The security testing group Virus Bulletin claims that Microsoft’s
Windows Live OneCare security tool was one of the four products they
had tested which failed independent tests carried out by them.
They were testing these security products to see if they can detect viruses circulating online.
The research group found out that Live OneCare missed far more active viruses than any other program tested.
Microsoft launched the latest edition of this security suite Version
1.5 of Windows Live OneCare along with Vista operating system last
month.
Microsoft claims that it is powered by the same scanning “engine” as the security tools bundled with the operating system.
Virus Bulletin said in its research paper that the product did
manage to spot 100% of the macro viruses it was tested against but it
missed some wild viruses, polymorphic programs and file infectors.
The other products which failed their test included G-Data
AntiVirusKit, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.51 and Norman Virus Control
5.90.
Jo Wickremasinghe, Windows Live OneCare product manager spoke on
this research findings: “We are looking closely at the methodology and
results of the test to ensure that Windows Live OneCare performs better
in future tests and, most importantly, as part of our ongoing work to
continually enhance Windows Live OneCare to ensure the highest level of
protection and service that we can provide our customers.”