COMPANY, INC.

New enterprise Antivirus Software: Recommended Software

FOREWORD

Company, Inc. are not comfortable with the Antivirus software installed (Panda Software) and at the time of renew the licenses wants to change Panda solution for another one that meets Company Standards. I was asked by the IT General Manager, to investigate various Antivirus solutions and to identify the one best suited to company needs. This report presents the results of my investigation and offers a recommendation.

SUMMARY

Only the ESET NOD32 meets our requirements. It has centralized administration and a reliable virus and malware detection. The price for 600 One Year Licenses is $11.60 each one and they offer three additional months for free. I recommend that ESET NOD32 Antivirus be approved as our Corporate Antivirus solution.

DISCUSSION PROBLEM

Company, Inc. are not comfortable with the Antivirus software installed (Panda Software). It has serious problems regarding performance of equipment where it is installed. At the time of renew the licenses, Company, Inc. wants to change Panda solution for another one that meets Company Standards. I was asked by the IT Manager, to investigate various Antivirus solutions and to identify the one best suited to company needs. I asked Grisoft and ESET for trial versions of their solutions to test them.

INVESTIGATION

Criteria

We made the following actions to test both Antivirus solutions: 1 - Setup

a. Server Engine Setup b. Administration Console c. Client setup 2 - Configuration a. Administration Console b. Client 3 - Hardware response (resource consumption) a. Administration Console b. Client 4 - Viruses detection 5 - Third party comparative analysis

Evidence

1) Setup Server engine and Administration Console Both products were installed on a Pentium 4 Server with 512 MB RAM under Windows 2000 Server platform. Both installations run smooth without problems. The only difference between installations was the previous requirement needed of a database engine (MSDE) by Grisoft AVG. ESET NOD32 did not have previous requirements. Clients Both products were installed on several Pentium 4 PCs with 512 Mb RAM running with Windows XP Operating System. Both installations were installed from a Remote Console Administration.

Description Server Engine Installation Administration Console Installation Clients installation

NOD32

AVG

Allow independent installation Allow independent installation Similar remote installation

Administration Condole / Clients: Both products were installed with Typical (Standard) configuration.

2) Configuration

The tests on both products Administration Console revealed that they have almost the same characteristics except: AVG: It allows controlling one server at a time from a workstation with the Administration Console installed. NOD32: It allows administrating a hierarchic structure form a workstation with the Administration Console installed.

If the administrator connects from RAC to the server RAS3, he/she can control the client workstations connected to RAS3, RAS4, RAS5 and RAS6 (see graphic from ESET).

Description Client configuration Update

NOD32 Similar characteristics Internet/Folder/Intranet

AVG

3) Hardware response Server engine and Administration console The resources percentage demanded for both solutions was almost the same. Equipment was tested with a few client computers. This analysis can vary with hundreds of client computers installed. Clients Both products tested did have a better performance compared with Panda antivirus. Comparing ESET and Grisoft products, computers with ESET NOD32 installed reach better performance than computers with Grisoft AVG installed. Description Resources consumption 4) Viruses detection We used the following website to test malware and virus detection: http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm NOD32 Almost equal AVG

Results are as follows:

Resident Shield NOD32 Detected four variants of a virus while downloading.

AVG Detected only the first variant. The other three variants were detected after download them, when we tried to execute the programs.

Antivirus service Same four variants were copied to the computers and then we made a computer scan. NOD32 Detected all the variants. AVG Detected all the variants.

File Download from keygen cracks webpage. AVG: It allowed download the first file. When we downloaded the second file, it detected the first threat. Although it detected some kind of threat, it did not detect it as a virus.

NOD32: It detected the virus/Trojan type at the download time. We could not download the files.

Description Resident Shield (4 files) Computer Scan Download Internet Crack File

NOD32 4 Files Detected 4 Files Detected Not allowed

AVG 1 File Detected 4 Files Detected Allowed

5) Third party comparative analysis:

We made an internet research looking for comparative analysis of both products. The results are as follows:

Anti-Virus On Demand Comparative August 2007 Copyright (c) by Andreas Clementi (www.av-comparatives.org) - Tested on Windows XP SP2

Company Product Program version Engine / signature version Number of virus records Detection of polymorphic viruses (*) Certification level reached in this test On-demand detection of virus/malware Windows viruses Macro viruses Script viruses/malware Worms Backdoors Trojans other malware Other OS viruses/malware TOTAL 63.029 44.410 16.902 89.053 215.445 362.900 13.914 2.691 808.344

GriSoft AVG Anti-Malware 7.5.476 269.11.6 / 938 unknown

ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus 2.70.39 2.438 unknown

3 of 12

12 of 12

ADVANCED+

ADVANCED+

60.993 44.307 13.126 87.761 213.271 356.674 11.993 2.035 790.160

96,77% 99,77% 77,66% 98,55% 98,99% 98,28% 86,19% 75,62% 97,75%

62.350 44.404 15.452 88.422 210.041 352.715 13.050 2.531 788.965

98,92% 99,99% 91,42% 99,29% 97,49% 97,19% 93,79% 94,05% 97,60%

(*) = reliable detection of 12 polymorphic viruses; you MUST read the report for details!

CONCLUSION

The investigation indicates that ESET NOD 32 Antivirus is superior to Grisoft AVG and it will suit our needs. Therefore, I recommend that ESET NOD32 be approved as the Corporate Antivirus solution.