Latest AV-Comparatives test results released

High scores as 7 out of 16 graded Advanced+ in on demand tests

Independent testing body AV-Comparatives have released the results of their latest round of on demand anti-malware scanning tests, produced twice a year and featuring a selection of leading products.

The latest test features a total of 16 products, which were measured for detection performance against a massive collection of malicious samples, split into two sets with one containing sample representing the last 7 months, and the other the twelve months before that. Detection rates are balanced against false positives to produce an overall grading on a four stage scale. Of the 16 included, 7 achieved the highest ranking of 'Advanced+'.

The top achievers were Alwil's avast!, BitDefender, ESET's NOD32, F-Secure, G DATA, MicroWorld's eScan and Symantec's Norton. Also doing well at the 'Advanced' level were products from AVG, Avira, Kaspersky, McAfee and Trustport, with Avira, McAfee and Trustport marked down thanks to false alarms despite high detection rates. McAfee's product was tested with their Artemis in-the-cloud technology active.

Lower down the table came Microsoft's solution, rated 'Standard', while offerings from Kingsoft, Norman and Sophos ranked only 'Tested' - with Sophos' score again counterbalanced by a relatively high false positive rate.

Most products were tested with 'best possible' detection settings. The test will be completed with a round of retrospective testing of the same products, due out in a few months' time. Full details of the test and the methodology used can be found on the AV-Comparatives website, here.

21 September 2009

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6 comments

good Report

by Marc, 24 September 2009, 09:27

eScan, F-secure deserves their place among the best brands. I can tell from experience. Infact, I think they are the most comprehensive security solutions.

by AV Specialist, 24 September 2009, 09:57

yehey!! eset nod32/smart security is there!!!!!!!! wooooooooooooooh!!

by Vince Tan, 30 September 2009, 18:14

Signature products are nice, but are quickly becoming the "back-burner" option for truly protecting a system. AV simply can not protect from Zero Day vulnerabilities.

by Jeffrey, 30 September 2009, 23:35

Wow, I'm really surprised at the initial findings and would suggest that there are some weighted flaws in the scoring. Scoring Sophos, which has been an industry leader so low is very surprising! Working with EPO (McAfee) Norton and Sophos personally, I rank Sophos so much higher. Also in the ease of management cannot be beaten! I have no idea what "false positivies" might be refered to as I can tell you that since over a year of having Sophos in our environment we've had 0 false positivies and have been able to catch suspicious activity that when submitted turned out to be Trojan Agent LEO. Using VirusTotals and submitting the same sample, almost all 41 companies did not detect it, even after a month, more than half still didn't have signatures for it.

by BrianInBoulder, 08 October 2009, 16:01

I knew BitDefender was always very good in detecting malware, congrats to them!!!

by alinb, 09 October 2009, 07:05