Greetings,
We believe, or at minimum, we hope we have adequate Anti-Virus (AV) and anti-malware protection installed on our PC's. There are many commercial and free for personal use choices available which purport to offer total protection when surfing the web, accessing and reading email, or downloading files from the internet. Additional attack vectors also include social media and cloud computing obstacles to safe computing.
However, is there any method available (other than by the random chance of never being infected or encountering an infection which evades your AV/Malware defenses) which causes the user to either restore the system using a factory image or reinstalling the operating system from scratch , to test the effectiveness of the Anti-Virus solution we have opted to install on our PC's?
Total malware protection does not exist; the premise is invalid, especially against zero day exploits. But it is possible to minimize your exposure by being able to test the efficacy of your current Anti-Virus solution.
You may also have great AV software installed but it may not be optimized to provide the best protection.
Test your AV software using AMTSO's Feature Settings Check. There are five different tests designed to alert the user if your currently installed AV software is not configured correctly or is lacking in basic protection. Obviously if you fail any test, you can or will be eventually compromised.
AMTSO is a non-profit Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization dedicated to the following:
AMTSO's Charter
AMTSO's charter focuses on the following four areas:
- Providing a forum for discussions related to the testing of anti-malware and related products.
- Developing and publicizing objective standards and best practices for testing of anti-malware and related products.
- Promoting education and awareness of issues related to the testing of anti-malware and related products.
- Providing tools and resources to aid standards-based testing methodologies
Hopefully we all can benefit by understanding the limitations of the security software we use every day and also be aware of the need to be vigilant in doing whatever possible to protect our assets and our identities.
Jaco