AV-Comparatives Real World Protection Test – August to November 2015

Kaspersky and BitDefender topped twenty companies in AV-Comparatives Real World Protection Test, August to November 2015. These companies finished in the top two, receiving three stars. Both had only one compromised file. Six other companies received three stars over the test period.  Eight of the twenty companies in the test received two stars. Default settings were used for all products.

Trivia question – which North America based malware company received three stars?

Four companies merit the Hall of Shame award for the period, garnering one or zero stars. From the bottom up, ThreatTrack Vipre, Lavasoft, Quick Heat and BullGuard.   Banished to a timeout corner   for being in triple digits for wrongly blocked files – Mcafee, ThreatTrack, and Lavasoft.

An informative graphic in the report depicts the range of protection over the four-month period for each product. The top products were extremely consistent, which is what you would want in a security solution.  The bottom products, less so. 

Not all results are being provided because there is no charge for the report. It can be downloaded at http://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/. You can also learn more about the test methodology in the fourteen-page report.  The products tested ranged from free antivirus to internet security suites.  Kudos to AV-Comparatives for detailing some of the statistics methodologies used in compiling their report. Your eyes won’t glaze over as you read about this.

As always, the top products may not be top in terms of number of “likes” they’ve received on their respective Facebook pages.  In  the denouement, should one give more weight to independent third party testing, or a fan club?

An interesting article to read by Adam Winn at San Francisco based OPSWAT,  (www.opswat.com) Sorry Symantec - Antivirus is Not Dead .  Today’s antivirus/malware protection utilizes more than just pattern files and heuristics.

Hall of Shame and timeout corners are not part of AV-Comparatives’ formal designations. You can learn about the organization at www.av-comparatives.org

The trivia question answer – none.  McAfee and Fortinet received two stars.

AV-Comparatives Releases Results of May Real World Protection Test. Testing Firm Now ISO 9001 Certified

Austria based AV-Comparatives has released the results of their May “Real World Protection Test”.  Bitdefender, the best anti-malware company you may have never heard of topped all companies, with a 100% score and zero false positives.  Only Panda also blocked 100%.  This was with their free product!  Avira had the top score among the largest freemium vendors (with their internet security suite), blocking 99.5%.

At the other end of the spectrum, Korea based AhnLab ranked at the bottom of products tested, blocking only 87.5% of the threats (ouch), the only company tested at less than 90%.  McAfee had the most false positives, with 16.  The trend of market share leaders not being market performance leaders continued, as both McAfee, and Trend Micro finished in the bottom 1/3 of companies tested.  Symantec has opted out of being tested by AV-Comparatives (a disservice to customers, IMHO).  Man-up, SYMC.

The products included in the test were a mix of anti-virus, internet security suites, paid, and free products.  The exact versions used are listed in the report and on the website.

The Real World Protection Test is just one of a number of tests AV-Comparatives performs over the course of the year.  They can be downloaded from the company web-site http://www.av-comparatives.org/

AV-Comparatives’ Real-World Protection Test framework has been recognized by the “Standortagentur Tirol” with the 2012 “Cluster Award for innovation in computer science” and by the “Austrian Government” with the 2013 “Constantinus Award.

AV-Comparatives Receives ISO 9001 Certification

AV-Comparatives is now an ISO 9001 certified organization.  AV-Comparatives received the certificate from TÜV Austria for their management system for the scope: “Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software” in early June.

"ISO 9001:2008 specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product that meets customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.  The organization has to  enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements."  ISO 9001 is currently under revision with the final release of the new standards due by the end of 2015.

About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an independent not-for-profit organization offering systematic testing that checks whether security software, such as PC/Mac-based antivirus products and mobile security solutions, lives up to its promises.  Using one of the largest sample collections worldwide, it creates a real-world environment for truly accurate testing.  AV-Comparatives offers freely accessible results to individuals, news organizations, and scientific institutions.  Certification by AV-Comparatives provides an official seal of approval for software performance.  

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.  

Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – March through June 2012

AV-Comparatives.org has released their latest Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – March through June 2012.  The advantage of this document versus a  report or blog covering a single month is that since  it covers a longer period, it  better portrays the products’ performance.  The top 5 products over this time period (you’ll have to look at the report for percentages) in order, were

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

All the top five had a protection rate of greater than 99%.  The top finish among the major free vendors was Avira, in eighth, out of twenty-one.  The “why did I participate in this” finishers were Ahnlab and Webroot (protection rate of 90.9%), in the twenty and twenty first positions, respectively. There’s a great interactive chart on the web site that permits you to play with time periods. Note that none of the more well known products are in the top five, with the exception of Kaspersky, who may  overtake Trend Micro this year in total revenue.

As always, this is just 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.  The nice thing about these organizations is that they tend to use relatively large samples in testing, which improves the legitimacy of the results.  There is more to product quality than a number of "likes" on a Facebook fan page.

About AV-comparatives     www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.  Go to their website to view all the great comparative reports and surveys they publish.

Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – June 2012

AV-Comparatives.org has released their latest Whole Product Dynamic Real World Protection Test – June 2012.  An informative document that will be updated multiple times (monthly, in fact!) over the course of the year.  What’s even more interesting than the results alphabetically by vendor is going online and sorting by performance.  Isn’t that what it’s all about?  The numbers below are "percent captured".

June Real World Protection Results from AV-Comparatives.org

Eset had a June swoon dropped out of the top five to thirteen while Avira jumped in to the illustrious group and was thus the top finisher among the freemium vendors.  Bravilna to Kaspersky and the others.  Yes, there was a major tie in May.

99.7 - Kaspersky

99.7 - Quihoo

99.6 - BitDefender

99.6 - G Data

99.1 - Avira

Ahnlab and Webroot were in  the  twenty-first and twentieth    positions, respectively, with 92.9 and 93.6.    Not enviable for these two vendors.  They brought up the rear in May, as well.

May Real World Protection Results

  

99.1 - BitDefender

99.1 - ESET

99.1 - F-Secure

99.1 - G Data

99.1 – Kaspersky

99.1 - Qihoo

As always, this is just 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.  The nice thing about these organizations is that they tend to use relatively large samples in testing, which improves the legitimacy of the results.  There is more to product quality than a number of "likes" on a Facebook fan page.

About AV-comparatives     www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.  Go to their website to view all the great comparative reports and surveys they publish.