AV-Comparatives File Detection Test of Malicious Software - March 2013

Test group AV-Comparatives has released their March 2013 File Detection of Malicious Software report.  Ten pages of nice reading.  The three star performers, in order, were Avira, F-Secure, BitDefender, BullGuard, and Kaspersky.  Congratulations to these five vendors for their performance!  G Data had the top detection rate, 99.9% but suffered in their overall performance due to false positives.  ESET finished 17^th in detection rate, which may have precipitated  their drop in the standings.  The only free product in the test was from Panda. 

There was some movement from the av-comparatives 2012 summary report.  The companies receiving Top Rated designation were,  in alphabetical order - Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, BullGuard, ESET, F-Secure, G DATA, and Kaspersky.  

The company with products in the yellow box, otherwise known as Symantec, was included in this report.  This was the first time in a long while.  Suffice it to say, Symantec has nowhere to go but up, finishing in the “tested” (not even one star) category.  They had the lowest detection rate of all products tested.  Shout out to CEO Steve Bennett; that is okay.  Next test. Eva, get those engineers out of the cloud and working on the engine and file detection ;)

What this report is showing is that the products with the most name brand recognition are not always the top performers.  Trend Micro only received one star, and McAfee two stars.  Average these scores with Symantec and you get one star out of three.  Ouch.  For the complete report, you will have to go to the www.av-comparatives.org  web site. 

Tests such as these are much more valuable than  looking at  “likes” on a company web site. People should look at the av-test and Virus Bulletin web site.  PC Magazine does extensive testing, as well.  Put something on your device.  You don’t have to install a toolbar to get a price break.  Look, also, for installing (in addition) one of the free products that helps protect you while surfing the web.  McAfee, Zone Labs, Blue Coat, are among the vendors providing these.  You may want to install an internet security product for more comprehensive protection than that provided by an antivirus product.

  

About AV-comparatives     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.

AV-Comparatives File Detection Test of Malicious Software – September 2012, Real World Protection Test

Addendum -  this is a link  more recent blog about a 2015 File Detection Test  http://kensek.blogspot.com/2015/10/av-comparatives-file-detection-test.html



AV-Comparatives (www.av-comparatives.org ) has released their File Detection Test of Malicious Software – September 2012 report.  Twenty vendor antivirus (internet security) products were tested.  Ten products received the top rating of Advanced+, or three stars.  Congrats to these vendors!  The products tested were a combination of 2012 and 2013 releases.  They also published a pdf of their September Real World Detection Test. You can go online and view the test results for this  using a timeline you select.

The Top Five Products

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

In the March test, the top five products were from G Data, Avira, Kaspersky, Sophos, and F-Secure.  Only two of top five from March remained in the top five for this test.

G Data and Avira had the highest total detection rates, at 99.9% and 99.8%, respectively.  What hurt G Data was its sixteenth place ranking in false positives.  Microsoft was the only company with zero false positives, while Webroot was the  laggard  with and two hundred ten (ouch!) false positives.  Webroot also missed the most samples.  The Hall of Shame award for the September test were AhnLab and Webroot, both receiving a “Tested” designation.

Avira wins the battle of the all twenty companies and the ­ big three freemium companies.  Avast wins the crown for Prague performance.  Gratulace! Trend Micro wins out ove r McAfee for Silicon Valley supremacy.  Symantec did not participate in the test.

To download the September “File Detection Test of Malicious Software” report, go to

http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/detection-test

 

There are multiple test organizations.  People should go to www.av-test.org and www.virusbtn.com  and look at their test results, as well.  When it comes to selecting a product, test results and reviews should win out over Facebook fan’s likes and web site popularity contests. 

Top 5 Products in the September Real World Protection Test

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

Trend Micro scored 100%.  The "what happened?"  awards go to PC Tools,  and Webroot, in twentieth and twenty-first, respectively. 

About AV-Comparatives   www.av-comparatives.org

 

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization.  They provide independent Anti-Virus 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.  A document detailing Testing Methodologies and FAQ’s is  at

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/methodology.pdf