West Coast Lab Certification

system · 2007-03-11T15:34:35.000Z

Hello,

I was looking around some antivirus reviews when I came to realize that Avast was one of the very few Antivirus which wasn’t certified by West Coast Lab. I was truly surprised because Avast does fairly good in the av-comparatives.org Test however its the only one not certified. Can anyone explain to me what does the West Coast Lab Test mean and why isn’t Avast certified for it ??

Thanks

Al968

igor0 · 2007-03-11T15:37:44.000Z

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1488.msg8918#msg8918

system · 2007-03-11T16:24:08.000Z

Thank You for your quick responce,

I’m sorry but I don’t understand fully Pavel’s responce; what does he mean by :
“Well, all this certification stuff is about money only - we do not have problems to pass form the technical point of view.”
Does that mean that there is a fee or that you have to pay in order to be certified ???

Also when he says:
“Currently we think that ONE such certification (from older and more recognized ICSA) is enough for us .”

Don’t you think that any company should try to be certified as much as possible ??
Been certified by many company does not have a negative impact ???

I believe that as Avast is currently increasing in popularity it should get certified by West Coast to give even more confidence for the users of Avast that Avast Antivirus is an excelent product.

Thank You

Al968

igor0 · 2007-03-11T16:40:33.000Z

Yes, you certainly have to pay for the certification. Don’t know personally how much it is, but quite a lot I guess.
Also, if you don’t pass, you can simply pay again to be retested… and again and again, until you get the certification. So, anybody can get the certification if they’re willing to spend enough money on it.
The same goes both to West Coast Lab and ICSA, I think.

So, for that reason, it’s somehow “better” to look for tests like Virus Bulletin, av-comparatives, etc.

DavidR · 2007-03-11T17:06:07.000Z

Well for instance Microsoft OneCare got a ‘West Cost Coast Labs Certification,’ yet it failed to achieve even a Standard Certification level on the latest ‘February 2007’ av-comparatives.org tests, so having the checkmark doesn’t necessarily mean it is better than an AV that doesn’t have the WCL checkmark.

system · 2007-03-11T17:09:54.000Z

Yes I do acknowledge that West Coast Lab is not necessarily the best reference however it is somewhat known and vendors who are certified don’t tend to say that the test is easy and success is almost guaranteed as long as yoiu have some money .So Avast should either get the certification or have a big marketting event to show that West Coast Lab’s test is useless.
Also you mentioned ICSA and that it was the same kind of test, than why did Avast pay for that one ?

Al968

bob3160 · 2007-03-11T18:30:32.000Z

Unfortunately Igor the link you supplied still leaves an unanswered question about the ICSA certification.
Has an answer ever been received and if so, can that be posted in that thread? Thanks

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