Detailed results of the Self-Defense Test

The 15 most popular antivirus products took part in the test:

1. Avast! Professional Edition 4.7

2. Avira Premium Security Suite 7.0

3. BitDefender Internet Security 10

4. DrWeb 4.44 Beta

5. Eset Smart Security 3.0 Beta

6. F-Secure Internet Security 2007

7. Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0

8. McAfee Internet Security 2007

9. Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 1.6

10. Panda Internet Security 2007

11. Sophos Anti-Virus 6.5

12. Symantec Internet Security 2007

13. Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2007

14. VBA32 Antivirus 3.11

15. ZoneAlarm Internet Security 7.0

The main purpose of the test was to verify how Antivirus software packages, popular among customers around the world, protect their files and processes while exposed to the following attacks:

• Change of access permissions to registry files and keys

• Modification and/or deletion of protection system modules

• Antivirus database deletion.

• Modification and/or deletion of important registry keys

• Termination of system processes

• Modification of system files and/or processes

• Ability to rollback drivers

Antivirus products were tested by each of 33 parameters strictly in compliance with described testing methodology described on the previous page.

Summarized data for antivirus self-defense test:

We would remind that if software protection went off while attacked by a given testing parameter, the software score was increased by +1 point.

If software protection by a given parameter is partially present or is absent - but the system remains functional or completely recovers after attack - the software score rises by +0.5.

It should be noted that Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite lost most of its points because of Anti-Spam module failures. The module provided by "Mail Frontier" is absolutely defenseless concerning every kind of attack we used in our test.

Table: Repelled and skipped attacks (estimations)

1. Self-defense went off successfully

2. Self-defense was triggered partially but the program remained functional or recovered itself

3. Self-Defense failed or missing

Results by categories of attack:

Table: System level

Table: Termination of system processes

Table: Processes modification

Table: Driver's protection

Conclusion:

To sum up, only four of 15 security products tested in our lab may boast of up-to-date self-protection technologies. They are:

• Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 - the most effective of all tested products

• VBA32 Antivirus 3.11

• Symantec Internet Security 2007

• F-Secure Internet Security 2007

Avast! Professional Edition 4.7, Avira Premium Security Suite 7.0, Sophos Anti-Virus 6.0, DrWeb 4.44, Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 1.6 и BitDefender Internet Security 10 security suits failed the test and are absolutely unable to protect themselves from disruption.

Author of original article: Сергей Ильин