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The End of Signature-Based Antivirus Software?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the one-can-only-hope dept.

nosig writes "PCMagazine is running a story around the latest AV-TEST response time and proactive detection test for the latest MS05-039 vulnerability related attacks. The test results were announced by the author to the focus-virus discussion list. What's really impresive, besides the huge difference between response times among antivirus companies, is that two products succeeded to proactively detect all 6 attacks without any signature update. "

11 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Excel sheet Zip file???? by gtrubetskoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the referred posting: You can find the information how fast the AV companies have reacted with a solution against Bozari.A/B, Drudgebot.B, IRCBot!Var and Zotob.A/B in an Excel sheet (18 KB ZIP file) which is available at http://www.av-test.org./

    At first glance this looks like a clever variation on "important document attached" e-mails we all get every day...

    1. Re:Excel sheet Zip file???? by milimetric · · Score: 5, Funny

      what I find interesting here is that whereas in the detection time sorted column Symantec performed at an average level, in the alphabetically sorted column they performed very badly, being one of the last ones in the list. Judging by a quick glance at this, I will switch my antivirus software to AntiVir which was at the TOP of the list.

    2. Re:Excel sheet Zip file???? by FragHARD · · Score: 2, Funny

      well I'm not giong to open it ....... Hey I know lets get mikey to open it, he'll open anything!

      --
      FragHARD or don't frag at all
    3. Re:Excel sheet Zip file???? by slashdevnull · · Score: 2, Funny
      (You are using OpenOffice under Linux or BSD, right?)

      Yeah, but they're running it as root.

  2. The death of X by twigles · · Score: 4, Funny

    This week on /., "The Death of [fill in the blank]!" It's just one test, slow down and breath.

    1. Re:The death of X by woah · · Score: 3, Funny
      Death of X?

      Not my X!

      *sob* *hugs monitor running X session*

  3. In other words... by cryptoz · · Score: 3, Funny

    The anti-virus companies have finally learned that the type of viruses they're creating are too difficult to fight against. So they've decided to start writing slightly new viruses that can be more easily killed through their new type of program, which will cost the unsuspecting Windows user, oh, only a few dozen more dollars a month.

    I love the world of GNU/Linux.

  4. I don't know about you, but I saw this coming. by Bnderan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sheesh...This should be obvious to anyone that MS05-039 totally outclasses MS05-038 in proactive detection test response time. NTIKWTFIATA

  5. Re:well by Drakonite · · Score: 3, Funny
    unless you are suggesting the AV companies were the virus authors? :-)

    I might suggest that, but I don't want a sudden string of viruses to attack my computer...

    --
    Shoot Pixels, Not People!
  6. Re:well by jazman_777 · · Score: 2, Funny
    In true /. tradition, let me give a shoddy example.

    Mod parent down. The properly shoddy example would have had something to do with cars.

    Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, Bad Car Analogies.

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  7. Re:Virus proliferation by sootman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Average Joe doesn't see why they should have to pay to keep their AV software updated. ("I paid $XXX for this machine, and they want more? Heck no.")

    Understandable. $30 was a lot of money in ancient Roman times.

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