Certification Results
It is important to note that certification testing is paid for by the vendor. For various reasons, a vendor may choose to submit to only one or two of the certifying agencies. Thus, the absence of certification may not mean the product failed - it may simply have never been submitted. However, because there is no other measure to accurately guage antivirus software effectiveness, certification, or lack thereof, should not be taken lightly.
Certification results were tallied for the Windows 95/98 platform only.
| |
Checkmark
Level One |
ICSA
On Demand |
Hamburg
Excellent |
VB100% |
| AntiDote |
|
| Antivir |
|
| AVAST |
|
x |
|
|
| AVG |
|
x |
|
|
| AVK |
|
|
x |
|
| AVP/Kaspersky |
x |
x |
x |
|
| AVX |
|
|
x |
|
| Command Antivirus |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Dr. Web32 |
|
|
x |
|
| Esafe |
x |
x |
|
|
| F-Prot |
|
|
x |
|
| F-Secure |
x |
x |
x |
|
| InoculateIT |
x |
x |
x |
|
| McAfee VirusScan |
x |
x |
x |
|
| NOD32 |
|
|
|
x |
| Norman Data Defense |
x |
x |
x |
|
| Norton Antivirus |
x |
x |
|
x |
| NVC |
|
|
x |
|
| OfficeScan |
x |
x |
|
|
| Panda Antivirus |
x |
x |
|
|
| PC-Cillin |
x |
x |
|
|
| PERuvian AV |
|
|
|
|
| RAV |
|
|
|
|
| Sophos Antivirus |
x |
x |
|
|
Exceptions
One product that is not highly certified is NOD32, yet NOD32 detected the Melissa virus, LoveLetter, and MTX heuristically. This means that NOD32 was capable of detecting the virus without requiring an update - a very important consideration and the only product that can claim this distinction. It is also important to note that in the VB testing, NOD32 has failed only one certification out of the past thirteen.
F-Prot is another product that lacks certification yet it is the scanning engine used in both Command Antivirus and F-Secure, two products that fared very well in certification.
Panda and Sophos were withheld from Hamburg testing for reasons not related to product ability and thus should not be judged for lack of certification from the University of Hamburg.
AV-Test.org results are not used in this report simply because their results are not tallied and products do not achieve any ranking in their testing. However, their testing is quite comprehensive and you may wish to consult AV-Test.org results before making a purchase decision.
Previous
Articles
