Anti-spam software test results released

Virus Bulletin, the anti-spam journal and website, has released the results for its first anti-spam software test of the decade, in which five popular anti-spam technologies achieved excellent results.

It said although the major developers continue to mount a strong defence against the spammers, Webroot, Spam Titan, Mail Marshal, Microsoft’s Forefront and Symantec’s Brightmail put in impressive performances.

Martijn Grooten, VB's anti-spam test director, said: "In the past ten years spam has grown from a mere nuisance into a major field of criminal activity and there are no signs of spam abating any time soon.

“However, the results of this test demonstrate that anti-spam developers are putting up a strong fight to protect end-users' inboxes."

Fifteen products were tested this month, using live spam feed provided by Project Honey Pot to send thousands of spam emails per day, from all over the world, in real-time to all participating products.

The independent security certification body tests products' spam catch rate against their false positive rate.

Only one failed to win an award according to VB. It said Kasperky’s Anti-spam blocked less spam than the other packages; although on the plus side it had fewer false positive results.

A chart summarising the test results can be seen at VB’s site, but you will need to register to access this.