AV-Comparatives: IT Security Survey 2017

[509322]

I agree, money thrown away, the Windows firewall is enough and other things you have in IS you find in free programs such as CCleaner.

For a home system behind a NAT router, Windows Firewall is sufficient.

 

[Handsome Recluse]

WOW only 10.4% of people come to forums to decide on a product???
Considering that the vast majority of reviews out there are paid for and severely biased is shocking to know that 75% of people use them.

For me forums are the best source of information out there.

I hate them because they're sugarcoated and dragging it too long. Forums have more concise information

Sandboxie+Avast free hardened mode aggressive+ZAM free+Macrium free, for example and you are safe without IS.
Add Comodo Firewall or Glasswire if you are paranoid even if Windows firewall is more than enough.

Do you use any?

 

[tim one]

Do you use any?

That is my configuration I use for a long time: no infection.
I use this setup on my productivity computer where I keep my personal data.

 

[Handsome Recluse]

That is my configuration I use for a long time: no infection.
I use this setup on my productivity computer where I keep my personal data.

You're profile pic says Microsoft though.

 

[cruelsister]

It's hard to believe, but once again AV-C has outdone themselves in garbage statistics. First off, note that the total WORLDWIDE respondents amounted to 2,513. Even more absurd is that they want to make generalizations about markets like Asia, when the only Asian country with more than 1% respondents was China (2.6%). So by doing a little math here they are basing their results from ALL OF ASIA on a total of 65 users. They should be ashamed.

Further note the number of Windows 10 users- they put this at a bit over 58%. However any other reputable market survey company (which polls in millions) puts the Win10 share at 25% currently. This difference is so divergent from reality to be laughable.

I'd go on further but drivel such as this report nauseates me,

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

It's hard to believe, but once again AV-C has outdone themselves in garbage statistics. First off, note that the total WORLDWIDE respondents amounted to 2,513. Even more absurd is that they want to make generalizations about markets like Asia, when the only Asian country with more than 1% respondents was China (2.6%). So by doing a little math here they are basing their results from ALL OF ASIA on a total of 65 users. They should be ashamed.

Further note the number of Windows 10 users- they put this at a bit over 58%. However any other reputable market survey company (which polls in millions) puts the Windows 10 share at 25% currently. This difference is so divergent from reality to be laughable.

I'd go on further but drivel such as this report nauseates me,

I was going to critique this a bit glad I read it all first, you did a very good job and left me nothing but ashes and crumbs
Spot on CS !

 

[cruelsister]

We used to refer to stuff like this as "N=1" tests- meaning essentially modeling a broad population from a single individual. Whoever put this together would have never made it past Freshman Year at Dartmouth.

(Cyber- Great Minds Think Alike)

 

[TheMalwareMaster]

Really there are less free products users than paid ones?

 

[Parsh]

Really there are less free products users than paid ones?

As rightly said above, these are garbage stats to provided to the general public. Participant numbers, scores and distribution being questionable.

I just found out that AVAST Free antivirus have more than 300 million downloads on download.com, let alone other sources and other free AV stats
How can we easily believe that paid users outnumber free users by those freaking percentages. Yeah, some might use a combination of free and paid, but that does not bring down the gap significantly, since they're talking about paid AVs, not all paid security products.
The only place I can estimate that huge use of paid softwares, besides testers, is the ecosystem of Corporates and business facilities.

 

[tim one]

You're profile pic says Microsoft though.

That is my testing PC config when I used WD+ZAL, now I'm using Norton so I've updated my profile.
Avast is the supervisor on the other computer I use for work and study.

 

[TheMalwareMaster]

That is my testing PC config when I used WD+ZAL, now I'm using Norton so I've updated my profile.
Avast is the supervisor on the other computer I use for work and study.

You don't like Anti-EXE?

 

[tim one]

You don't like Anti-EXE?

Yeah, I used for a good period NVT ERP (I didn't know, Italian start-up).
Great product but I want to continue to testing multi apps

 

[TheMalwareMaster]

Yeah, I used for a good period NVT ERP (I didn't know, Italian start-up).
Great product but I want to continue to testing multi apps

Yeah, I also didn't know that in the past. Italian startup with no italian language

 

[Marko :)]

Really there are less free products users than paid ones?

It's hard to believe that more people use paid products than free. Everyone I know uses free antivirus and none of them purchased any antivirus product (I did but only once when I got my first PC, it was Bitdefender Antivirus 9).

 

[DC47561]

The security that people use is quite often based on what they are comfortable with. I would still recommend trialling any product that you are interested in - maybe in a VM or a test machine to see how it goes.

 

[Tony Cole]

I know this will sound strange, but I was always brought up with the notion "you get what you pay for." I really don't trust free software to protect my systems, look at windows defender, that wouldn't stand a chance against Spora.

 

[Entreri]

People who browse these type of sites are typically advanced or medium PC users. Obviously, this survey cannot be generalized to the population.

Noobs would not be using the likes of BitDefender or Kaspersky or any AV for that matter.

 

[vemn]

Nice Report. Thanks!