MalwareTips AV Test [March 2017]

BoraMurdar

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Aug 30, 2012
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Hello, guys and gals. I am proud to introduce you with the new MalwareTips AV Test , conducted from March 1. to March 31. 2017. A lot of things has been improved starting from the testing procedures, evaluations of the new criteria, scoring and at last creation and presentation of the results. I truly hope you will like it, as a lot of time and sweat was invested by our AV Testers, and I will use this moment to thank all of them for their awesomeness! Further improvements will come in the upcoming tests. Enjoy :)



During the period from March 1. to March 31. we tested 7 security products against the malware packs posted in our Malware Hub Forum. You will find each product's report in its dedicated subforum, or following the links bellow:
____________________________________________________________________________
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – Avast Free Antivirus
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – AVG Internet Security
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – Bitdefender Free Antivirus
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – ESET Smart Security
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – Kaspersky Total Security
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – Norton Security
MalwareTips AV Test – March 2017 – Windows Defender + Immunet Free

______________________________________________________________________________

COMPARATIVE RESULTS - March 2017

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PDF
 
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Atlas147

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Awesome initiative being done here! But I think the results are a little skewed due to the methodology.

The most obvious ones are the Avast and AVG tests, being under the same company, both AVs use essentially the same technology to detect malware, they also share the same signatures, so there should be no reason that one scores better than the other.

The reason for this is due to the different test done with the AVs, AVG might have tested pack 1, 2 and 3 while Avast with pack 1, 4 and 6, therefore leading to different detection ratios.

Of course there is no exact way to fix this because the testers are all helpful volunteers from the forum and not paid companies like AV comparatives and such.

Just my constructive criticism for the site :)
 

BoraMurdar

Community Manager
Thread author
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Aug 30, 2012
6,598
Awesome initiative being done here! But I think the results are a little skewed due to the methodology.

The most obvious ones are the Avast and AVG tests, being under the same company, both AVs use essentially the same technology to detect malware, they also share the same signatures, so there should be no reason that one scores better than the other.

The reason for this is due to the different test done with the AVs, AVG might have tested pack 1, 2 and 3 while Avast with pack 1, 4 and 6, therefore leading to different detection ratios.

Of course there is no exact way to fix this because the testers are all helpful volunteers from the forum and not paid companies like AV comparatives and such.

Just my constructive criticism for the site :)
AVG was mainly tested with their Internet Security and Avast by it's Free Antivirus version. Although now they share the same signatures you can see that detection beyond signatures can differ in a number of situations. Total detection ratio between those 2 doesn't differ too much ( Avast - 84,61% , AVG - 83,33%) that's only 128 points difference, but Avast at the end protected the system state in 70% of cases, and AVG a little beyond 80%, that's more than a 1000 points difference.
 

Parsh

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Dec 27, 2016
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Big thanks to all awesome testers at MH and sir Boramurdar for the report long awaited!
Nice addition of stats we have here compared to previous reports :)

Some results may be difficult to accept but this has to be one of the most practical tests done. No testing will be accurate, but they can be as insightful as possible, with varying dates of samples.

I hope that we'll have more monthly reports plotting the performance and improvements of the AVs.
 
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Thirio

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Mar 3, 2017
126
Avast was tested against 247 samples in 20 scenarios while AVG was tested against 330 samples in 26 scenarios. IMHO this is not the proper way to compare the two products. Because Avast was tested against fewer samples it will have a lower detection rate than AVG. In theory the two products should be identical with the exception of AVG missing the hardened mode feature in Avast.

I get it though it's difficult to test two products at the same time under same circumstances. I enjoy these reports and hope to see improvement in the future. Thanks for doing this at least,keep it up and we won't need to look anywhere else for reports ;)
 

Elpibe

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Sep 26, 2015
126
Antivirus doesnt change the results according to the Windows version? Because i read a couple of months ago that 1 ex engineer of Mozilla and 1 engineer from Chrome said to "quit using 3rd companies antivirus", that windows defender was the best for Windows 8.x and 10
 

Atlas147

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Jul 28, 2014
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AVG was mainly tested with their Internet Security and Avast by it's Free Antivirus version. Although now they share the same signatures you can see that detection beyond signatures can differ in a number of situations. Total detection ratio between those 2 doesn't differ too much ( Avast - 84,61% , AVG - 83,33%) that's only 128 points difference, but Avast at the end protected the system state in 70% of cases, and AVG a little beyond 80%, that's more than a 1000 points difference.

Ah yes thank you for the clarification, but the point is not all AVs are tested equally with the same samples, therefore the results might be a little different.
 

Cats-4_Owners-2

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Dec 4, 2013
2,800
Antivirus doesnt change the results according to the Windows version? Because i read a couple of months ago that 1 ex engineer of Mozilla and 1 engineer from Chrome said to "quit using 3rd companies antivirus", that windows defender was the best for Windows 8.x and 10
@Elpibe, Compatibility may be the more accurate term than 'best' in your concerns. Although I've not graduated to the level of malware tester (yet) my impressions testing through personal use is that Windows Defender continues to be a significantly compatible option which may have more to do with it's light integrated performance than it's detection/protection results. :)
 

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