March 2009 - bad month in the office for PC security vendors and users

50% increase in infections missed by PC security products in March 2009

This month we have seen a massive increase in the number of PC infections. It is up by almost 50% over the average for the preceding 3 months. We are now seeing an average of 13,500 infections a day on PCs protected by 5 of the leading security brands. At the end of 2008, the number of daily infections seen rarely exceeded 8,000.

What do the Prevx statistics mean and how reliable are they?

Our statistics are as straightforward as we can possibly make them. The chart on our home page shows a count of the number of unique malicious files we have seen during the preceding day (24 hours). For the techies amongst you it is a count of the number of unique files detected as malicious by customers scanning their PCs with Prevx CSI and Prevx Edge during the preceding day. We then categorize the statistics by the brand of security product in use on each of the users' PCs. So the count for Vendor A is the number of infections (unique files) discovered by Prevx in the preceding day on PCs protected by Vendor A's products. The statistics are compiled daily and we keep a complete record of the results and backup information for each day's charts. If you click on one of the bars for any vendor then you can see detail behind the numbers.

Why is the number of infections rising so much?

The simple fact is that no one vendor's products, ours included, will protect you against all of the threats. The volumes and sophistication of malicious software are increasing at a rapid pace. Vendors need to focus more on what they are missing than what they are catching! It is fair to say most of the security vendor's products are catching more malware today than ever before. BUT, it is fact that these same vendors are also missing much more malware today, than ever before. Authors of malicious software have clear goals - infect more PCs, avoid detection, run silently, capture data, understand users and their PCs better and resist removal. They are masters at their game and the security industry should treat them with more respect taking the opportunity to learn from a more able opponent.

A further and significant factor behind the rising number of infections seen, is that Prevx uses a totally different model to most of the other security vendors. Our model differs in two significant aspects. Firstly, it is intelligence based and secondly it is driven from the client. Our technology actually improves, significantly, as volumes increase. Our user base is growing and feeding our centralized intelligence which in turn is helping us to identify more malicious software, and identify it faster. I still think of Prevx as adolescent, once it is fully grown then it will be able to fight with the 2,000LB gorillas. So whereas the conventional security approaches are straining to cope with the ever increasing volumes of malicious software our automated intelligence actually thrives on it.

Should I switch to using Prevx?

We are asked this all the time. Right now I believe our Prevx EDGE product is one of the strongest contenders to provide what I will call real world or in the wild protection. BUT I have no reservations in saying that it is impossible for any one vendor's products, including ours to provide anywhere close to 100% protection, whatever their claims. Prevx EDGE will provide highly competitive protection. You won't find us using phrases like 'TOTAL Protection' or 'ALL You Ever Need Security' as our competitors choose to do. Sure it sells products but it is a myth.

So why should you use Prevx EDGE? The simple answer is because it provides highly competitive protection, it's great against new and advanced infections, it includes class leading rootkit detection and removal which most antivirus based products don't, it scans in about 1/20th of the time of our competitors, it won't slow your PC down, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY because you can use it alongside ANY of our competitor's security products to get even stronger security.

Why aren't security vendors doing more about the issues?

Because they don't need to. If your PC is infected without you knowing and your PC Security product tells you that your PC is clean and safe, then your happy, your security vendor is happy and the cyber criminals stealing information from it are happy. Happy Days! So in many ways, today's silent infections are the saviour of the security industry. The vendors don't have to worry about missing an infection as long as the you, the user doesn't notice.

Now back to the rising number of infections being missed by security products

Prevx stats are very real and reliable. We have frequently stated we are more than happy for vendors to challenge them. Sooner than trying to discredit the statistics why don't they publish what their users are detecting that we missed. We'd welcome that information being displayed on their web site. Why? Because we could improve our product and the protection we offer our customers of course.

We anticipate the rising trend in infections missed by conventional security vendors will rise significantly from here on.