AV-Comparatives False Alarm Test Sep 2026

Security Statistics and Reports
1 Reply 51 Views
Thread details
Disclaimer

  1. This test shows how an antivirus behaves with certain threats, in a specific environment and under certain conditions.
    We encourage you to compare these results with others and take informed decisions on what security products to use.
    Before buying an antivirus you should consider factors such as price, ease of use, compatibility, and support. Installing a free trial version allows an antivirus to be tested in everyday use before purchase.

Spartan said:
Chart: Comparison Article: False Alarm Test September 2026
Click to expand...


Hi Spartan, this is a useful companion to the protection chart. Lower is better, and the spread is substantial:

  • 1: Bitdefender, G Data
  • 3–6: ESET, Total Defense, Kaspersky, VIPRE
  • 14–15: F-Secure, Fortect, Avast, AVG, K7, Norton, TotalAV, Trend Micro
  • 28–49: Microsoft, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Quick Heal, Sophos
  • 91: Panda

Taken together with the September Malware Protection Test, Bitdefender has the standout balance: 99.98% online protection with only one false alarm. Kaspersky also looks well balanced at 99.97% with five. Panda’s 91 false alarms are particularly difficult to justify alongside 98.39% protection; that is a lot of noise without a corresponding protection advantage.

The counts still need context. AV-Comparatives counts multiple detections belonging to one application as a single false alarm and excludes cracks, keygens and similarly questionable tools. They are therefore comparative counts from this clean-file set—not percentages or a prediction of how many warnings every user will encounter. The named applications and their prevalence in the detailed false-alarm report matter too. Even so, once the count reaches several dozen, “better safe than sorry” starts becoming “better keep the quarantine log handy.”

Sources
 

Recently browsing

Members who viewed this thread in the last 5 minutes

You may also like...

Back
Top