AV-Test recently published the results of a malware test for the Mac platform. Webroot’s SecureAnywhere AntiVirus for Mac was included in this test and did not perform at the level that we expect from our products. While we are disappointed in the test results, we would like to assure our customers that they remain protected in real-world scenarios, provide some context for specific aspects of the test, and convey what is being done to improve the results in future tests.
We recently discovered a bug which we believe would negatively impact our efficacy in a test such as that run by AV-Test. This is not to say the test was improperly run; it was an error in our product and has since been fixed.
We have also determined that many of the malware samples in the test were embedded in a disk image or archive format (.zip, .rar, .tar, .xar, .dmg, .cpio, etc.). Malware cannot execute until it is “unpacked”, so in this state the samples pose no actual threat to the Mac. In our testing of the AV-Test samples, SecureAnywhere for Mac detected the malware files as soon as they were unpacked, so in a real-world scenario, the user remains protected. That being said, we are adding the ability to scan these types of archive files for earlier detection of malware within them, and this functionality will be available in an upcoming release.
We remain confident in the efficacy of SecureAnywhere in a real-world environment as evidenced by the low rate of infection among both our Mac and Windows users. To be more specific, we have seen a total of 10 malware infections this year from among the tens of thousands of SecureAnywhere for Mac users we have. We recognize however, the importance of these laboratory tests, and this test highlighted some areas in which we needed to improve. Some of these improvements have already been completed, others are currently in process and will be integrated into upcoming releases. We will keep our users informed as these enhancements are made available.
