Rising Free of Viruses

I saw mention of antivirus software authored in China that is supposed to be very good. It was mentioned in a couple of places, but certainly in a positive light on Raymond.cc blog. In a post about yet another security suite, Raymond says:

Previously I’ve tested and reviewed free Rising Antivirus. In my opinion, it is a very good antivirus which I will prefer to use if I had to choose between AVG and Rising Antivirus. However, many people would avoid using Rising Antivirus just because it is developed in Beijing China, where the 2008 Olympics will be held, as there are news saying that China is a home to half of all malicious websites. I think this perception is wrong.

My curiosity was piqued by this remark, so I had a quick chat with fellow science blogger Andrew Sun, a Chinese chemist living in China, who writes the On the Road blog for the research journal Nature. I asked Andrew about whether he trusts Chinese antivirus software, given that so much malware emerges from the darker recesses of that country. This is what he had to say:

True, China is the home to most of the viruses, trojans, and malicious software in the world. So we have, I believe, world-leading antivirus technology. ‘Foreign’ antivirus programs often cannot recognize or remove ‘Chinese viruses’.

It’s a good point. He explains how Rising and Kingsoft are the two mostly commonly used antivirus programs in China. The most popular ‘foreign’ AV kit is Kaspersky, from Russia, and Norton AV, of course. Fewer people know McAfee, he says, and personally, he actually uses Symantec Antivirus (not Norton).

Andrew had a few more words of wisdom for browsers hoping to stay safe in Chinese cyberspace:

In China to avoid being infected, don’t use Internet Explorer or any explorer based on it. Don’t enter any Chinese website. If you have to enter a Chinese website, don’t click on any image and anything that moves. Don’t accept any downloads…

That advice seems sound to me. But, there’s one little problem, how can us “foreign” users, download Rising without visiting a .cn site? Well, Andrew adds that www.rising-global.com is a safe Chinese website.