Qihoo cuts ties with three antivirus testing firms in software dispute

Chinese antivirus company Qihoo 360 said it would stop taking part in tests conducted by three major antivirus labs that had accused the company of trying to manipulate the testing process.

In a statement, Qihoo denied that it had shipped a different version of its security software to the testing companies than the one supplied to its customers.

The spat began when the testing companies, AV-Comparatives of Austria, Germany’s AV-Test and Virus Bulletin of the UK said in a statement that the version of its software that Qihoo provided for testing uses an antivirus engine licensed from Bitdefender, while the version shipped to consumers uses Qihoo’s own QVM engine.

That “would provide a considerably lower level of protection and a higher likelihood of false positives”, the companies said.

US law firm Pomerantz said yesterday it was investigating the report on behalf of investors in Qihoo, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Users rely on independent results to make an educated decision regarding their protection software,” said Maik Morgensterm, AV-Test’s chief executive, in the statement. “If vendors start to manipulate the testing process, they are hurting everyone involved.”

Qihoo denied manipulation, saying the configuration of the software was clearly declared when it submitted it for the tests.