Microsoft's Live OneCare and McAfee software fails to secure Vista

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vistalogo.gifIndependent research released last week suggests that several of pieces of anti-virus software, including Microsoft’s own latest offering, fail to fully protect Vista users.

Virus Bulletin, together with some Oxfordshire-based security researchers, tested 15 anti-virus packages that claim to be designed specifically for Vista, and were released to business two months ago. Four failed.

Microsoft Live OneCare 1.5; McAfee VirusScan Enterprise version 8.1i; G DATA AntiVirusKit 2007 v17.0.6353; and Norman VirusControl v5.90 all failed at stopping, without any false positives, a selection of viruses currently in circulation.

“With the number of delays that we’ve seen in Vista’s release, there’s no excuse for security vendors not to have got their products right by now,” said John Hawes, technical consultant at Virus Bulletin. “In these days of hourly updates, it’s always a surprise and a disappointment to see major products missing them [viruses]. Vista cannot fend off today’s malware without help from security products. It certainly looks like people upgrading to the new platform are going to need additional security solutions.”

I’m sure the tarnished vendors will come back with a retort, and I expect updates will have been issued for all affected packages. However, no security software is 100% secure and PC users still need to be vigilant.

(Via ZDNet)

Andy Merrett
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