During the 3rd quarter of 2010 we have tested 19 security products in the areas protection, repair and usability. The "Protection" covers static and dynamic malware detection, including real-world 0-Day attack testing. In case of "Repair", we check the system disinfection and rootkit removal in detail. The "Usability" testing includes the system slow-down caused by the tools and the number of false positives. A product has to reach at least 12 points total in order to receive a certification. 13 products have fulfilled our requirements and received an AV-Test certificate. The test reports can be found here:
Avast did not seem to do too well in protection part of the test.
I’m also underwhelmed and concerned. Maybe this is an indication of why the use of both avast and MSE keeps coming up. Vlk indicated in a blog that they should work together. http://blog.avast.com/2009/08/28/greetings-from-redmond/
Mhh. The test is very strange.
Is the protection really so bad with xp? I bought a IS Security Suite 3 days ago for my xp-computers. I hope this was no mistake
Experience. avast! is one of the best AV as today. Remember that v5 was rewritten and need some time to establish the best compatibility, function, and all elements necessary to work as best as possible. We hope that this will come soon, at the end of November with v5.1 (in beta version).
You believe the test that you put it to on your own system, over a period of usage.
Av-comparatives is possibly the main av testing organization. Browse a few of their tests, and look at them over a period.
One test on it’s own means nothing.
Several showing the same sort of trend, provided the testing methodology is valid (something I don’t know for this organization-the one linked above, that is) might be worth doing something about. I had not heard of AV-Test.org before now, so have nothing to base an opinion on their specific tests on.
Avast has not let me down. It consistently scores (usually) very well at av-comparatives. That’s good enough for this user.
Ok, i believe in avast. I like the performance of the system when avast is running in the background.
That is also one of the most important point, that i have deinstall avira and change two of my computer to avast.
It is a little disappointing. It is only one test though. I am confident that version 5.1 will protect better against zero day threats. What perplexes me is how GData does better in this test than Avast! Don’t they use the same scan engine? I wonder what they are doing different?
@Hexo,
One thing that can (and should) be done is a little system hardening. This can be as simple as installing a hosts file, or disabling scripting in the browser. (There is an elegant add-on for Firefox that manages that quite painlessly.)
A hosts file is analogous to definitions, in that it will prevent an internet connection to known bad sites. (The keyword being known.)
Disabling scripting will prevent drive by downloads, regardless of the so-called signature. It does mean that a lot of content and therefore functionality of a typical website might not load correctly, so needs a little learning to implement.
The other really important thing is keeping everything up to date and patched.
An AV can not, in this day and age, prevent everything. Not without some “FP-type” prompts to examine and respond to.
Between AV-Comparatives and AV-Test i would pick Comparatives instead. Because Test look strange to my eyes i dont know but last time i guess i did seen a test but its was too funny to see. Its was almost like only write but no scientific proof has been made for really see that they did test it.
I can promise you avast! has been on my pc for years 4.7 (i guess) to 5.0 and all his version never make fail my pc.
For me i say avast! is easy to install/uninstall, good detection, almost no false positive, fast scan, low ram, etc…
So why go see another product im sure avast! care for you and they work hard on the product for keep you secure. They are maybe no “Jesus” but they try as best as they can. Remember they got a family also so if a virus is missed then send them and as soon they get on then they check it.
I posted the test for people’s information and to get some thoughts on why it might have not down that well. I have had avast! on my computer for a long time and I will continue to use it. No antivirus is perfect. Just practice safe HEX and use a layered security approach. avast! has caught a lot of web sites with bad scripts during my browsing. It has not let me down yet. I should mention that I am talking about the free version. Can’t wait for version 6 and the cloud.
yeah i just read the report,
avast have really low score (20% from 20 samples) on Blocking of malware on or post execution (Dynamic Detectiong Testing) while the average is 50%, pc tools score 100%, and mse score the same is avast
I wouldn’t worry too much and Avast holds its position very well in the company of the big boys, but doesn’t weigh down the computer like they do. No AV picks up all threats, especially all new 0-day threats, and the main technologies behind AV softwares (i.e. signatures, behaviorial analysis)are always having to play catch up.
Besides being diligent with safety, I would suggest you get your browser behind a sandboxing software. Sandboxie is is one of the favorites but I prefer the one in AIS for its ease of use.
If you just have to do unsafe stuff with your computer there is software like Returnil System Safe and Shadow Defender that offer a great deal of protection with minimal effort. Or just use Linux on another partition and then go inside a virtual machine for unsafe stuff.
In regular use Chrome sandboxes the HTML and Javascript rendering engines, which is how it can make tabs. It is not the same as using Sandboxie or the Avast sandbox. However, I think when you go into Incognito Mode you are pretty much “sandboxed” and much safer from various exploits, but this is less user friendly than Avast’s sandbox. Google bought a company called GreenBorder which made a very good sandbox software comparable to Sandboxie. I think that’s where the Incognito Mode must come from. I’m not 100% sure so please forgive me for any errors.
In my travels in Internet security, the ultimate combined safety and usability comes from Chrome behind Avast’s sandbox, with the downloads location, bookmarks and browsing history separated from the sandbox. I just have to be careful with what I download.
Anyway, back on topic, I bet if AV-Test.org were to test against Internet malware with Chrome sandboxed by Avast the result would be very different.
