Symantec Earns Unprecedented 35th Consecutive VB100 Award
Security vendors and testing organisations also collaborate to devise new testing guidelines for today’s behaviour-based
security solutions
AUCKLAND – December 21, 2007 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced it has earned an unprecedented 35th consecutive VB100 Award from Virus
Bulletin. While many other security vendors failed the December 2007 tests, Symantec was one of only two vendors to
receive a perfect detection score for all test sets, including ‘in the wild’ malware, and today’s more complex threats
such as file infectors, worms and bots, as well as DOS, macro and polymorphic viruses.
The core technology tested powers in both Symantec’s Norton product line for consumers and enterprise products. The
Norton line of award-winning consumer products, including Norton 360, Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus and
Norton SystemWorks, is a market leader in desktop protection solutions providing consumers with the information they
need to help effectively secure their systems from online threats now and in the future. Additionally for business
customers, Symantec Endpoint Protection integrates Symantec AntiVirus with advanced threat prevention in a single agent,
delivering an unmatched defence against malware for laptops, desktops and servers.
Symantec has earned 41 VB100 Awards since 1998. To earn the VB100 designation, a product must detect — both on demand
and on access, and in its default settings — all malware known to be ‘in the wild’ at the time of the review and
generate no false positives when scanning a set of clean files. These criteria reflect a current and real-life snapshot
of how programs handle existing threats. The fact that false positives are also factored into the testing is an
important aspect of the user experience.
“In a test in which many other products struggled, Symantec’s detection was excellent, with no samples missed and no
false positives generated,” said John Hawes of Virus Bulletin. “We commend vendors such as Symantec whose products
earned the VB100.”
“It is gratifying to see the effectiveness of Symantec solutions continue to be acknowledged by well-established
organisations such as Virus Bulletin,” said Kevin Haley, director of product management, Symantec Security Response. “As
security testing methods and technologies evolve and advance, Symantec looks forward to taking part in new opportunities
that help ensure that consumers have the most comprehensive information with which to compare security products.”
Virus Bulletin’s signature-based tests have long been considered the benchmark for gauging the quality of antivirus
solutions in detecting a vast range of known viruses. There is a growing need, however, for behavioural-based tests as
well. Such tests are imperative in assessing modern behaviour-based systems, which detect malicious activity as it
occurs, and they offer a more complete evaluation of the various ways an antivirus product can provide protection.
Consequently, Virus Bulletin and Symantec are also participants in the Anti-Malware Testing Working Group, a group of
security vendors and software testing organisations committed to developing new guidelines for behavioural tests of
security software. According to the Anti-Malware Testing Working Group, use of such new guidelines is intended to be
voluntary, and testing guidelines are estimated to be available by early next year.
About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in infrastructure software, enabling businesses and consumers to have confidence in a
connected world. The company helps customers protect their infrastructure, information and interactions by delivering
software and services that address risks to security, availability, compliance and performance. Headquartered in
Cupertino, California, Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com
ENDS