Security News AV-Test April 2018 (new)

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509322

Well now, that would be something to experience :ROFLMAO:

Nobody would buy security softs because the security softs would be given 1 and 2 star ratings - if the AV test lab asked the right questions.

It's not as if such ratings are going to somehow "shame" the entire industry into making products better in the hypothetical case that the AV test labs started to use only "Overall User Experience" ratings. "Shaming" has been tried and is an ongoing tactic, and the industry just isn't going to respond it. It can't really. The real issue is Average Joe's lack of knowledge and experience. Average Joe knows next to nothing about IT security and even less about security softs. The end result is that the vast majority of Average Joes have unrealistic expectations when it comes to security softs.

Heck, even security soft geeks with a lot of knowledge and experience have unrealistic expectations - the biggest of which is almost everybody expects stuff to be fixed yesterday. It is not as simple as "make it better." Things don't work that way...
 
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5

509322

Exactly. Those tests are made for beginners who don't know how to evaluate a software by themselves.
All those test-labs are part of the marketing tools of vendors.

AV lab test results are all about marketing. Whereas most average people think and expect that the AV test lab's only job is to verify and certify that tested softs are going to protect the system against anything. No... it doesn't work that way. If AV publishers cannot get anything out of the high expense of testing their product, then they are not going to pay for such testing. The "reward" the publisher gets is increased sales via better AV test lab scores. If the lab makes the testing too strict such that publishers score low, then publishers will not participate in the lab's tests.

Some AV test labs specify minimum standards before they will test a product, but then there is a lot of disagreement as to what constitutes a minimum standard when it comes to AVs. Ask any person on the street and invariably the answer is "The AV must protect my system 100% against everything and anything. That's the minimum standard." whereas a publisher will say "X % or better protection, based upon our real-world internal statistics (nowadays a relatively high %)." In other words, users and publishers are not seeing eye-to-eye long before the user decides to install the publisher's soft. This will never change. Who is more realistic ? The publisher...
 
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Ink

Administrator
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Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361

If security softs were rated solely on "Overall User Experience," and the AV test labs pushed user-based scoring results hard, then the entire industry would be sunk. Kaput. Consequently, no AVs would agree to such testing and reporting.
It should be taken into consideration, alongside everything else. The Overall package, not just statistics for the best scoring product.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 58943

@cruelsister said that in her recent quickie K7 test it did extremely poorly against scriptors like diverse worms and WMI malware, but I wonder what's the chanse for regular home user to encounter such malware? :rolleyes:

Probably zero or something. K7 is so lightweight, I would combine it with Heimdal+OSArmor/VS as usual or just K7 and OSArmor/VS and no Heimdal, for a zero-weight, layered security approach. But for average Joe. K7 would be more than protective, especially with that robust firewall and traditional HIPS module assuming the Internet Security version is used, which does include the extra modules. (version tested was not mentioned) Not a fan of anecdotal testing BTW.

K7 is cheap on Ebay for legit keys. So I've been setting my family/friends up with it, a lot of them have potato computers. So far so good, and it should be overly protective given their basic internet use. Less hassles for me as well since it's so lightweight and is pretty good with Riskware/PUP.
 
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illumination

Every aspect of these facilities and their tests are misleading, and have been. To them, it's business, they are not encouraged to provide accurate information, there would be no benefit for them to do so.

I'm curious how many of these monthly posts will have same responses explaining this and still continue to be posted.
 

cruelsister

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Apr 13, 2013
3,133
I wonder what's the chance for regular home user to encounter such malware?

It is a fairly frequent risk. Consider things like Qackbot (infostealer) and H-worm (RAT) which even though a year or 2 old keep morphing and keep infecting. And to show how back most security solutions are against worms consider Conficker- still infects millions of systems annually. And scriptors like java Kryptiks, js downloaders, vbs info stealers, python keyloggers, etc never ever will get old.

Accepting primary security products that ignore worms/scriptors is even a bigger issue when one considers even well regarded 2nd opinion scanners also will blow them off. By improper security product selection one may be totally infected yet remain blissfully ignorant. Personally I find this unacceptable (but that's just me).
 

amico81

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Verified
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Well-known
Jan 10, 2017
1,061
Probably zero or something. K7 is so lightweight, I would combine it with Heimdal+OSArmor/VS as usual or just K7 and OSArmor/VS and no Heimdal, for a zero-weight, layered security approach. But for average Joe. K7 would be more than protective, especially with that robust firewall and traditional HIPS module assuming the Internet Security version is used, which does include the extra modules. (version tested was not mentioned) Not a fan of anecdotal testing BTW.

K7 is cheap on Ebay for legit keys. So I've been setting my family/friends up with it, a lot of them have potato computers. So far so good, and it should be overly protective given their basic internet use. Less hassles for me as well since it's so lightweight and is pretty good with Riskware/PUP.

I'm interested in k7....but no chance to get a cheap license for europe. not listed @ ebay or amazon or somewhere :confused:
 

Brie

Level 10
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Well-known
Jan 1, 2018
488
according to this kaspersky did not do as well as avira?!? :unsure:
 

zzz00m

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jun 10, 2017
248
After looking at Voodooshield website...

I'm wondering, why not just use Voodooshield alone and disable Windows defender (defender is heavy).

OR use voodooshield with Kaspersky or Panda free, (If you don't want to disable Windows Defender)?

You start with a clean image of Win10, Voodooshield does it's scan, and you are good to go...

I really like the whitelisting concept employed by VoodooShield, and I think it would be a great part of a layered defense, but IMO there are potential issues with relying on whitelists alone to protect your system.

Because some malware can inject itself into running processes, they could get by using an already whitelisted process, so unless you had some type of behavior blocker or anti-exploit running you could still be at risk.
 
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NulFunction

Level 2
Verified
Jun 2, 2018
96
I have one issue with this test:
Windows defender usability score should be 3 or less actually. Ever tried to find the log? It's deep inside event viewer and there is no link or mention to or of it in the menu.
You find it in Event Viewer here: "Applications and services log/Microsoft/Windows/Windows Defender/Operational" (It's not even in "Microsoft/AntiMalware/Scan-Interface" even though that would make more sense! GRRRR)
Or in "%SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs\Microsoft-Windows-Windows Defender%4Operational.evtx" (You can use that in a shortcut on your desktop, for example)

Horrible!
 
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D

Deleted member 178

Tests are marketing stuff for vendors to appeals beginners, if tests were made seriously all vendors would score 1 or 2/10. Don't mind them.
 

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