Welcome to our regular roundup of events and activities in and around AMTSO.
Meetings and Events
This week we announced to members our next in-person event, being held alongside the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco in April. The evening reception will include speeches and a panel discussion, with ample opportunities for networking among AMTSO members and guests. More information and an early sign-up form are available, and details of the location and special guests will be added as soon as things are confirmed.
We also continue with planning for our next Testing Town Hall event, scheduled for mid-February; we hope to make an initial agenda available shortly.
VPN Working Group
Our first VPN guideline draft completed its public review phase in mid-January, the team met last week to review the small number of minor comments received and approved some small tweaks to the paper, which is now ready to move to the final stages of approval and adoption. We expect to complete the process and have the final paper made available in the next few weeks. The team will now move on to the planned second paper focusing on additional security features commonly included with VPN packages.
Sandbox Evaluation Working Group
A second round of development on our Sandbox framework paper is well under way, with the newly-expanded Working Group meeting twice in January and planning to hold multiple calls in the next few weeks to fast-track the drafting process. Once the paper has been adjusted to reflect feedback received during the public review phase it will move forward towards adoption with a target to complete by April.
XDR Working Group
Further outreach to XDR vendors to confirm or update the data harvested so far on the composition of their offerings in the space, which we expect to put live in the next few weeks; further additions and refinements will continue and the system will update continuously as the market space evolves. Members and non-members active in the space are urged to provide their feedback to ensure their solutions are accurately represented, and those not yet covered by the project are welcome to contact the project team to provide their info.
RTTL Working Group
Our regular RTTL call was held this week, with several tweaks and improvements to the system nearing the end of the development pipeline. Feed status was reviewed as usual with no issues observed, and plans for wider outreach to CERTs and others who may benefit from the system were discussed further.
AMTSO Standard and Test Calendar
The first few weeks of 2025 have seen a number of new tests added to our Test Calendar, including new annual series tests from many of our regular participating test labs. Published so far have been the first 2025 results from the VB100 certification, regular MacOS test data from AV-Test, and a special look at Ransomware protection, also from AV-Test. Here’s a summary of activities from our Standard compliance team since the last update:
Phase 2 Commentary Collection and Compliance Reports have been completed for the following six test projects:
- SE Labs Q4’2024 Endpoint Tests for Enterprise, SMB, and Consumer (AMTSO-LS1-TP128)
- MRG-Effitas Q3’2024 Android Test (AMTSO-LS1-TP125)
- MRG-Effitas Q3’2024 Endpoint Test (AMTSO-LS1-TP126)
- Virus Bulletin July to November 2024 VB100 Test Series (AMTSO-LS1-TP095)
- AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation November 2024 Advanced “In the Wild” Malware Detection Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP129)
- Virus Bulletin December (Q4) 2024 VBSpam Test (AMTSO-LS1-TP130)
Public Test Notifications were issued for the following nine programs:
- MRG-Effitas Q4’2024 360 Degree Android Assessment and Certification (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP132)
- MRG-Effitas Q4’2024 360 Degree Assessment and Certification (Endpoint) (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP133)
- Virus Bulletin VB100 2025 Test Series (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP134)
- TGL (Testing Ground Labs) December 2024 Consumer Android Malware Detection Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP135)
- TGL (Testing Ground Labs) December 2024 Enterprise Android Malware Detection Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP136)
- AppEsteem 2025 Unwanted Software (UwS) Handling Certification Test Series (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP137)
- AV Lab Cybersecurity Foundation Advanced In-the-Wild Malware 2025 Test Series (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP138)
- Virus Bulletin (VB) Q1’2025 VBSpam Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP139)
- SE Labs Q1 2025 Endpoint Protection Test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP140)
Information on all published and upcoming tests being tracked by AMTSO can be found in our test calendar.
Board and Management
We held our first Board call of 2025 last week, reviewing plans for the San Francisco event, our Working Group activities, technical improvements to our internal and outward-facing systems, and our ongoing marketing efforts. The next call is being arranged for February, to include another of our regular check-ins with our Advisory Board.
Promotion and Outreach
We expect to issue the next instalment in our series of member interviews next week, with more to come in the next month or so.
Finance and Membership
A review of our financial status at the mid-point of our company year is wrapping up, and work on another round of outreach to potential new members is under way in conjunction with guest invites for our upcoming event. Anyone interested in joining our community and participating in our working groups can find more information on our joining page.
ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
We send this newsletter to all AMTSO member representatives, as well as non-members who have engaged with AMTSO recently and have an interest in what’s going on in the AMTSO community. If you have any friends or colleagues who would like to be kept informed of developments in the testing world, they can sign up here. If you’d like to know more about joining the AMTSO community, there’s information and an application form here.