Antivirus Companies and their Hometown
The age of the Internet had brought about the proliferation of viruses, their method of infection, and means of distribution. Subsequently, antivirus companies were forced to combat this threat. They began to release new versions of their products at a much faster rate and began to update the signature database of their products via the Internet.
In today’s market, there is a wide variety of antivirus products, some that are freeware, and others that cost money. Studies show that the majority of people prefer and settle for freeware antivirus. Furthermore, the popularity of any given antivirus product does not reflect its effectiveness. The below diagram illustrates the popularly of the major antivirus products with the largest market share. Though as noted, the percentages in this diagram do not necessarily reflect given products capabilities.
AhnLab V3- South Korea
Acronis - Germany
Agnitum Outpost -St. Petersburg Russia
AntiVir- Germany
Antiy AVL - China
Arcavir Poland
Ashampoo - Germany
Auslogics - Australia
Avast- Czech
AVG - Czech
BitDefender - Romania
Bkav - Vietnam
BluePoint - USA
Bullgaurd- UK
ByteHero - China
CA (VET) America
ClamAV N/A
CMC - Vietnam
Comodo America
CP Secure America
Dr.Web Russia
Emsisoft Austria
Escan India
F-Prot Iceland
F-Secure Finland
Fortinet America
FileMedic - Poland
GFI Vipre: Clearwater Florida USA
Gdata Germany
Ikarus Austria
Immunet: USA
IOLO: US
IObit - China
JiangMin China
Kaspersky Russia
KingSoft China
K7 India
Microsoft Security Essentaial America
Mint - Indonesia
McAfee America
mks_vir Poland
MYFreeAntivirus - Denmark
Nano - Russia
NOD32 Slovakia
Norman Norway
NProtect Korea-South
Panda Spain
PC Tools Australia
Proland (Protector Plus) - India
Prevx Britain
Quick Heal India
Rising China
SpamFighter - Denmark
Sophos Britain
Symantec America
The Hacker Peru
Trend Micro Japan
Trustport Czech
UnThreat AV Cyprus
VBA32 Belarus
ViRobot Korea-South
VirusBuster Hungary
Prevx and Webroot: UK
Recommended processes to prevent virus problems:
1. Always run the Corporate standard, supported anti-virus software is available from the corporate download site. Download and run the current version; download and install anti-virus software updates as they become available.
2. NEVER open any files or macros attached to an email from an unknown, suspicious or untrustworthy source. Delete these attachments immediately, then "double delete" them by emptying your Trash.
3. Delete spam, chain, and other junk email without forwarding, in with <Company Name>'s Acceptable Use Policy.
4. Never download files from unknown or suspicious sources.
5. Avoid direct disk sharing with read/write access unless there is absolutely a business requirement to do so.
6. Always scan a floppy diskette from an unknown source for viruses before using it.
7. Back-up critical data and system configurations on a regular basis and store the data in a safe place.
8. If lab testing conflicts with anti-virus software, run the anti-virus utility to ensure a clean machine, disable the software, then run the lab test. After the lab test, enable the anti-virus software. When the anti-virus software is disabled, do not run any applications that could transfer a virus, e.g., email or file sharing.
9. New viruses are discovered almost every day. Periodically check the Lab Anti-Virus Policy and this Recommended Processes list for updates.
