Hey all, am using Avast, which is indeed my favorite AV. But the tests conducted at av-comparatives.org showed that Avast fared the poorest in retrospective tests barring PCTools and was not even considered for the same test conducted this month. What is meant by a Retrospective test and what effect it has on an AV’s capabilities. Also Avast scored only an ADV in both PUP and whole product dynamic tests
The retrospective tests don’t reflect real usage of avast.
Whilst av-comparatives is one of the better testing facilities, personally I still go on how avast protects me in real life rather than in on-demand tests. The web shield and network shields don’t even get a work out as they are capable of blocking malicious sites and detecting sites which have been hacked.
It is these hacks, etc. that redirect to malicious sites and download malware. Now avast doesn’t have to know what that malware is or might be at the other end if the web shield is finding the exploit/hacked/inserted script and blocking it…
I read the PDF. Basically, they wanted to find out how good each
A/V product is at detecting malware using generic or heuristic methods,
when there is not a pattern for it in the database yet.
To do this, they froze each package on Feb 22nd and fed it new malware that appeared
over the next one or two weeks (approx).
We know what was said (it is on every retrospective test), but it really doesn’t replicate real life and doesn’t use the power of both of the shields mentioned to combat malware on the internet that could be blocked even if avast didn’t have a signature for it.
Since most infections still come from the internet these shields provide excellent protection, which can’t really be tested in on-demand scans.