AMTSO News 2023-12-22

Welcome to our regular roundup of events and activities in and around AMTSO. 

2023 in review

As we head towards the end of the year, we’ve published a review of the events and activities of 2023 at AMTSO.

RTTL and ThreatList

Our ThreatList system is gathering reporters via the signup form, open to AMTSO members and non-members alike, and we expect to start ramping up contributions from early January. Several test labs have already applied for beneficiary status and we hope to see the first certifications and other test types making use of the new feed in Q1 of 2024.

Gathering data from our longer-running RTTL system for our end-of-year review, we found more than 1 million samples had been contributed during 2023, with more expected over the final days of the year. Our thanks go to all contributors to both systems, which are designed to bring benefits to testers, vendors, and all users of security solutions through cooperation and intelligence sharing. We expect to see even more growth next year.

Meetings and Events

Our first Testing Town Hall of 2024 will be held on February 14th end-of-year summary, with presentations from AMTSO tester members SE Labs and SecureIQLab expected; topics and titles are to be confirmed but we expect to see XDR and AI among the issues to be addressed. We also hope to add a further guest or member speaker to the lineup during January. Anyone interested in sharing a short talk at one of our online events is welcome to get in touch to propose a topic.

XDR Testing Criteria

Our XDR group did not meet this week due to proximity of end-of-year holidays, but work on our taxonomy and configuration guidance continues, with consultations with companies active in the field, including non-members, planned for early next year.

New Frontiers group

Another call for our team working on outreach to CISOs and other purchasers was held last week, alongside further interviews with CISOs and others with connections to the CISO community; more are planned for early 2024, and once further feedback has been gathered and collated it will contribute to our planning for formation of an advisory panel and running several events during 2024.

AMTSO Standard and Test Calendar

We saw the expected flurry of end-of-year test reports issued over the last few weeks, with 12 additions to our Test Calendar since the last newsletter and more expected before we reach 2024. Those published so far included the second VB100 certification set to be run under our Standard, as well as a VBSpam report from Virus Bulletin, a review of online payment protection technologies from AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation, and Q4 reports from SE Labs. Here’s a summary of activities from our Standard compliance team:

  • Public Test Notifications were issued on behalf of TGL (Testing Ground Labs)  covering their December 2023 Consumer Android Malware Detection Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP100) and December 2023 Business Android Malware Detection Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP101).
  • An AMTSO Compliance Confirmation Report was issued covering the AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation Test Plan for Q4 2023 providing an Analysis of Online Payment Protection Modules in Windows 11 (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP089) on Wednesday, December 13th, 2023.
  • Phase 2 Commentary Collection was completed for both the MRG-Effitas Q3 2023 360 Degree Assessment and Certification (Endpoint) (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP088) and Q3 2023 360 Degree Android Assessment and Certification (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP087).  Compliance Confirmation Reports were issued for both programs on Monday, December 18th, 2023.
  • A Public Test Notification was issued on behalf of Virus Bulletin (VB) for their upcoming 2024 VB100 Test Series (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP095).  The notification was issued on Monday, December 18th, 2023.
  • Test reports for the Virus Bulletin VB100 December update (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP094) and AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation’s November test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP096) were released in recent days and Phase 2 Commentary will open as soon as feasible, with Compliance Confirmation expected to follow in the New Year.
  • In addition, draft test plans for AV-Test’s 2024 test series covering Windows, MacOS and Android are undergoing review and notifications will be released once final checks are complete.

Information on all published and upcoming tests being tracked by AMTSO can be found in our test calendar.

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

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