AV-Comparatives Testing – 2012 Mash-up

The table below combines results from four different tests from AV-Comparatives.  Through the wonders of Excel, I was able to calculate a simple average and sort the results, first by result, and by alphabetical order.  There was quite a range in the results.  Great consistency among the top finishers, though.  Test results used in  the table were from:

• Whole Product Dynamics Real World Protection Test, March through June 2012
• Antivirus Comparative -   On Demand Detection of Malicious Software, March 2012
• Antivirus Comparative - Retrospective/Proactive Test, July 2012
• Antiphishing Test, July 2012

Congrats to the top finishers!  Kaspersky finished no lower than third in any of the tests, BitDefender seventh, and F-Secure, fifth.  I’m intentionally not showing a table of the raw data.  Blogs about each test are available, and the complete tests are on the AV-comparatives (www.av-comparatives.org ) web site. 

AV-Comparatives named Kaspersky Product of the Year for 2011.  Other top rated products, in alphabetical order,  were from Avira, BitDefender, Eset, and F-Secure.  Based on testing to date, there may be some changes at the end of the year.

Vendor  in the table   (listed   for Google purposes) are: F-Secure, G Data, BullGuard, Avira, Panda, Avast, ESET,  QiHoo, Sophos, eScan, PC Tools, McAfee, AVG Technologies, Microsoft, Tencent, GFI, Trend Micro, Fortinet, Webroot, and AhnLab.

About AV-Comparatives www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent antivirus 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 test reports.

Best Antivirus Software - Readers Choice Awards 2011 – Antivirus.about.com

Mary Landesman and About.com have announced their Readers Choice Awards for Antivirus, Internet Security Suites, and Free Antivirus. The complete text and link to the article is below. These are popularity contests and don’t reflect the ability of the software to actually stop anything (though one would think that that’s what readers are interested in). For example, Rubenking of PC World tends to like Norton for their internet security suite. Comodo did win a www.download.com popularity context. The folks at Avira have to be pleased with the results below. No details on the number of participants, whether people could vote more than once, etc.

http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/ss/Best-Antivirus-Software-Winners_2.htm

Best Windows Antivirus for 2011

• GFI VIPRE Antivirus: 44%
• Avira AntiVir Premium: 28%
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus: 18%
• ZoneAlarm Antivirus: 6%
• Norton AntiVirus: 3%

Best Internet Security Suite for 2011

Some surprises in this table.

• Comodo Internet Security: 42%
• Panda Global Protection: 26%
• ESET Smart Security: 25%
• Kaspersky Internet Security: 4%
• Norton Internet Security: 3%

Best Free Antivirus

• Avira AntiVir Personal: 62%
• Avast! antivirus: 13%
• Microsoft Security Essentials: 10% (how did they do this?)
• AVG Free: 9%
• Panda Cloud Antivirus: 6%

People looking at the above, may want to look go to www.virusbtn.com , www.av-test.org, and www.av-comparatives.org prior to making a purchase decision or downloading. Alternatively, look at relevant blogs on this site! Go to www.kensek.blogspot.com to view results from these blogs, including tables showing the rankings of the antivirus and internet security suite products for 2012 that PC World has tested and reviewed, cross tabbed against some of the test organization's results. It is well worth reading Rubenking's reviews after looking at the rankings. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html . There are also reviews on www.download.com by Rosenblatt.