An association of security corporations and researchers has decided on guidelines for how security software products must be tested, which might assist put an end to long-running disputes about different test methodologies.

Two sets of guidelines cover values for testing safety software for presentation and testing whole security suites were accept by the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) at its most recent meeting in Helsinki.

The strategy are part of a series of documents on AMTSO's Web site meant at initiate a set of standards generally decided during the business as suitable for ranking the efficiency of security software.

Security corporations have argued over tests run by association such as AV-Test.org and Virus Bulletin and furthers, which frequently test and rank security software.

Amongst the controversial issues are age of the hateful software examples used to test antivirus programs.

Corporations that failed to notice certain types of malware have argued in the past that the samples weren't threats any longer and that they had detached the signatures from their folder.