Do you trust antivirus testing companies?

Do you trust anti virus testing companies?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 27.6%
  • No

    Votes: 21 72.4%

  • Total voters
    29
I

illumination

In regards to professional testing done by testing labs and independent organizations they do have value, and some them use a comprehensive methodology within a state of the art environment, but this BIG plus is also its biggest weakness because while the usually test individual modules within a security application, they usually do not test the whole program across its full spectrum.
So its not uncommon that for example: Antivirus X receives high scores for its detection based upon the performance of its scanning module, yet in the real world that same scanning module might perform WAY WAY less, due to the fact that the rest of the application is not performing well.



Kind Regards Nico

Exactly why i said in my previous post in this thread, that most of their testing methodologies are poor.
 

Deleted

New Member
Thread author
Sep 4, 2014
6
Their malware packs don't represent the malware in the real world.
What do you think of AV-Comparative's "Real-World Protection Tests"? I don't think they are that real world in my opinion.

Most of these "testing companies" are biased and use poor testing methodologies. Personally, i would not place my trust in them.
Which would you say are biased and use poor testing methodologies?

Besides how can you trust most reviews when all the main AV products have an affiliate program based either on pay per lead or sales commission whereas MS does not ! :eek: ... so if you own a AV comparison site and you earn your bread and butter from the Internet surely your going to rave about and give a good result to the product that is paying you the most commission ?

That doesn't mean that am not going to trust independent lab tests, I simply trust them more than the individual member tests.

What I meant to say is any antivirus that consistently scores good in independent lab results, instead of the many new products that comes out time and again. I was also trying to say that any of these "x" antiviruses should be good enough to protect you, rather than switching from one to another after you see a test result. Moreover in a home environment you don't really need to go for paid antiviruses that scores top in most of the tests, so the Top 5 differs in that way too.
Do you know any comparatives in particular that don't rank av's higher because they pay them more or comparatives that are known for ranking av's higher because they pay them more? Also, so you are saying that it is ok to use comparatives as part of your decision making process as long as you go with the antivirus that consistently scores well?

For everyone who thinks comparatives are not trustworthy, wouldn't there be some trustworthy ones out there? Couldn't you look at many comparatives tests and see which ones have a consistent winner (ex: all say bitdefender has a good file detection rate). Also, what do you guys think of using websites like PCMag that have "Best antivirus" articles?
 
I

illumination

Which would you say are biased and use poor testing methodologies?

Well lets look at something here. These companies charge the vendors to do the test, some even charge more for publishing "good results'
If a vendor scores poorly and wishes for their results to not be published, they are not published. It is a proven fact that every vendor has it's good times and bad times from month to month, detection rates can rise and fall, rarely ever stable.

Just taking these facts into count, can you view the picture of how money and these companies could manipulate outcomes?

Now back to their methodologies, as stated above more clearly by n.nvt, when they do test, they do not test the whole product.

Now there may be a couple testing companies i may have never heard of or come across, and this is why i stated "most" instead of all, and as such, would not be able to claim 100% they are all like this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FreddyFreeloader
R

RevolutionSphere

Nope, I prefer to see video proof or make my own judgement from using the product itself.
 

Behold Eck

Level 15
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jun 22, 2014
717
Well i am not sure about the commission as money has to role and nothing is for free.
In regards to MSE and pay per lead and bla bla bla.
Microsoft has tried to shove MSE so far up windows users ars that one could taste it.....
Really if people only would knew what MSE and Windows Defender really do on the background then you would see why MS still keeps those 2 fail programs around.
Even for a home users MSE and Windows Defender has not a single benefit and does not add a single shred of security.

Your right about business users but to say mse has zero benefit for home users is ludicrous.Not that I `m saying it`s good but I can remember when windows did`nt even ship with a firewall these days it comes with it`s own security suite.

Perhaps you are just annoyed that they`re not using whatever security product you represent ?

Back on topic, yes and no.Both video and lab tests should be taken with a pinch of salt but they both can give you a bit of an inkling for a particular product.

Regards Eck:)
 
  • Like
Reactions: FreddyFreeloader

nissimezra

Level 25
Verified
Apr 3, 2014
1,460
Well i am not sure about the commission as money has to role and nothing is for free.
In regards to MSE and pay per lead and bla bla bla.
Microsoft has tried to shove MSE so far up windows users ars that one could taste it.....
Really if people only would knew what MSE and Windows Defender really do on the background then you would see why MS still keeps those 2 fail programs around.
Even for a home users MSE and Windows Defender has not a single benefit and does not add a single shred of security.
it is not that bad. it does give some protection. it use to be better but still not that bad.
 

Nico@FMA

Level 27
Verified
May 11, 2013
1,687
Your right about business users but to say mse has zero benefit for home users is ludicrous.Not that I `m saying it`s good but I can remember when windows did`nt even ship with a firewall these days it comes with it`s own security suite.

Perhaps you are just annoyed that they`re not using whatever security product you represent ?

Back on topic, yes and no.Both video and lab tests should be taken with a pinch of salt but they both can give you a bit of an inkling for a particular product.

Regards Eck:)

LOL since when am i representing a security product like MSE? I am most thankful for their MSE and UBER security as thanks to this great security my own developed program is needed. So i support them 100% ..please add more fail antivirus, please add more fail browsers... please add more fail updates and other tweaks.
Because that provides me with lots of work...... sounds like a deal to me, so what makes you think that i am annoyed?

But aside that...

Windows is a operating system and while it has flaws the OS itself is good. MS should stick with just making the OS.
Virtually everything they added, Media Player, Video Maker, Firewall, Anti-spy/vir/malware, browser, email client and so on can be replaced by a third party that is in every regard a 1000 times better. Trying to control the market and offering addons to their OS so it becomes a complete package does not mean it actually does add anything to the OS.

Look at their firewall, while standard and generally ok it is security wise and control wise CRAP.
Look at W-defender its a joke, look at MSE it does offer a minimal level of security yet it does not know the difference between a text file and a simple malware. But it does send your browser habits, passwords and user history for free to MS so the can place ads... and sell your profile.

That said if they want to make additional products to enhance their OS then FINE, but at least let them try to make something solid and give users a choice if they want it or not.

IE is forced, WMP is forced, FW is forced, W-Defender is forced but ill guess that getting infected using their tools is forced to right?
Do you really want me to continue?

Anyway sure their tools work and provide a tiny bit of security, but just the average trojan, malware, virus is already to much for MSE.
So what it does is give you a placebo effect no more no less.
Granted to the clueless user anything is better then having nothing at all.

Cheers
 

Deleted

New Member
Thread author
Sep 4, 2014
6
short answer
not anymore
after testing the 100% panda I stopped trusting them
Not sure if I'm incorrect but their tests may not be using zero day malware and I heard that Panda is good but weak with zero day threats because one computer must be infected with it first before it will be rolled out to the cloud. So those tests could be accurate if they are not using zero day malware.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nissimezra

Behold Eck

Level 15
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jun 22, 2014
717
LOL since when am i representing a security product like MSE? I am most thankful for their MSE and UBER security as thanks to this great security my own developed program is needed. So i support them 100% ..please add more fail antivirus, please add more fail browsers... please add more fail updates and other tweaks.
Because that provides me with lots of work...... sounds like a deal to me, so what makes you think that i am annoyed?

But aside that...

Windows is a operating system and while it has flaws the OS itself is good. MS should stick with just making the OS.
Virtually everything they added, Media Player, Video Maker, Firewall, Anti-spy/vir/malware, browser, email client and so on can be replaced by a third party that is in every regard a 1000 times better. Trying to control the market and offering addons to their OS so it becomes a complete package does not mean it actually does add anything to the OS.

Look at their firewall, while standard and generally ok it is security wise and control wise CRAP.
Look at W-defender its a joke, look at MSE it does offer a minimal level of security yet it does not know the difference between a text file and a simple malware. But it does send your browser habits, passwords and user history for free to MS so the can place ads... and sell your profile.

That said if they want to make additional products to enhance their OS then FINE, but at least let them try to make something solid and give users a choice if they want it or not.

IE is forced, WMP is forced, FW is forced, W-Defender is forced but ill guess that getting infected using their tools is forced to right?
Do you really want me to continue?

Anyway sure their tools work and provide a tiny bit of security, but just the average trojan, malware, virus is already to much for MSE.
So what it does is give you a placebo effect no more no less.
Granted to the clueless user anything is better then having nothing at all.

Cheers

I must admit to being a tad provocative in my previous post, nothing more than that.

Yes it was the clueless user I meant as for ms creations I cant even uninstall win defender on win 7 and every time I go avless it restarts itself until I discover it and disable it again.

IE is so rooted deep into windows that if/when it gets compromised the whole system is up for grabs and dont start me on that bing thing and so on so forth.

Regards Eck:)
 

RmG152

Level 12
Verified
Jan 22, 2014
577
Windows is a operating system and while it has flaws the OS itself is good. MS should stick with just making the OS.
Virtually everything they added, Media Player, Video Maker, Firewall, Anti-spy/vir/malware, browser, email client and so on can be replaced by a third party that is in every regard a 1000 times better. Trying to control the market and offering addons to their OS so it becomes a complete package does not mean it actually does add anything to the OS.

Look at their firewall, while standard and generally ok it is security wise and control wise CRAP.
Look at W-defender its a joke, look at MSE it does offer a minimal level of security yet it does not know the difference between a text file and a simple malware. But it does send your browser habits, passwords and user history for free to MS so the can place ads... and sell your profile.

If Microsoft wants can make the best Media Player, Video Maker, Antivirus (MSE engine it's better than much others*), etc.
But Microsoft doesn't want to lose money, Microsoft fear Anti-Monopoly laws, etc.
 

Nico@FMA

Level 27
Verified
May 11, 2013
1,687
If Microsoft wants can make the best Media Player, Video Maker, Antivirus (MSE engine it's better than much others*), etc.
But Microsoft doesn't want to lose money, Microsoft fear Anti-Monopoly laws, etc.

MSE engine is based upon the Gaint Anti spyware engine which they purchased some years ago, then redeveloped it under the code name Morro.
From this project Windows Live Care, And Windows Forefront where born, next to Windows Defender.
The idea was to have Smartscreen, Windows Firewall and Defender + MSE work together to block malware however this project failed so massively that now years later only Smartscreen and Windows Firewall can be considered a success in terms of security.
MSE engine has always been rather good as Gaint the original developer of the engine did have a rock solid product, yet MS did screw it up in a very bad way. So NO you are wrong the MSE engine is a joke.

In regards to MS making everything the best i can say that NO they cannot make everything the best, for the plain and simple reason that their OS does not allow it configuration and stability wise.
One of the many reasons why Windows releases so many new versions in a rather rapid succession is because they are searching a way to bring all these tools into one OS without sacrificing speed, stability and so on... yet they fail time after time, and Windows Vista and Windows 8 are both a prime example.
Third party programs do not have to deal with limitations that MS does have to deal with developer wise, not to mention the many many bugs and exploits that are available to hammer down Windows.

In regards to MS losing money and Anti-Monopoly laws the simple truth is that there was a time when MS was producing first class software, so people did have to use their stuff as there was nothing out there that did come close to what they did offer, today these things are very different as MS is still the number one market wise, but when it comes to additional software they are falling behind.
MS does have nothing to fear other then their own demons they created many years ago, and while some lessons have been learned Windows 8 did proof beyond the reasonable doubt that some Demons still are around and noone is to blame for it other then MS itself.
This applies for most of their products. Some years ago people did accept more from MS as they did not have alternative options.
So they where forced to go with whatever MS did come up with.
Today there are MANY alternative options to windows additional software and 90% is better then anything MS has come up with yet.
Look at the browser market, the only reason IE scores high is due to the fact people cannot remove it and cannot turn it off, so it shows as being used as website logging tools will read the computer info and detect IE as being installed prior to any other browser that might be active, yet people do not use it and use FF, Chrome or Opera instead.

Windows Media player is the same thing, people use other alternatives yet they are still bound to the OS sound engine and codex provided by WMP engine... so again in the statistics is shown WMP while users might use something else.

MSE again is one of the most used AV programs, not because people actually use it but its because in most versions it comes pre packed and keeps running on the background while doing nothing good to your PC.

Windows Fw, and many other Windows addons are exactly the same way.
As i said before the reality is different, here search MT or make a topic and ask the people how many actually do use IE then you will see that if you have to believe the MS statistics then at least 7 our of 10 should use it day by day.
But i tell you that for the sake of argument when MT has lets say 500 members you would be hard pressed to find 50 that actually use IE as their main browser.
See my point?

Anyway if you do not mind shall we go back to the main topic?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xtwillight

About us

  • MalwareTips is a community-driven platform providing the latest information and resources on malware and cyber threats. Our team of experienced professionals and passionate volunteers work to keep the internet safe and secure. We provide accurate, up-to-date information and strive to build a strong and supportive community dedicated to cybersecurity.

User Menu

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to know first about the latest cybersecurity incidents and malware threats.

Top