Welcome to our regular roundup of events and activities in and around AMTSO.
Meetings and Events
AMTSO was represented this week at the AV-Test 20th anniversary celebrations, security summit and annual awards ceremony in Magdeburg, Germany. It was an excellent event in a spectacular venue, and provided a chance for us to catch up with many current and former members, to make many new contacts, and to discuss our projects and services with various interested parties. Next week we will attend SE Labs’ “The-C2” event in London.
Our next Testing Town Hall event is due on April 10th. We plan to issue details to members and signed-up guests next week, along with an initial agenda. Anyone who would like to share a short talk at one of our Town Halls is invited to contact AMTSO for more details. Non-members can sign up to attend our events here: https://www.amtso.org/amtso-event-registration/
Board and Management
Our members are reminded that our annual Board elections are approaching, and the deadline for candidate nominations is only a month away on April 22nd. Any member representatives interested in standing in the election should contact AMTSO for more information or to sign up.
RTTL and ThreatList
Our regular review meeting was cancelled this week due to many team members traveling to events, but work to sign up more contributors, and ensure existing participants are fully supported, has continued as usual; the review team will meet again in two weeks’ time.
XDR Testing Criteria
We held another meeting of the XDR testing criteria project group last week, reviewing prototypes of survey forms to gather information from both testers and vendors on their approaches to the XDR concept. Many ideas to improve the surveys were made and are currently being implemented, we plan to start trialling the vendor survey over the next few weeks and will make use of the data gathered to begin designing methods to make the results easily consumable.
Sandbox Evaluation
Our sandbox evaluation project is still seeking interested parties to join the working group, tasked with reviewing and finalizing a draft paper describing a sophisticated testing and weighting process to evaluate sandbox performance. Once the initial review is complete the paper will be shared with experts in the field outside the AMTSO membership for further feedback.
AMTSO Standard and Test Calendar
Recent additions to our Test Calendar include the latest results from Virus Bulletin’s long running anti-spam product testing program, which we hope to see joining the ranks of tests being run under the AMTSO Standard in the very near future. Here’s a summary of activities from our Standard compliance team:
- Phase 2 Commentary Collection for the MRG-Effitas Q4 2023 360 Degree Android Assessment and Certification (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP098) and the MRG-Effitas Q4 2023 360 Degree Assessment and Certification (Endpoint) (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP099) closed on Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, and AMTSO Compliance Confirmation Reports were issued for both tests on the same date.
- Review of the January/February 2024 AV-Test Android test (AMTSO Test ID: AMTSO-LS1-TP103) is ongoing and is expected to complete next week.
- Further tests from AV-Test are expected in the next few weeks, alongside the latest results from Testing Ground Labs on Android and Virus Bulletin’s VB100, with Phase 2 Commentary and compliance review for each test scheduled to be carried out alongside the release of reports.
Information on all published and upcoming tests being tracked by AMTSO can be found in our test calendar.
Member website
We applied a new visual design to our member website last week, along with some changes under the covers, and will continue to work on improving the content and layout over the next few weeks. The project will also include some changes to the security features and 2-factor setup on the site, members will be advised when these changes are implemented and may need to take action to ensure continued access to the site.
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.