Security news
Security news21 January 2004
Sophos beats rivals in VeriTest analysis
Sophos Anti-Virus provides most frequent virus updates, fastest scanning speed and shortest installation time
Sophos, a world leader in anti-virus and anti-spam protection for businesses, today announced that in a competitive analysis of enterprise anti-virus applications conducted by VeriTest, a division of Lionbridge Technologies (NASDAQ:LIOX), Sophos Anti-Virus led competitor solutions in several key areas including most frequent virus updates in both manual and automatic testing.
VeriTest performed a detailed competitive analysis of Sophos's desktop anti-virus solution version 3.75 against competitors including McAfee VirusScan 7.0, Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 8.6, Trend Micro OfficeScan 5.5 and Reliable Anti-Virus (RAV) 8.6. RAV is the solution from GeCAD, whose anti-virus technology was acquired by Microsoft last year. Testing focused on three areas for each product: ease of product installation, scheduling accuracy and total time for scheduled scans, and procedures for updating virus definitions. Highlights of the testing results across these areas include:
- Installation speed: On a test network, Sophos Anti-Virus installation time was the fastest - 673% faster than Network Associates/McAfee and 296% faster than Trend Micro.
- Installation size: Sophos Anti-Virus takes up the least amount of disk space on the client - 306% less space than Trend Micro and 274% smaller than Symantec.
- Scanning performance: Sophos Anti-Virus performed virus scanning the fastest, scanning 231% faster than Symantec and 161% faster than Trend Micro.
- Virus updates: Sophos provided the most frequent virus updates in both manual and automatic testing configurations and provided extremely small and efficient update files. For a 10-day test period, the total size of downloads necessary to keep Sophos Anti-Virus updated against new viruses was only 419 Kb - 65x smaller than Trend Micro (at 27.3 Mb), 30x smaller than Symantec (at 12.5 Mb), and 25x smaller than Network Associates/McAfee (at 10.3 Mb).
- Virus update notification: Sophos is the only vendor to provide free virus update email notifications on a daily basis, to coincide with virus definition updates.
"VeriTest's findings validate Sophos's ability to provide anti-virus software that meets the stringent virus protection requirements of businesses," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Network administrators demand anti-virus software that is simple and quick to install, scans efficiently, and most importantly can be quickly updated against new virus threats with minimal impact on network performance. Based on the testing, Sophos Anti-Virus meets these needs better than any other major virus vendor."
Download the full VeriTest report 
About VeriTest
VeriTest, the testing division of Lionbridge Technologies, Inc., provides outsourced testing solutions that maximize revenue and reduce costs for our clients. For companies who use high-tech products as well as those who produce them, smoothly functioning technology is essential to business success. VeriTest helps our clients identify and correct technology problems in their products and in their line of business applications by providing the widest range of testing services available.
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About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
