Andreas Marx of Av-Test.org has concluded an annual round of testing to see how well the various anti-virus programs responded to recent outbreaks of viruses and worms. The results appear to show that while the major anti-virus products are still having trouble keeping up with the massive glut of new malware, most are starting to do a better job.

Marx measured how quickly the anti-virus products responded with updates enabling them to detect variants of the largest 16 Windows worm outbreaks of 2005, including "Bagle," "Bobax," "Bropia," "Fatso," "Kelvir," "Mydoom," "Mytob," "Sober" and "Wurmark."

Average Response Time -- Product Name

Between 0 and 2 hours------>Kaspersky

Between 2 and 4 hours------>BitDefender, Dr. Web, F-Secure, Norman, Sophos

Between 4 and 6 hours------>AntiVir, Command, Ikarus, Trend Micro

Between 6 and 8 hours------>F-Prot, Panda

Between 8 and 10 hours----->AVG, Avast, eTrust-INO, McAfee, VirusBuster

Between 10 and 12 hours---->Symantec

Between 12 and 14 hours---->[none]

Between 14 and 16 hours---->[none]

Between 16 and 18 hours---->[none]

Between 18 and 20 hours---->eTrust-VET

More than 20 hours----------->[none]

For the record, here were the response times from similar tests Marx conducted last year:

Average Response Time -- Product Name

Between 0 and 2 hours------->[none]

Between 2 and 4 hours------->BitDefender, Kaspersky

Between 4 and 6 hours------->AntiVir, Dr. Web, F-Secure, Panda, RAV

Between 6 and 8 hours------->Quickheal, Sophos

Between 8 and 10 hours------>AVG, Command, F-Prot, Norman, Trend Micro, VirusBuster

Between 10 and 12 hours---->Avast, eTrust-CA

Between 12 and 14 hours---->Ikarus, McAfee

Between 14 and 16 hours---->eTrust-VET, Symantec

Regardless of the strengths and weaknesses of various anti-virus products, it is important to note for Windows users that using any anti-virus product is far safer than having no anti-virus software installed.

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