Scanner Review January 1996
This is a summary of results from Secure Computing's January 1996
comparative review of Anti-Virus Products.
Twenty-one products were tested: AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP),
AntiVirus Plus, AVAST!, AVScan, Central Point Anti-Virus,
Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit, Dr Web, F-Prot Professional,
IBM AntiVirus, McAfee ViruScan, Microsoft Anti-Virus, Norman
Virus Control, Norton AntiVirus, Sophos Sweep, ThunderBYTE, Vet,
Virex for the PC, ViruSafe, Virus Alert, Virus Buster,
Virus Buster Lite.
Recognition of Viruses - Full SECURE Computing Collection
---------------------------------------------------------
Percentage of infections
Product detected Rank
==================================================
Dr Solomon's AVTK 99.05 1st
Sophos Sweep 98.11 2nd
F-Prot Professional 98.05 3rd
Thunderbyte 97.76 4th
AVP 97.21 5th
Virus Alert 96.22 6th
McAfee ViruScan 92.89 7th
IBM AntiVirus 92.43 8th
AntiVirus Plus 90.13 9th
Dr Web 88.41 10th
Norton AntiVirus 85.40 11th
AVScan 83.81 12th
Vet 76.58 13th
Virus Buster Lite 73.75 14th
Virex for the PC 70.54 15th
Virus Buster 60.88 16th
Norman Virus Control 55.69 17th
ViruSafe 53.66 18th
AVAST! 0 Hung machine; scored 99.2% on 56%
of the library
Central Point AntiVirus 0 Hung machine; scored 91.6% on 7%
of the library
Microsoft Anti-Virus 0 Hung machine; scored 27.2% on 50%
of the library
In the wild test - Viruses detected
-----------------------------------
Recent in the Wild Classical viruses
Product viruses missed missed Rank
===============================================================
Dr Solomon's AVTK none none 1st (joint)
F-Prot Professional none none 1st (joint)
McAfee ViruScan none none 1st (joint)
Norton AntiVirus none none 1st (joint)
Sophos Sweep none none 1st (joint)
Thunderbyte none none 1st (joint)
AVAST! 1 none 7th
Virus Alert 2 none 8th
AntiVirus Plus 1 2 9th (joint)
IBM AntiVirus 1 2 9th (joint)
AVP 3 1 11th (joint)
Norman Virus Control 4 none 11th (joint)
Virus Buster Lite none 4 11th (joint)
Dr Web 4 3 14th
ViruSafe 6 none 15th
Vet 10 none 16th
AVScan 11 none 17th
Virus Buster 31 5 18th
Virex for the PC 32 2 19th
Central Point Anti-Virus 50 none 20th
Microsoft Anti-Virus 67 5 21st
Polymorphics
------------
Product Percent detected Rank
===================================================
F-Prot Professional 99.8 1st
Dr Solomon's AVTK 99.7 2nd
Sophos Sweep 99.5 3rd
AVAST! 99.3 4th (joint)
AVScan 99.3 4th (joint)
Norton AntiVirus 99.2 7th
Vet 98.9 8th
Thunderbyte 98.6 9th
McAfee ViruScan 96 10th
IBM AntiVirus 88.1 11th (joint)
Norman Virus Control 88.1 11th (joint)
ViruSafe 87.6 13th
AVP 84.4 14th (joint)
Dr Web 84.4 14th (joint)
Virex for the PC 80.5 16th
Virus Buster Lite 75.8 17th
Virus Buster 55.6 18th
AntiVirus Plus failed hung computer
Central Point Anti-Virus failed hung computer
Microsoft Anti-Virus failed hung computer
Archived and compressed files
-----------------------------
Product Percentage detected Rank
===================================================
Dr Solomon's AVTK 100.0 1st
AVP 88.8 2nd
AVScan 66.6 3rd
Central Point Anti-Virus 61.1 4th
AVAST! 44.4 5th (joint)
Dr Web 44.4 5th (joint)
Virus Alert 44.4 5th (joint)
Sophos Sweep 38.8 8th (joint)
Virex for the PC 38.8 8th (joint)
AntiVirus Plus 27.7 10th (joint)
Norton AntiVirus 27.7 10th (joint)
F-Prot Professional 22.2 12th
IBM AntiVirus 16.6 13th (joint)
Thunderbyte 16.6 13th (joint)
Vet 16.6 13th (joint)
Virus Buster 16.6 13th (joint)
Virus Buster Lite 16.6 13th (joint)
ViruSafe 16.6 13th (joint)
Microsoft AntiVirus 11.1 19th (joint)
Norman Virus Control 11.1 19th (joint)
McAfee ViruScan 5.0 21st
Boot sector viruses
-------------------
Product Percentage detected Rank
===================================================
AVP 100.0 1st (joint)
AntiVirus Plus 100.0 1st (joint)
AVAST! 100.0 1st (joint)
AVScan 100.0 1st (joint)
Dr Solomon's AVTK 100.0 1st (joint)
F-Prot Professional 100.0 1st (joint)
IBM AntiVirus 100.0 1st (joint)
McAfee ViruScan 100.0 1st (joint)
Norman Virus Control 100.0 1st (joint)
Sophos Sweep 100.0 1st (joint)
Virus Alert 100.0 1st (joint)
ViruSafe 100.0 1st (joint)
Central Point Anti-Virus 95.0 13th (joint)
Norton AntiVirus 95.0 13th (joint)
Vet 95.0 13th (joint)
Virex for the PC 95.0 13th (joint)
Virus Buster 95.0 13th (joint)
Virus Buster Lite 95.0 13th (joint)
Thunderbyte 85.0 19th
Microsoft Anti-Virus 65.0 20th
Dr Web 35.0 21st
False alarms
------------
Product False alarms Rank
===============================================
AntiVirus Plus 0 1st (joint)
AVP 0 1st (joint)
Central Point Anti-Virus 0 1st (joint)
Dr Solomon's AVTK 0 1st (joint)
IBM AntiVirus 0 1st (joint)
Microsoft Anti-Virus 0 1st (joint)
Norman Virus Control 0 1st (joint)
Norton AntiVirus 0 1st (joint)
Sophos Sweep 0 1st (joint)
Vet 0 1st (joint)
Virex for the PC 0 1st (joint)
McAfee ViruScan 1 12th (joint)
Virus Buster 1 12th (joint)
Dr Web 2 14th
F-Prot Professional 4 15th
AVAST! 8 16th
AVScan 9 17th
Virus Alert 22 18th
Thunderbyte 39 19th
ViruSafe 123 20th
Virus Buster Lite 180 21st
Speed Trials
------------
Product Relative Time (secs)
====================================
Thunderbyte 12
VirusBuster Lite 29
Vet 40
Virus Alert 48
AVScan 70
Dr Solomon's AVTK 73
Microsoft Anti-Virus 81
Dr Web 83
ViruSafe 85
Norton AntiVirus 116
McAfee ViruScan 145
Norman Virus Control 154
Sophos Sweep 157
AVAST! 173
F-Prot Professional 176
Virus Buster 297
Virex for the PC 301
AntiVirus Plus 316
IBM AntiVirus 359
Central Point AV 554
AVP 717
Overall Virus Scanner Performance
---------------------------------
Product Score Percentage Rank
===================================================
Dr Solomon's AVTK 495 93.5 1st
Sophos Sweep 482 91.8 2nd
Virus Alert 479 91.4 3rd
Thunderbyte 478 91.3 4th
Norton AntiVirus 470 89.5 5th
F-Prot Professional 455 86.5 6th
McAfee ViruScan 450 85.7 7th
Vet 440 83.8 8th
Virus Buster Lite 431 82.1 9th (joint)
AVScan 431 82.1 9th (joint)
AVAST! 430 81.9 11th
AVP 418 79.6 12th
Norman Virus Control 411 78.3 13th
Dr Web 409 77.9 14th
IBM AntiVirus 401 76.4 15th
ViruSafe 377 71.8 16th
AntiVirus Plus 362 69.0 17th
Virex for the PC 353 67.2 18th
Virus Buster 342 65.1 19th
Central Point AV 338 64.4 20th
Microsoft AntiVirus 317 60.4 21st