by Martin Brinkmann on November 27, 2018 in Security – 16 comments
German IT security institute AV-Test published the results of its latest antivirus study for Windows today. The organization evaluated 19 different security products on machines running Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system over the course of two months (September and October 2018).
Particularly interesting about the test is that the organization included Malwarebytes Premium, the flagship product of Malwarebytes, for the first time.
The previous test, results were released in August 2018, included only 18 products for the home market. The remaining 18 products included the who is who of the security world: Windows Defender, Avast and AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, Kasperksy, Norton, Trend Micro, and others.
11 of the 19 products were awarded with the Top Product award:
- AhnLab V3 Internet Security 9.0
- Avira Antivirus Pro 15.0
- Bitdefender Internet Security 23.0
- Bullguard Internet Security 19.0
- F-Secure Safe 17
- Kaspersky Internet Security 19
- McAfee Internet Security 21.4
- eScan Internet Security Suite 14.0
- Norton Security 22.15 and 22.16
- TrendMicro Internet Security 12.0 and 15.0
- Vipre AdvancedSecurity 10.3 and 11.0
All eleven products got full points in the protection category and full points either in usability or performance, and 5.5 out of 6 points in the other category.
Avast, AVG and Microsoft products did not receive the Top Product award this time but they did so in August.
Malwarebytes Premium 3.5 and 3.6, the product that was included in the antivirus test for the first time, ranked last in the protection category and in the bottom three in the performance and usability category.
The application got a total rating of 13.5 out of 18 points, the lowest rating of all 19 products.
A look at the protection stats show some progress, though. Results against 0-day attacks rose from 94.1% in September 2018 to 97.2% in October 2018; still below the average of 99.4%. For widespread malware, Malwareytes managed to protect against 99.6% of samples while the industry average was 100%.
The program’s usability was low because of false alarms: 13 in September and 4 in October, again more than the average of 4 for all tested products.
Performance, usability, and protection scores improved in October. One explanation for that could be update to version 3.6.x released in mid September as the release notes list “improved detection and remediation”.
Avast, AVG (which is owned by Avast), and Windows Defender lost the recommendation as protection scores dropped from the perfect 6 out of 6 in August 2018 to 5.5 out of 6 this time for all three products.
Closing Words
It will be interesting to see how the mentioned products will fare in the next test and whether Malwarebytes manages to improve the product.
Now You: which security products do you use?