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Raz-Lee Gives Away IBM i Antivirus Software

You can’t beat free. Earlier this month, Raz-Lee Security announced that it’s giving away copies of its IBM i antivirus software, which is based on the open source ClamAV engine. The free version doesn’t include some of the more advanced features that are available in the enterprise version of the software, but it will help IBM i shops detect and eliminate Windows malware that can infect and be distributed via the Integrated File System (IFS).

The IBM i OS is rightfully hailed as one of the most secure, commercially available operating systems ever created. Properly configured, the OS will thwart most hackers’ attempts to gain unauthorized access, while its object-based security system practically eliminates the possibility of unauthorized malware executing programs without the owner’s consent.

But there is one major catch to IBM i security when it comes to viruses. While there has never been a documented case of an IBM i (or OS/400 or i5/OS) virus infecting a system, the IBM i platform is susceptible to Windows viruses. When a file infected with a Windows virus (or other type of malware) is stored in the IFS, that virus or malware can easily spread to other Windows PCs connected to the IFS. A malware-infected PC with a high level of IBM i authorization also poses a risk to the IBM i server itself, and could conceivably lead to deleted data, crashed applications, and failed IBM i services. This phenomenon has been well documented over the last decade, and should not come as a surprise to any IBM i administrator worth his salt.

Raz-Lee addressed this architectural vulnerability in IBM i in 2005, when it launched iSecurity Anti-Virus version 1. The Raz-Lee software uses the ClamAV engine and virus signatures to scan for viruses as files sit on the IFS, as emails are sent from the IBM i server, and anytime a file is being written to memory. The software features scheduling capabilities, and GUI and green-screen interfaces.

This month, Raz-Lee announced that it’s making a version of its iSecurity AV software free. Users can download the latest release of the software (iSecurity AV version 6.3, which is based on ClamAV 0.97.3 and released October) and get a permanent authorization code that unlocks the software. That’s right: it’s not only free, but free forever.

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Kaspersky Wins Product Of The Year Award

Kaspersky Lab has received Product of the Year award for Kaspersky Antivirus and Kaspersky Internet Security by AV-Comparatives, an independent testing laboratory. The company won the award for the third time.

The award is based on the findings of nine comparative tests of consumer antivirus solutions conducted over the year. Kaspersky Lab was awarded the highest grade, Advanced+, in all nine tests.

AV-Comparatives’ experts evaluated solutions on level of detection of malicious programs and effectiveness of heuristic algorithms, the number of false positives, resource usage, how well an infected system is treated, and effectiveness in real world user scenarios.

“We have been having our products independently tested by AV-Comparatives for several years now. We have never been afraid to learn about our mistakes through such testing so that we can swiftly rectify them. Our products being recognized as of the highest quality based on 2011’s different comparative tests, with top marks in each, is an achievement we can be truly proud of,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and Founder, Kaspersky Lab.

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Cloud-Based Antivirus Now Welcome in VB100 Test

Experts at Virus Bulletin have been testing antivirus products since 1998, awarding VB100 certification to products that detect 100 percent of their wildlist samples without any false positives (good programs identified as malicious). The latest test brings “major changes and a radical overhaul of our test methodology.” In particular, they’re now testing with a live Internet connection, meaning cloud-reliant products can be properly tested. They’ve also added an extended wildlist containing threats of many different types. In the first test using the new methodology, over a third of the products failed to reach certification.

The test covered 54 products, but in several cases two products from the same vendor were tested. In each case the product pairs had identical results, leaving 48 vendors tested. 24 of those were among PCMag’s usual test subjects, and the success rate for these was higher than overall.

VB100 Winners

18 of thse 24 vendors PCMag tracks achieved VB100 certification. That means they detected every single threat from the wildlist and the extended wildlist both in on-demand and in on-access scanning. In addition, these winners did not erroneously identify any valid program from Virus Bulletin’s clean sample set as malicious.

These vendors achieved VB100: AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, BullGuard, Coranti, eScan, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, Lavasoft, McAfee, Microsoft, Norman, Outpost/Agnitum, PC Tools, and TrustPort.

Missed It by That Much

Symantec and avast! didn’t suffer any false positives, but they did miss a few threats from the extended wildlist and, as a result, didn’t reach VB100. Symantec in particular was painfully close to success.

The report welcomes Symantec’s return, noting that the company had not participated for the last couple years. “We hoped our new approach would tempt the vendor back, giving its developers the opportunity to show off their cloud reputation system and for us to measure the anticipated improvements in detection rates this would provide.”

Why did Symantec fail? According to the full report, the problem was almost a technicality. During the test, Symantec’s File Insight identified one of the extended wildlist items as trusted based on another third-party lab labeling it a false positive. That error was fixed, but not before Symantec scored a miss.

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Norman Enhances Email Security Protection Solution

Norman ASA, a leading network security company, announced today that Norman Email Protection (NEP) 5.1, a high performance email security solution available as a product or a service, is now available with significant new security features and performance enhancements.

Norman Email Protection is a secure email management solution designed to not only shield networks from malware, spam, viruses and phishing attempts, but also delivers effective tools for managing legitimate messages and attachments residing in the network. Norman Email Protection is a complete inbound and outbound solution which enables organizations to control what content can and cannot leave or enter a local network through email, and how it should be processed. It seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and all other SMTP standards-based servers.

Improvements to NEP include improved spam and antivirus outbreak reaction time, 64-bit operating system support and support for incremental Norman virus signature files that will reduce bandwidth requirements of daily downloads by more than 75%.

NEP safely provides end-user control of quarantined emails directly from Outlook with its Direct Quarantine add-on module. Direct Quarantine is a Microsoft Outlook add-on for Norman Email Protection that is designed to relieve IT administrators from day-to-day quarantine management, giving speed, convenience and control to end users.

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