Anti-Malware Vendors, Testers Form Consortium

Some 40 makers of anti-malware products today announced they have formed a consortium that will help set industry standards for testing such products.

The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization will help set parameters for measuring the effectiveness of products in the anti-malware categories, such as antivirus and anti-spyware tools. The vendors appear to be concerned about the results of recent tests which put the effectiveness of some products in a bad light. (See Antivirus Tools Underperform When Tested in LinuxWorld 'Fight Club'.)

"As anti-malware solutions become more complex, many existing tests are unable to evaluate product effectiveness properly, resulting in product reviews that are sometimes incomplete, inaccurate and misleading," the consortium said.

Most of the top antivirus tool makers, including McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro, are charter members of the new group.

— Tim Wilson, Site Editor, Dark Reading

McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE) Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) Trend Micro Inc.