A third of Windows XP security solutions failed independent tests

The latest tests run by the independent security certification body Virus Bulletin saw one third of the evaluated anti-malware solutions for Windows XP fail to provide efficient and stable anti-malware detection.

60 solutions were tested, but only 40 received the VB100 award. Among those that failed are solutions from well-known security companies such as Kaspersky, Lavasoft, Fortinet, Sunbelt and others.

Some solutions failed to detect the latest polymorphic viruses, some had just to many false positives to be reliable. Some did/had both. But the biggest surprise is that many products are just not stable enough.

“It was pretty shocking how many crashes, freezes, hangs and errors we encountered in this test,” said VB Anti-malware Test Director John Hawes for The Register. “XP has been around for a long, long time now and is still the world’s most widely used computing environment – so developers should be producing rock-solid software for it time after time.”

You can check out which solutions passed and which flunked here (after you register for free), but for specific details, you must get a paid subscription.