Products and services certified by the ICSA Labs Anti-Virus Product Certification program are able to prevent the end user from becoming infected by in-the-wild and other computer viruses. The Anti-Virus Certification Criteria is geared for products and services that detect computer viruses prior to causing an infection. The requirements comprising the criteria are intended to ensure the proper detection of self-replicating computer viruses before doing any damage to the host system.
The ICSA Labs Anti-Virus Product Certification program and the criteria modules do not contain specific requirements for products or product components that eliminate other non-replicating, malicious software. Therefore the Anti-Virus Certification Criteria does not include requirements for handling malicious and non-malicious spyware, adware, foistware, backdoors, Trojan horses, and other such non-replicating software.
The Anti-Virus Certification Criteria consists of primary and secondary modules, an addendum, and a glossary. To attain ICSA Labs Anti-Virus Certification, the Certification Candidate must completely satisfy all requirements in one of the primary modules. Testing against a secondary module, such as the Cleaning module, is optional. The Criteria Addendum A contains a matrix that the primary modules refer to. Finally, the Glossary module, which does not contain requirements, has definitions for terms appearing in the primary and secondary criteria modules as well as in the addendum.
The primary modules are identified by the type of anti-virus product or service being tested and are chosen by the vendor-customer prior to submitting their product or service for testing. The primary modules correspond to a particular type of anti-virus product or service: Desktop/Server, Gateway, Groupware, Managed Application Services, Managed Email Services, Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Inline Security and Online Services. There is currently one secondary module, called the Cleaning module. As with choosing a primary module, testing against the secondary module is elected by the vendor-customer prior to submitting their product or service for testing.
For additional information please contact Andy Hayter, Program Manager, Malcode, at 717.790.8168 or andrew.hayter@icsalabs.com.
