AV Test certifies 17 out of 22 security suites for Windows 7

[Emil]

Testing organization AV Test has published its latest round of anti-malware certification tests, with 22 products rated on a wide range of factors. This test was for Q1 2011 on Windows 7, and 17 of the 22 products were judged worthy of AV-Test's Certified badge, meaning five did not make the cut.

The suite of tests measured the products' real-time protection capabilities, scanning detection rates, cleaning and disinfection, and impact on the protected system. Each of three main categories earns products up to six points, with a total of 11 out of 18 required to earn a passing mark.

Here are the 17 products that passed (every single name is familiar to me, except for BullGuard):

• Avast: Free AntiVirus 5.0 and 6.0
• AVG: Internet Security 10.0
• Avira: Premium Security Suite 10.0
• BitDefender: Internet Security Suite 2011
• BullGuard: Internet Security 10.0
• Eset: Smart Security 4.2
• F-Secure: Internet Security 2011
• G Data: Internet Security 2011
• Kaspersky: Internet Security 2011
• Microsoft: Security Essentials 2.0
• MicroWorld: eScan Internet Security Suite 11.0
• Panda: Internet Security 2011
• Sophos: Endpoint Security and Control 9.5
• Sunbelt: Vipre Antivirus Premium 4.0
• Symantec: Norton Internet Security 2011
• Trend Micro: Titanium Internet Security 2011
• Webroot: Internet Security Complete 7.0

BitDefender, F-Secure, and Symantec led the pack, all scoring 15 or higher from a possible 18 points. G Data, Kaspersky, and Panda, grabbed 14 points, AVG managed 13.5, and Sophos had 13. ESET, Trend Micro, and Webroot all put in a decent showing with 12.5 points, and GFI (formerly Sunbelt) took 12. Avast, Avira, eScan, and Microsoft only managed 11.5 points, while BullGuard just scraped a pass with 11.

Here are the five products that failed (these are also big names):

• CA: Internet Security Suite 2011
• Comodo: Internet Security Premium 5.0 and 5.3
• McAfee: Total Protection 2011
• Norman: Security Suite Pro 8.0
• PC Tools: Internet Security 2011

The lowest scorers were Norman and McAfee, both with 8.5 points, and both had a large numbers of false positives. I'm happy to see that I have never recommended any of the five products above. Have you?

The next certification from AV Test, in Q2 2011, will focus on security products for Windows XP. We'll cover those results based on how this article is received by our readers.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/43326-av-test-certifies-17-out-of-22-security-suites-for-windows-7.html

 

[Guest]

MSE + Malwarebytes + Firefox running NoScipt, Adblock, Better Privacy & Ghostery + some basic common sense = been doing well.

I've dabbled with all of the free suites (avast, AVG, MSE, etc.) and some of the paid suites (such as nod). I've been running MSE for about a year now and I'm pretty happy with it. Nothing has yet been found wrong... but who knows what's lurking?

 

[lawfer]

I've used the leaders of the pack before, and while they protect well, I saw myself always coming back to Nod32; good to see it's competitive and certified. Love Kaspersky, Avira, and BitDefender, but they all are memory/CPU hogs. (Although I haven't tried the their latest versions.)

 

[madboyv1]

lawfer said:
I've used the leaders of the pack before, and while they protect well, I saw myself always coming back to Nod32; good to see it's competitive and certified. Love Kaspersky, Avira, and BitDefender, but they all are memory/CPU hogs. (Although I haven't tried the their latest versions.)

+1. I too find myself putting on Nod32 on my own systems out of habit, though lately I've been suggesting MSE or Avira Free to people who need free AV nowadays, but I've been impressed at the new Symantec products of the last year, and their tests seem to strengthen that impression. Maybe next AV purchase cycle I'll give them a try again.

 

[Trillionsin]

GOOD article. My Gma had McAfee installed and a crap load of viruses. Wonder why... hmm... well, she also had Vista, so I blew that away and put Win7 on it, with Symantec. Running much better now!

 

[Trillionsin]

The lowest scorers were Norman and McAfee, both with 8.5 points, and both had a large numbers of false positives. I'm happy to see that I have never recommended any of the five products above. Have you?

OH, and to answer this question, NO! I have never recommended these. I have only recommended Vipre and Symantec, but I may be looking into BitDefender and F-Secure in the near future.

 

[Per Hansson]

I was very surprised by the results of Avast vs AVG, in my mind they where reversed...
I guess I must start considering going back to recommending AVG again then...

I had already heard that Symantec had improved their Antivirus, but this is a nice confirmation.
I have not used them for almost a decade...

F-Secure has always had a good standing with me, and this holds true here aswell, congrats to my Finnish neighbors!

I must say though that I have lost allot of faith in Antivirus programs all togehter.
I simply use the free service Virustotal which scans files you upload with all the antivirus programs in this article and then some.
And the results are always surprising, never is there any clear census over which Antivirus would be the best choice, so I just go with this personal recommendation by myself;

 

[Guest]

I dont see Zonelabs in the list. Wonder why?

 

[T77]

Comodo failed !!?! I can't believe this report.I have tried many security suites and have found comodo to be one of the best among the free AV products.I don't know what to say.....

 

[Cota]

For me its Eset to the end, its a great live scanner, great performance and no trash ideas, it does what its supposed to do only... pwn viruses.
I agree whit the 1st guest, common sence beats all , too bad i cant share it whit a lot of people i know, oh and why is Symantec still there? i had seen it for free in some stores (0 cost after rebate or just simply free 0.o).

 

[Guest]

Well but "Comodo Internet Security" is "Free to both business and home users" and its "Price: 100% Free" (taked from Comodo's site)

This version of Comodo Free IS works on Windows Server 2003 or 2008 too.

These functions are not available in the other evaluated antivirus !!!

 

[Route44]

Another NOD32 user here. It has been excellent for me over the years. Also, Avast free has been top notch and my wife runs the $ version on her new laptop. great protection.

It would be interesting to see what firewalls are good with Windows 7. Many use what is provided in the OS, but I'm curious.

 

[Guest]

charter gives us f-secure for free and it works great. Glad to see it finish so well. Makes me feel better knowing this.

 

[Guest]

Same here....MSE, Malwarebytes, Spybot, and other than the ad blockers in firefox, that's
it.

 

[Coodu]

I'm really surprised that Bullguard passed, as I see it's toolbar shipping with spyware download programs when I'm removing that sort of junk from a client's PC.

McAfee surprised me that it failed, but none of the others did. I cringe when I see a computer running CA now. I think it's all about personal experiences though when it comes to things like this - different people have had different experiences with the suites and therefore recommend accordingly.

Personally: MSE does me fine with the usual host of Firefox addons mentioned thus far. I also don't mind AVAST as far as the free suites go.

 

[Guest]

i recomand avast (i have avast is), malwarebytes(for scans) and vipre(you can virusate if u dont listen to it). they are all light and pased kis.

 

[Guest]

and opera for web, of course. the safest browser.

 

[HaMsTeYr]

Using Norton IS 2011, and I have to say Its a VAST improvement from their previous versions. So far I've only juggled between BitDefender, Kaspersky and this, though I have dabbled in others before, mainly G-Data (You can build a Linux based AntiVirus disc, which I find extremely helpful. Virus definitions are up to date so long as you have an up to date G-Data)

For free however, I usually recommend to people MSE for free AV (Less intrusive than Avira's pop ups) and Comodo Firewall. I've heard good things about comodo's firewall, though not the same can be said about their Antivirus, and I think it shows itself here.

Apparently in terms of rankings as well, Comodo is above ZoneAlarm (to which I have been finding have been trickling down the ranks so quickly)

Definitely will try F-Secure though.

 

[supertech]

Symantec Endpoint & Antivirus are top notch followed by Kasperksy antivirus. I always recommend Malwarebytes (paid version) for the dangerous users + common sense Limited Edition.

My favorite part is CA as they are one of the worst protection products of all time. A simple virus or Malware can tear your system apart with CA. I think they spend more money on the appearance of the product then the quality of protection it provides.

 

[supertech]

another note... I found it interesting that they skipped out Radialpoint as I think this is another awful product with too much overhead and little protection. Radialpoint creates custom branded security products for many ISP's such as Bell, Rogers, AT&T, Verizon, and many others.

 

[nismo91]

i use avast and malwarebytes. very impressed with both.

tried MSE and is not impressed at all. the UI and minimal features is probably what makes me hate it, not to mention the slow update & installation plus very slow full-scan.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Maybe I should change my antivirus then. I've always been using avast!, and I've also updated to the later versions - as well as recommending the software to many of my relatives...

Still though - I don't want to pay any unnecessary fees for owning my antivirus and so on. And the leader of the pack did not seem to be free.

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

I use Webroot Internet Security Essentials on my Windows 7 machine and it just works quietly in the background. I'm just surprised that it didn't get a higher score. I run the free versions of Avira and Avast in my XP machines and also have no problems whatsoever with either program other than Avira's post-update pop-up. I'm especially impressed with Avast since it runs so well in my laptop which has only 512 MB RAM. I had previously run AVG and MSE on the same laptop but experienced significant performance slowdowns with both programs.

 

[abe10tiger]

Avira for me!

 

[p51d007]

I use to be a fan of Nod32, all the way back to when XP was in beta, since at the time, it was the only thing I could find that would work with it in the XP beta program. I gave up on it, only because the annual costs, and it started to get bloated with all of the "suite" BS that seems to plague AV software. The repeated costs was the main thing, so I gave MSE a try & haven't bothered with anything else. I hit torrent sites, a couple hacker sites pretty much daily and haven't had an infection yet. I use MSE, spybot & Malwarebyte, with MSE the only resident program.

LOL...I thought McAfee WAS a virus