Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – July through September 2012

The nice thing about the  Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test done by AV-Comparatives.org is that you can select the timeframe.  The advantage   of a 3-month report is that it better portrays the products’ performances.  The top five over the July through September time period were: 

1. F-Secure
2. Trend Micro
3. BitDefender
4. G Data
5. Kaspersky

The range for the percentage blocked for the top five went from 99.9% for F-Secure to 99.0% for Kaspersky.  Congratulations to the top five!  There was a bit of a change from the previous three months, when the top products, in order were from BitDefender, G Data, Kaspersky, QiHoo, and F-Secure. Look for a four month cumulative report from AV-comparatives  in November.

Ahnlab and Webroot repeated their performances in the “why did I participate in this” spots, finishing in the  twentieth and twenty first positions with block rates of  92.5% and 89.8%.

In the battle of  the free antivirus software vendors, Avira (95.7% block rate) in the tenth position topped Avast and AVG Technologies, in that order.

As always,  the Whole Product Real World Protection Test is  one test.  Individuals or companies evaluating the ability of products to detect and capture malware should visit www.av-comparatives.org , www.virusbtn.com  and www.av-test.org   to view the results of other tests.  These   organizations   use relatively large samples in testing, which improves the legitimacy of the results.  All are more valid than the number of likes on a Facebook fan page.  There is more to product quality than a number of "likes" on a Facebook fan page.

Webroot isn't fond of most real world tests, commenting in a July  blog  "Webroot Bulletin Regarding AV-Comparatives Results" that,  "Currently most “Real World” tests rely on automation and AV scanners are only given a single chance at detection before the test system is reverted for the next round of testing. Unfortunately this testing model doesn’t give WSA a chance to leverage our unique cloud approach as it has a very static view of the files being tested." They also stated that, "Webroot continues to drive innovation in our products though this isn’t always met with equal innovation in the testing process."  To read the complete blog, go to, http://blog.webroot.com/2012/07/19/webroot-bulletin-regarding-av-comparatives-results/

About AV-comparatives     www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Antivirus software tests free to the public.  Go to their website to view all the great comparative reports and surveys they publish.  In September, they published their File Detection Test of Malicious Software.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/10/av-comparatives-file-detection-test-of.html