Viruse Protection Test. Witch one is best?

Team: 24

School: CEPi1

Area of Science: Computer Science

Interim: Computer viruses today are one of the largest threats to your personal security. They are hidden deep in your computer, hooked into processes and disguised as system files. They are stealing your personal information, stealing passwords, and using your internet connection to commit crimes. They abuse your email, steal your contact list, and mail your contacts. All the while your Norton antivirus says your computer is protected. Norton® doesn’t know the virus exists yet. To Norton the virus looks like just another program.
Don't worry too much though, as most widespread computer viruses can be prevented with antivirus software. However antivirus software isn't 100% reliable. The flaw lies in the fact that most virus detection algorithms rely on file signatures of known viruses. Antivirus companies, due to their competitive nature, don't share these file signatures with each other. Our hypothesis is that with a cooperative virus signature database, antivirus companies could prevent more systems from becoming unnecessarily infected.
We are going to prove our hypotheses by testing antivirus software for the accurate detection of viruses, and modeling the outbreak of those viruses if the virus was not detected. To do this we have chosen 15 viruses randomly from a pool of all viruses currently in the wild. We are going to attempt to install each virus on 3 versions of Windows: Window XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Each version of Windows will be tested with 3 of the largest antivirus programs: Norton, McAfee, and Avast. We will then proceed to install each of the 15 viruses on all 9 possible setups. We are going to show gaps in protection that major antivirus companies such as Symantec®, McAfee®, and Avast are leaving consumers vulnerable to.

By:
Devin Hayes
Ryan Fitzgerald
Mike Szanto

Team Members:

  Michael Szanto
  devin hayes
  Ryan Fitzgerald

Sponsoring Teacher: Jerry Esquivel

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