Anti-virus struggles on protecting 64-bit Vista computer systems
By Ruben Francia
A test conducted by Virus Bulletin security certification body on anti-virus products using the 64-bit Microsoft Vista version finds that 30% of the popular anti-virus programs generate false positive results which could harm computer systems and files.
“A false positive can cause as much disruption as a virus infection. False warnings often lead end-users to delete valid files in the belief that they are some form of attack and the resultant damage can be significant,” John Hawes, technical consultant at Virus Bulletin told Contructor.
The anti-virus products that generate false positive results include 3 anti-virus software from Trend Micro which falsely identified a Microsoft development tool as spyware, the Fortinet’s FortiClient, Ikarus Utilities, and VirusBuster.
The high percentage of false positive results suggest that anti-malware developers for the 64-bit version of Windows Vista are struggling to properly protect the operating system mainly because of the implementation of Patch Guard technology by Microsoft.
Prior to the release of Vista much debate raged over the implementation of Patch Guard as it requires a new way of developing security software products since it prevents the applications from accessing the operating system’s kernel.
However, some major anti-virus products managed to pass the test. This includes McAfee Virusscan, Symantec Antivirus and Microsoft’s Forefront.
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April 6th, 2008
I have 64bit windows vista, and have had nothing but trouble since I got it.
if you can help me out let me know…heres whats happening…
I keep getting windows popping up saying i may be infected with spyware…unfortunately i clicked it once and it brought me to a site called pc-tools most recommeded tools for spyware removal…ok…so i closed it and it comes back every minute it seems like…now, my internect connection no longer works… I am using a router and all of the other computers on it connect and browse fine, but not the comp with 64bit vista. All it can do is connect with Aol Instant Messenger. I do not understand this at all. Please help me, i am furious!!
May 16th, 2008
Your infected with the latest thing, a modified virus/trojan that has the sole purpose to sell to you.
Any good avi that is vista cert should clean it. I like nod32 but you should be fine with most good ones.
hope it’s of help!