Serious Discussion Kaspersky received a compromise score of 0.003 in the 2026 AV Comparative malware test. What does this score mean for the average user?

[Victor M]

We ban Lada automobiles, Russian vodka, coal, steel, plus many many Russian things. But Kaspersky is legally sold in Canada. Wierd huh?

 

[nickstar1]

That's it I'm switching my AV!!! (kidding)

 

[stonjean633]

That's it I'm switching my AV!!! (kidding)

You can always switch. Just remember to pick one from the S-Tiers. Hehe
Skynet AV, Systweak AV and Siyano AV.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

Also, from a purely technical standpoint, KVRT still requires full Admin/System privileges to scan and delete files. If the vendor’s code was truly malicious or compromised, an on-demand scanner would be just as easily weaponized as a full suite.

Agree with your points you make, BUT BUT BUT you can delete KVRT files and restrict access once a scan is finished. Less risk for me=win.

One thing having a temp scan with temp files vs a Kaspersky rootkit permanently installed. Plus I would never run a KVRT scan on work files, just personal.

I have nothing against Russians or KS, in fact I admire their technical skill and protection but sadly geopolitics gets in the way of using their software.

 

[Sunshine-boy]

Agree with your points you make, BUT BUT BUT you can delete KVRT files and restrict access once a scan is finished. Less risk for me=win.

One thing having a temp scan with temp files vs a Kaspersky rootkit permanently installed. Plus I would never run a KVRT scan on work files, just personal.

I have nothing against Russians or KS, in fact I admire their technical skill and protection but sadly geopolitics gets in the way of using their software.

totally respect the geopolitical stance, man. Keeping it off your work files is definitely the smart play.

Just a quick friendly heads up on the "delete the file" part: if a tool ever did have malicious kernel access, deleting the .exe wouldn't undo registry hooks or persistent services it might have dropped in those few seconds. A backdoor doesn't need the scanner file to stay on disk to work!

Stay safe out there, regardless of the AV!

 

[Zero Knowledge]

totally respect the geopolitical stance, man. Keeping it off your work files is definitely the smart play.

Just a quick friendly heads up on the "delete the file" part: if a tool ever did have malicious kernel access, deleting the .exe wouldn't undo registry hooks or persistent services it might have dropped in those few seconds. A backdoor doesn't need the scanner file to stay on disk to work!

Stay safe out there, regardless of the AV!

Again you are correct. Personal vs Work though. KVRT on work = bad on personal = sort of OK but like you said there are risks.

 

[Brahman]

And to clarify, what I’m asking here is, what exactly does a 0.003 compromise score mean for the average Kaspersky user that relies on the security product to correct any mistakes he might make during his daily activities, such as checking emails, playing video games, and downloading necessary programs?

Should he be concerned about the compromise score in these lab tests when they involve an unrealistic amount of malware?

There is an easy way to stay protected from that "0.003%" malware: just don't download that 0.003% or execute it on your system; you are free to download and execute the remaining 99.997%. That's more than enough freedom, right?

 

[cartaphilus]

What it means for an average user?
Well it means that if you get infected by a common strain then you should watch a movie with Martin Short and Danny Glover called Pure Luck

 

[cartaphilus]

Again you are correct. Personal vs Work though. KVRT on work = bad on personal = sort of OK but like you said there are risks.

Exactly why take the risk and make it easy for them? Kaspersky will eventually retire or be retired if he doesn't cooperate so meh why take the risk?

If my disk gets encrypted and I lose data then that's on me for not maintaining a good backup. Otherwise I have nothing on my personal PC that I can't replace with an reimage from an NVME drive to an NVME drive. At 6 GB/s the reimage takes as long as it takes to make a cup of coffee.

Being in US means that I don't need a backdoor to have my PIi compromised; large data brokers do it for me by losing troves of PII data every few months or so.