PC World Internet Security 2013 Showdown – Mashup with AV-Test and AV-Comparatives

PC World has published their test of  Internet Security 2013 products.  Kudos to F-Secure finishing on top with 4.5 stars in the review!!! Symantec/Norton, Trend Micro, and Bit Defender finished second through fourth, also with 4.5 stars in the PC World showdown.Other factors weighed in to determine the placings. Individual reviews are available.   AVG Technologies Internet Security 2013  and Avira Internet Security 2013  had their products finish in eighth and ninth respectively with 3.5 stars.  Companies with products in the PC World Test – Norton, F-Secure, Trend Micro, BitDefender, Kaspersky, Avira, G Data,  and AVG Technologies.

In a mash­-up with AV-Test.org January test results and AV-Comparative.org results from their “September File Detection Test 2012”, F-Secure Internet Security, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security, and BitDefender Internet Security were the top  products.  Symantec was ineligible since they were not tested by AV-Comparatives last year.  Symantec wanted to choose which test s to participate in.  Companies had to agree to participate in all so…. Perhaps they will man up this year under their new CEO!  Products tested by AV-Test.org were Internet Security solutions and by AV-Comparatives, Antivirus solutions. The last column is the average of the rankings in the previous tests.

Table of Results

In the AV-Test.org test, several times, products had the same score. Since Symantec didn't participate in the AV-Comparative.org test, they were removed from the above table.

It’s kind of disappointing that the Internet Security products from freemium vendors finished eighth and ninth.  

From the PC World Individual Test Reports 

 PC stated about F-Secure, “With excellent protection and a user-friendly interface, F-Secure is definitely worth a look.  This security package adds a little extra weight to your system, but if you can get past those performance issues, it’s a great program.”

“AVG Internet Security 2013 is a perfectly respectable antivirus program with a great new top-level user interface.  But that’s the problem—in these malware tests, “perfectly respectable” doesn’t quite cut it and we saw several programs that outdid AVG at nearly every turn.”  The AVG Technology solution also had the lowest detection rate of the products tested.

“At the end of the day, Avira Internet Security 2013 is a competent antivirus program.  But being merely competent isn’t a great thing, especially when it’s combined with an interface that's for advanced users only.”

The following link takes you to the article, “Security software showdown!  9 antivirus suites empirically tested.”  From here, you can also reach links for detailed reports about all nine products tested.  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025949/security-software-showdown-9-antivirus-suites-empirically-tested.html

Read the individual test reports, as well as Neil Rubenking and his test reports in PC Magazine. Beware the thumbs of   Facebook friends. Not the best way to select your security solution. Save James Surowiecki's    "wisdom of crowds" for something else.

 

About AV-comparatives.org     www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization.  They provide independent Antivirus software tests free to the public.  Go to their website to view all the great comparative reports and surveys they publish.  A great number of their reports are free.

About AV-Test.org http://www.av-test.org

 

The AV-TEST Institute is a leading international and independent service provider in the fields of IT security and anti-virus research.  The aim of the research work carried out by AV-TEST is to directly detect the latest malware, to analyze it using state-of-the-art methods and to inform their customers of the top-quality results obtained.