First published: 30th June 2007
F-Secure's Chief Research Officer Mikko Hyppönen has admitted the company made a mistake when submitting its to Virus Bulletin product for testing, "So how come we failed? Because we shipped them a product with an old update file." This is not a problem for ordinary users, as the product will auto-update via the internet when first installed. However, Virus Bulletin tests products on an isolated test system, and the older update missed one sample, resulting in a 99.88% detection rate, enough to deny F-Secure the VB100 award.
John Hawes from Virus Bulletin confirmed the situation, "After retesting with [the latest] updates in place, F-Secure comfortably detected everything on the WildList, and would easily have qualified for the VB100 award had the correct data been supplied. Their customers, with the benefit of automatic updates, would certainly have been protected by this solid and reliable product."
F-Secure has passed the VB100 test sixteen times since 2003, and only failed this latest test.