Av-comparatives IT Security Survey 2012

Test organization AV-Comparatives has published their IT Security 2012 report. The survey was based on responses from over 2000 individuals, taking out responses from individuals “in the industry.” The free 17-page document is an interesting read. It is available in both English and German

AV-Comparatives found that 2/3 of the respondents chose a paid for solution over a free solution. They also found that users are somewhat uncomfortable with relying on security in the cloud.

The market share data AV-Comparatives arrived at in their survey is a bit different from the results OPSWAT arrived at in their March 2012 report on “Security Industry Market Share Analysis”.

AV-Comparatives Top 5

1. Avast!

2. AVIRA

3. Kaspersky

4. ESET

5. Microsoft

AVG Technologies was 10^th.

OPSWAT Top 5

1. 16.3% - Avast

2. 11.7% - Avira

3. 11.0% - AVG Technologies

4. 10.1% - Microsoft

5. 10.1% - Eset

So, four out of the five were the same. AVG Technologies was 3^rd in the OPSWAT report. OPSWAT used a different methodology for determining share.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-opswat-report-on-worldwide.html

Top five Things That Are Important to You in a Security Product

The report lists 15, with percentages (an incentive to read the report ;))

1. Good detection rate

2. Low impact on system performance

3. Good generic/heuristic detection

4. Good malware/cleaning

5. Low false alarm rate

What Should AV Vendors Try to Improve More

The report lists 15, the top five were identical to what is important to you in a security product.

1. Improve detection rate

2. Lower impact on system performance

3. Improve malware removal/cleaning

4. Improve generic/heuristic detection

5. Minimize false alarms

Also in the top half - Reduce/remove unnecessary gimmicks from the products (e.g. toolbars, registry cleaners, etc.) which do not strictly belong to a security product. People are interested in security products that provide security. No toolbars or services unrelated to security.

It appears as if you will not be seeing Norton/Symantec in the tests this year. According to the report, “Symantec only wanted to take part in our public tests if they could choose which of the tests from our yearly public test-series they participated in”. AV-Comparatives did not want to permit cherry picking, so they will not be in the public tests during 2012.

Good reading. A chance for you to see if you agree with “the masses”. You can play “name these acronyms” with your friends.

About AV-Comparatives (www.av-comparatives.org )

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. Go to the AV-comparatives website for complete details about the organization, the many tests they perform, and to download copies of the IT Security Survey 2012 report.