Information Security tested 10 enterprise desktop antivirus products for attack evasion, resilience and the ability to detect malware other than viruses and worms, such as backdoors, spyware and *nix attack code. In computing our final grades for each product, we put particular emphasis on each product's enterprise management tools.
Specifically, we tested:
- Computer Associate's eTrust Antivirus 7.0
- F-Secure AntiVirus 5.42 and Policy Manager Console 5.5
- Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus 7.0 and AVGADMIN 7.0
- Kaspersky Labs' Anti-Virus Network Control Centre 4.5.0
- Network Associates' McAfee Active Virus Defense Suite 7.1.0
- Panda Software's Panda ClientShield 1.91.01 and Admin Secure 3.01.01
- PestPatrol Corporate Edition (Engine 5.5.2 and Management Console 1.0.0.7)
- Sophos Anti-Virus 3.78
- Symantec's SAV Corporate 9.0
- Trend Micro's OfficeScan 5.5
Central Command, Eset Software and Microsoft declined to participate. F-Prot didn't respond to our invitation. Gordano responded to our request for products but didn't fit our criteria.
Throughout our testing, we looked at on-demand (immediate or scheduled) and real-time (upon file access) scanning.
We used a Windows 2000 Server as the enterprise antivirus server, managing four Windows XP Professional workstation systems. Each antivirus product was installed on a fresh operating system with no other applications. For safety, we moved all malware specimens via CD-ROM.
>> Read Ed Skoudis' review of 10 enterprise desktop antivirus products.
