- Apr 25, 2013
- 5,356
Very Good Malware Blocking
As with SuperAntiSpyware Professional 6.0, Panda's on-access scanning doesn't spring into action until you attempt to execute a file. Unlike SuperAntiSpyware, Panda did a good job blocking malware at launch. It deleted three quarters of the samples before they could execute.
A few of the samples did manage to launch; Panda caught some of those later in the process. Its detection rate of 86 percent is tied with Bitdefender for the best detection rate among products tested with my current sample set. Panda's overall score of 8.0 can't beat Bitdefender's 8.3 points, but it's better than the rest of the current group, includingKaspersky Anti-Virus (2015)'s 7.9 points.
Panda Free Antivirus 2015 Malware Blocking Chart
You'll note in the chart that AVG AntiVirus FREE 2014 and various others tested with my previous malware collection made a significantly better showing. That was a different set of samples, though, and the independent testing labs give very good scores to Panda, Kaspersky, and Bitdefender.
As part of my testing, I installed about 20 PCMag utilities. Panda's behavior-based malware detection identified a temporary file created by one of them as malicious, though when I looked at the detailed log it merely said "suspicious." I submitted the file to VirusTotal, to be sure it wasn't actually infected. All of the 53 antivirus engines hosted on VirusTotal gave it a clean bill of health, even Panda. You're not likely to run into this kind of problem with widely distributed software.
Excellent Malicious URL Blocking
The best way to keep malware from infesting your system is to never download it in the first place. Panda protects against malicious downloads in two ways. First, it blocks all access to known malware-hosting sites; second, it scans all downloads and immediately deletes malicious ones.
I test a product's malicious URL blocking using a feed of the very latest catches by MRG-Effitas. I launch each URL that points to an executable file and note whether the antivirus blocks the URL, zaps the downloaded file, or sits around doing nothing. Despite being just hours old, many of these URLs are already defunct. I keep trying until I've checked 100 or so URLs.
Panda blocked 64 percent of the malicious downloads, 51 percent at the URL level and 13 percent by eliminating the downloaded file. That's the second best score for an antivirus since I began this test. Top honors go to Avira Free AntiVirus (2014). You'll note that Kaspersky and Bitdefender blocked very few malicious URLs; they clearly rely more on other layers of protection.
Good Phishing Protection
The same mechanism that blocks access to malicious URLs also serves to save you from giving away your login credentials at fraudulent (phishing) URLs. In fact, the warning message is exactly the same.
When I ran the first round of my antiphishing test, Panda detected precisely nothing. My Panda contacts were able to duplicate a situation in which the URL filtering mechanism doesn't install properly. They recommended a full uninstall and reinstall to fix the situation. It worked! If you're not sure your Panda installation is filtering URLs correctly, try the Phishing Test Page supplied by the AMTSO (Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization).
When I tested it with a collection of the very newest suspected phishing URLs, Panda's detection rate lagged 19 percentage points behind Norton's. That's not the greatest, but quite a few products have done worse.
Panda Free Antivirus 2015 Antiphishing Chart
Panda came in 16 percentage points behind Firefox and 15 points behind Chrome. On the plus side, it beat Internet Explorer's SmartScreen Filter by 23 percentage points. Leave this feature turned on, but make sure your browser's antiphishing is running too.
An Excellent Choice
I have to applaud Panda for putting its full-scale protection into the entry-level free product. It gets fantastic scores from the labs and in my own hands-on tests, in both cases on par with the top commercial antivirus products. And it even comes with a number of useful bonus features. Panda Free Antivirus 2015 joins AVG AntiVirus FREE 2014 as our Editors' Choice picks for free antivirus protection.
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