Microsoft has just snared a U.S. patent for proactive virus protection, which is how security software helps secure your PC when it encounters shape-shifting malware not already in its antivirus definition file. What I want to know is, what does this mean for all the other vendors -- like McAfee, Symantec, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro -- that have been selling proactive protection software for years? Do they now have to pay Microsoft protection; I mean, royalties?

Here's the quick low-down on the new Microsoft patent. Issued on June 20, patent number 7,376,970 is entitled "System and method for proactive computer virus protection." The inventor is Adrian Marinescu, who was at one point (maybe he still is) a lead developer on the Windows kernel team, heavily involved in the heap manager. He previously worked on Windows NT's object manager, which is a key software traffic-cop managing the interaction among all the executive kernel subsystems. All this is by way of saying that Mr. Marinescu clearly knows his operating-system internals.

Posted by Annette King in NOD32 News at 14:38

ESET NOD32 Antivirus Detects 100 Percent of all Viruses, in both On-Access and On-Demand Environments

SAN DIEGO – April 3, 2008 – ESET, the leader in proactive threat protection, today announced that ESET NOD32 Antivirus Version 3.0 has captured an industry-leading 49th VB100 award from Virus Bulletin. Virus Bulletin performs independent comparative testing of antivirus products and is widely respected within the antivirus community.

Virus Bulletin introduced its first VB100 award in 1998. In order to display the VB100 logo, an antivirus product must meet two criteria: (1) Demonstrate it detects all “In-the-Wild” viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning; and, (2) Generate no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.

Posted by Sean Cannon in NOD32 News at 08:00

Hall 6 at the CeBIT show in Hannover this week is packed full of anti-virus software manufacturers. If you count the number of anti-virus programs you know of, and times that number by 20, that’s how many are exhibiting at CeBIT this year.

The best of the lot is NOD32, though, according to Eset’s Richard Hlavatý. He says that his company’s program is much better than the likes of Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky and F-Secure. The reason he says, is NOD32’s unrivalled heuristic detection engine.

Posted by Annette King in NOD32 News at 12:02

Antivirus Leader Also Compatible with Latest Vista and XP Service Packs


SAN DIEGO – February 27, 2008 – ESET, the leader in proactive threat protection, today announced support for Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 platform, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3. ESET’s line of award-winning security solutions, including the company’s flagship antivirus product, ESET NOD32 Antivirus, is currently available and ready to support Windows newest server product lines.

Posted by Sean Cannon in NOD32 News at 12:29