Today’s firewalls not only provide protection from external attacks but also control over outgoing traffic, because often the Trojan programs that penetrate a computer are capable of gaining remote control over it, scanning for confidential information and tracking user activity. Trojans of this type then use a number of methods to pass the information on to their “owner”. Some malware is also capable of transmitting itself from an infected computer to another machine; control over outgoing traffic can prevent any further spread.
Leak tests, set up with the help of special programs that simulate the activity of Trojans bypassing protective measures, are used to check personal firewalls for internal leaks.
One of the biggest leak tests was carried out by the team from the matousec.com project. The checks involved each firewall undergoing 77 tests for leakage. For each test a product passed successfully using its default settings it got a score of 125; if a configuration setting of maximum security was required to pass the tests, the product got a score of 100 for the test. The tests had a maximum combined score of 9625 (77*125). The diagram shows the final scores of the products tested. The Kaspersky Lab product got 8475, which according to the matousec.com scale is “Very Good”.
Leak-test score for personal firewalls
