were Sepultura, W32/CTX and W32/Fosforo. The .TMP file dropped by W32/Nimda.A was undetected both in the XP review and in this month's NetWare tests. The file is included in the standard set as something of a curiosity file since, although it contains Nimda's code and is dropped by Nimda, this file is not a threat under any normal circumstances.

The results reported in the review for clean set scanning and false positives were correct. In light of the fact that no false positives were encountered and all In the Wild scans resulted in full detection, McAfee VirusScan is rightfully awarded a VB 100 % award for its performance. VB offers its apologies to Network Associates and to readers for the confusion.

McAfee VirusScan		On Demand	On Access
ITW File	number missed	0	0
ITW File	% detection	100%	100%
ITW Boot	number missed	0	0
ITW Boot	% detection	100%	100%
ITW Overall	number missed	0	0
ITW Overall	% detection	100%	100%
Macro Virus	number missed	0	0
Macro Virus	% detection	100%	100%
Polymorphic	number missed	8	8
Polymorphic	% detection	99.86%	99.86%
Standard	number missed	1	2
Standard	% detection	99.98%	99.87%