February Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant (Reactive and Proactive) July 2012 through February 2013

Virus Bulletin has released their   RAP Averages Quadrant for the July through February timeframe.  There was a little bit of movement from the previous test, but nothing too exciting.  Avira Free wins among the companies best known for their freemium solutions.  Avast was a little ahead of AVG Technologies for Praha bragging rights.   

Once again, some estimating was necessary to pick the below.

RAP Averages Quadrant July 2012 through February 2013

1. Coranti
2. Avira Free
3. G Data
4. Fortinet
5. Lavasoft, TrustPort, BitDefender, BullGuard, Huari

Hall of Shame awards for their performance – Total Defense (by far), SPAMfighter, Frisk, and Commtouch. All scored below 70% on Reactive Detection, with Total Defense at about 55%.  Where are the 800-pound gorillas awards go to Symantec and Trend Micro for not being in the test.  Come on, Steve Bennett.  This test and AV-comparatives.  Time to step up.  Symantec had a big booth at the RSA security show.  The company   should be willing to be in these. 

The previous RAP averages test  had clusters of companies, as listed below. 

1. Zeobit, Coranti (clear winners)
2. Lavasoft, TrustPort, G Data
3. Fortinet, Avira Free, Avira Pro, Roboscan, BitDefender, BullGuard, Emisoft, eScan

 Tests like these provide  useful information in evaluating the relative strengths of the products.  It obviously wins out over the wisdom of Facebook fans clicking on like!  You can view the RAP Averages Quadrant chart at

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index

Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

RAP Averages Quadrant

This test measures products' detection rates across four distinct sets of malware samples.  The first three test sets comprise malware first seen in each of the three weeks prior to product submission.  These measure how quickly product developers and labs react to the steady flood of new malware emerging every day across the world.  A fourth test set consists of malware samples first seen in the week after product submission.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index

  

Virus Bulletin

UK based Virus Bulletin started in 1989.  They provide PC users with a regular source of intelligence about computer viruses, their prevention, detection, and removal, and how to recover programs and data following an attack.  The Virus Bulletin website is at www.virusbtn.com