Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – December 2012

It’ll be a few months before AV-Comparatives has a multi-month compilation for this test.  For the month of December though, Trend Micro topped all vendors with a score of 100%.  Congratulations to them!

The top five for the month were:

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

Among the best-known vendors known for their freemium products, Avira topped the field.  For the freemium vendors:

09. Avira  

14. Avast (Wins bragging rights for the Czech Republic for the month)

16. Panda

17. AVG Technologies

19. PC Tools (owned by Symantec)

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.  

Virus Bulletin VB100 Awards – December 2012

Virus Bulletin has released  the results of  their latest VB100 testing.  Many, but not all of the products tested were 2013 versions.    Symantec, Avira, Webroot (this makes one year) and Trend Micro (several years for Trend) were not part of the test.  Sophos, Kaspersky, Avast, AVG Technologies, and ESET were.

About a third of the products tested failed to receive a VB100 award this time.  A cone of shame to the following –  BeyondTrust, Commtouch, ESTsoft, FileMedic (formerly MKS) Filseclab, K7 Computing, Norman, Roboscan, Total Defense Consumer, VIRUSfighter Pro, and Zeobit.

A summary of the full  results is at the link below. Congratulations to those receiving the VB100.   You can  buy the full test results or subscribe to Virus Bulletin to obtain them. 

 https://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/test?recent=1

Results from this should be looked at in conjunction with tests from other test groups such as www.av-test.org    and www.av-comparatives.org .  In addition,   it’s not how the company has performed on the VB100 test over years.  It’s only the last couple of years that are relevant.   When looking at a company’s award page, verify which product was tested.

VB100 Test Methodology

The purpose of the VB100 comparative is to provide insight into the relative performance of the solutions taking part in the tests, covering as wide a range of areas as possible within the limitations of time and available resources.  More details are available at

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/about/methodology.xml

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 

OPSWAT Market Share Report - Antivirus Market Analysis: December 2012

OPSWAT Inc. has released their December 2012 market share report, “Antivirus Market Analysis: December 2012”.  The data OPSWAT used for this market share report was collected between November 16, 2011 and November 15, 2012.  It's worthwhile to check out the detailed report.  You can also learn more about OPSWAT, their reports, products and some free tools they have available.  (To be discussed on another blog).  One aspect of this market share report is that it doesn’t go into the market shares these vendors have on tablets (and smart phones).  This will become increasingly more relevant in 2013.   

A Global Analysis

Avast has to be happy.  They’re the global market share leader, though Microsoft is catching up.  They maintain nice leads over the other well-known freemium antivirus vendors, Avira and AVG Technologies.  AVG Technologies may not care as much since their    revenue stream  from Google and Yahoo will become increasingly more important (a separate discussion).  In some respects, the below isn’t great for Kaspersky since one of their corporate objectives is to surpass Trend Micro in total revenues. 

OPSWAT Market Share Report Top Five  

The Top Five in antivirus vendor market share were Avast (17.5%), Microsoft (16.8%), ESET (10.8%), Symantec (10.5%), and Avira (10.4%).     

Congratulations to the Top Five!  Largest market share loss, AVG Technologies at 1.3%.  AVG has been getting a lot of downloads of their free  (and paid) products running on Android, however.   This product came from their acquisition of DroidSecurity.  DroidSecurity (was first and the market leader)  had over 2.5 million downloads of their products prior to the 2010 acquisition. Avira, Avast, and Norton also offer free Android solutions.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/12/avg-updates-its-antivirus-for-android.html

 

You can click on the above to enlarge it.

In the September report, the order of the Top Five vendors:  Avast, Microsoft, Avira, and AVG Technologies.

Avast had cancelled an IPO in late July.  You have to wonder when that will take place.  http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/07/avast-to-have-their-initial-public.html

A North America Centric View

Microsoft has a pretty incredible 32.0% share, gaining 10%.  The others in the Top Five in order, Symantec, Avast, AVG Technologies, and ESET.  Largest loss, AVG Technologies at 1.7%.  Symantec and Avast achieved small gains in share of 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively.  Microsoft has quickly become the 800-pound gorilla in Antivirus and Free Antivirus marketshare.

You can click on the above to enlarge it.

But How Well Do These Products Perform in third Party Testing?

That’s always an important question.  In AV-Comparatives September Anti-Virus Comparative “File Detection Test of Malicious Software”, the top five products overall were from,  in order Avira, Trend Micro, F-Secure, Kaspersky, and Bitdefender.  ESET was 15^th, Microsoft was 17^th .Symantec hasn’t been part of 2012 testing (they wanted to pick and choose tests to participate in. )

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

All of the December top five with the exception of Microsoft (didn’t participate) received October VB100 Awards.  http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/summary
 

What about Correlation with 3rd Party Real World Dynamic Testing?

The short answer, there’s no correlation.  From the  December AV-Comparatives “Whole Product Dynamic ‘Real World’ Protection Test",  Avira (8^th) Avast (9^th) and ESET (11^th), all received two stars, while BitDefender, G Data, Qihoo, Kaspersky and BullGuard all received three stars.

An issue for all these products is product churn.  Free competitive upgrades are often available.  With free products, switching costs to another free product is zero.  On www.download.com at CNET, Avast had 1.39 million downloads for the week  ending December 9, while AVG had 0.97 million downloads.  Annualizing these come to about 52 million downloads each. Major churn "has" to be occurring, or a product is downloaded to fix a problem an already installed product missed, and then removed.   

About OPSWAT www.opswat.com   

Founded in 2002, OPSWAT is the industry leader in software management SDKs, interoperability certification, and multiple-engine scanning solutions.

OPSWAT market share reports are available at http://www.opswat.com/media/reports   

About AV-Comparatives.org   

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.  www.av-comparatives.org

 

April 2011 - Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, October 2010 through April 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing October 2010 through April 2011 data.

Achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Bkts, AVG, Symantec, Kaspersky, Avast, F-Secure, MicroSafe, eScan, ESET, ZeoBit, UnThreat, G-Data, Avira (Pro and Free), Check Point, TrustPort, Coranti, Lavasoft Total, and Kaspersky Pure. Avira Free had the top Reactive Detection. Coranti and LavaSoft Total had the highest Proactive Detection. The order of these is from (approximately) left to upper right.

On the previous test, those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky AV, AVG Technologies, Kaspersky IS, Avast, eScan, ESET Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G-DATA, TrustPort, Zeobit, Check Point, Avira Free, and Coranti. Coranti received the highest score for Proactive Detection and TrustPort for Reactive Detection at about 98% and 91% respectively. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/virus-bulletin-rap-averages-quadrant.html

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.

This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques. A detailed description can be viewed at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/vb200902-RAP-tests

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant (October 2010 through April 2011) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989. The organization provides 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. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com . The site is a great source of information on malware and spam. They are a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, www.AMTSO.org.

February 2011 - Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, August 2010 through February 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing August 2010 through February 2011 data.

Those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky AV, AVG Technologies, Kaspersky IS, Avast, eScan, ESET Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G-DATA, TrustPort, Zeobit, Check Point, Avira Free, and Coranti. Coranti received the highest score for Proactive Detection and TrustPort for Reactive Detection at about 98% and 91% respectively. Ikarus didn’t clear the 90% hurdle on the most recent test, so that didn’t make the cut. .

Once again, internet security providers Symantec and McAfee will not be bragging about their results on this particular test. Kingsoft was the major laggard, however.

On the previous test, those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky, Avast!, Ikarus, eScan, AVG Technologies, Avira Pro, Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G DATA, MicroSafe, Avira Free, ZeoBit, Coranti, and TrustPort. TrustPort had the highest Reactive Detection rate and ZeoBit the highest Proactive Detection rate. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-virus-bulletin-rap-averages.html

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.

This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques. A detailed description can be viewed at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/vb200902-RAP-tests

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant (August 2010 through February 2011) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index. Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989. The organization provides 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. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com . The site is a great source of information on malware and spam. They are a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, www.AMTSO.org.

December Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, June through December 2010 – VB100 on Windows 7, December 2010

Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, June through December

Virus Bulletin has published their latest Reactive and Proactive (RAP) Averages Quadrant for June through December 2010.

Those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky, Avast!, Ikarus, eScan, AVG Technologies, Avira Pro, Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G DATA, MicroSafe, Avira Free, ZeoBit, Coranti, and TrustPort. TrustPort had the highest Reactive Detection rate and ZeoBit the highest Proactive Detection rate.

The anti-virus, internet security market share leaders (Symantec and McAfee) will not be bragging about their results on this particular test. Kingsoft was the major laggard, however.

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.

This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques. A detailed description can be viewed at: http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/vb200902-RAP-tests

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant (June through December 2010) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/rap-index.xml. Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

Virus Bulletin 100 Award (VB100) on Windows 7, December 2010

Sixty-four products were tested in this latest test. Twenty one products failed! People can go to the following site to see the complete list, and to see which major vendor failed, albeit with only one miss: http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/2010/12

The VB100 (virus) award is granted to any product that passes the test criteria under test conditions in the VB lab as part of the formal VB comparative review process.

The basic requirements are that a product detects, both on demand and on access, in its default settings, all malware known to be 'In the Wild' at the time of the review. Also, it can generate no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989. The organization provides 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. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com . The site is a great source of information on malware and spam. They are a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, www.AMTSO.org.