Number of malware signatures of various categories

[Seth Robertson]

Are there any published statistics on the number of
signatures of various types of malware? I've seen other
products whose "Total Signatures" figure is greatly
inflated by containing 90% Dialer Signatures. This is an
important comparison criteria among anti-spyware products,
but certainly not the only one (my understanding is that
Microsoft is banking on SpyNet, and the diagnostic tools of
MS AS are excellent).

SIGNATURE CATEGORIES
Spyware
Adware
Dialers
Remote-Access Tools
Joke Programs
Password Crackers
Software Keyloggers
Data Mining/Tracking Cookies
Hacking Tools

TOTAL NUMBER OF SIGNATURES

Thanks in advance!

Seth Robertson

 

[plun]

This is secrets and MS removed everyting public
from Giantsoftware about what MSAS recognises.

Nothing is published about whats new i definitions.

One is sure "Data Mining/Tracking Cookies" = 0 for MSAS

This test from a dutch consumer organisation shows that MSAS
are really good. (in dutch )

http://213.244.172.86/files/pdf/digitaleconsument/2005/dc200505p30_test_anti_spywa.pdf

 

[Bill Sanderson]

They aren't publishing this kind of stat at all, I'm afraid. We might be
able to encourage them to provide a figure for "bugs cleaned", maybe. They
have at various times published figures on numbers of downloads of the
product, and of those, how many are participating in Spynet (about
half)--but nothing beyond that , at least that I've seen.