March 25, 2008 6:44 AM PDT

Independent antivirus test labs join forces

Posted by Robert Vamosi

Corrected at 6:50 a.m. PDT March 26: The last paragraph has been revised to correctly describe a second antivirus partnership.

The Anti-Malware Test Lab and AV-Comparatives.org announced on Tuesday an alliance designed to create one of the most respected sources of objective, independent information about antivirus products.

Together, the pair said, they intend by year's end to create a unique system of integrated tests for determining the effectiveness of commercial antivirus software.

Andrea Clementi, founder of AV-Comparatives, said in a statement that "the partnership with Anti-Malware Test Lab will allow us to evaluate more aspects of antivirus software and to offer users a more comprehensive independent view of various security products."

Clementi further hinted that if this alliance works out, there may be additional alliances of independent antivirus software-testing labs.

"I'm sure that our partnership will act as a driving force for the development of the industry as a whole," said Sergey Ilyin, founder of Anti-Malware Test Lab. Anti-Malware Test Lab is an independent Russian test laboratory, a subsidiary of Anti-Malware.ru. The laboratory is best known for testing active infection treatments, antivirus heuristics, and anti-rootkit protection.

This is the second partnership of antivirus-testing organizations in recent months.

In January, various antivirus vendors, independent testing labs, and media outlets gathered in Spain to work toward creating the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO). That group includes vendors F-Secure, Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, Panda Software, and Symantec, and independent testing labs AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives. The alliance announced on Tuesday is different, said Clementi, because it allows Anti-Malware.ru to share AV-Comparatives' test results.