In this issue we have collected what we believe may be the most comprehensive guide to addressing the malware problem. We have attacked the challenge from two directions: anti-malware products themselves and the products that manage anti-malware products over the enterprise. Our presentation, we feel, is unique and we would like to thank our sister organization, West Coast Labs, for their help in pulling this together. Let's begin with the anti-malware products themselves.
In the two classes we examined (spyware and virus), we found an incredible number of products. A product got into this listing — more a features/function guide — by having been tested and awarded the Checkmark certification by West Coast Labs. That means the product does what it says it does and has an acceptably high catch rate for its target malware. What we found was that there really is little difference in the catch rates of just about all.
For the anti-malware management group we were looking at products that could manage large numbers of users in an enterprise. That meant deployment, updating and activity reporting, as well as such things as isolating the source from the destination. For these we had a manageable number of products and we reviewed them as we always do.
Click here for the Anti-malware Management 2007 Group Test.
Click here for the Anti-spyware 2007 Group Test.
Click here for the Anti-virus 2007 Group Test.
We are quite proud of this malware special issue and I'm sure you will find a wealth of information here that will help you make decisions about how to protect your network. Not to be lost among the internet nasties that we are fighting in this issue, our First Look is a hot new USB thumb drive that is not a thumb drive at all.
While I'm at it, I'd like to welcome a new freelancer to our SC Labs team. Kris Rowley comes to us from Norwich University. Kris helped Mike put together this month's reviews while I was traipsing around the wilds of Germany on a NATO exercise.
— Peter Stephenson, technology editor
