Antivirus software companies and software testers created a new organization Monday with the goal of providing consistent information about the effectiveness of antivirus products. The distribution of malware -- including viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, and Web sites exploiting weaknesses in Internet browsers -- is now being driven by organized crime for financial gain, and poses an ever more serious threat.

If you think that the latest security suites afford complete protection against malware attacks, think again. Today's for-profit malware pushers use dedicated test labs and other increasingly professional techniques to improve their chances of infecting your computer. And the techniques they employ to outpace security software makers appear to be working.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to investigate claims by Trend Micro of competitors' patent infringement involving antivirus products. Trend Micro filed a trade complaint Nov. 21 against fellow cybersecurity vendors Barracuda Networks of Campbell, California; Panda Software International, based in Spain; and Panda Distribution of Glendale, California.

Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare climbed from last place of 17 antivirus programs tested in March, to 14th out of of 17 antivirus programs, according to researcher Andreas Cleminti. Andreas Cleminti's latest AV Comparatives test pitted the top antivirus software against the 20,000 or so threats that appeared during the past three months, The AV Comparatives tests measure how well each antivirus app could finger unknown exploits.

In an announcement that could send reverberations throughout the antivirus software world, Microsoft confirmed yesterday that it is acquiring antivirus technology from small Romanian company GeCAD Software.

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia will offer mobile antivirus software through F-Secure as one of the features in its new Nokia 6670 smart phone when it is released in October, the companies announced on Thursday. The Symbian OS (operating system) smart phones will provide on-device protection, similar in fashion to antivirus protection programs for PCs, with automatic over-the-air antivirus updates for a monthly fee. The software will not come loaded into the device, but can be downloaded from the F-Secure Web site, according to Nokia spokeswoman Karoliina Lehmusvirta.

Remote attackers could gain control of systems protected by Symantec's antivirus software as a result of a flaw in Symantec's Antivirus Library, the company confirmed yesterday. Independent security researcher Alex Wheeler discovered the flaw and published an advisory (click here to download it) on Tuesday. In it, he details how the Symantec Antivirus Library can be overwhelmed by 'heap overflows' while decompressing an RAR file, a commonly used file format for storing large video or audio files.

Many big-brand security products fail to spot commonly-circulating malware, testing outfit has Virus Bulletin found in its latest tests. A total of 17 out of 32 of antivirus products failed the company's stringent VB100 test, which expects software to detect 100 percent of the commonly-circulating 'WildList' thrown at it without signalling any false positives.

Symantec has introduced Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac, featuring support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The software furnishes vulnerability protection technology, which watches the web application layer. Norton AntiVirus automatically detects and removes viruses, scans and cleans downloaded files and email attachments, and protects against software vulnerabilities.

One security researcher believes the software we use to protect our PCs from viruses, spyware and other malware is becoming a major liability. For the past two years, Thierry Zoller , a security engineer at N.runs AG, has taken a close look at the way antivirus software inspects email traffic, and he thinks companies that try to improve security by checking data with more than one antivirus engine may actually be making things worse. Why? Because bugs in the 'parser' software used to examine different file formats can easily be exploited by attackers, so increasing your use of antivirus software increases the chances that you could be successfully attacked.