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AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives (www.av-comparatives.org) is one of the world's leading antivirus testing institutes. It is based in Innsbruck, Austria, and has been testing antivirus programs since 1994. They conduct various different types of test, to determine how effective the programs are at detecting all types of malicious programs (malware) under different circumstances. For some years, AV-Comparatives have been testing 16 programs; this rose to 20 in February 2010.

We believe that AV-Comparatives' tests are the most comprehensive and reliable tests being done to determine the effectiveness of antivirus programs, for the following reasons:

The same programs are tested each time, so new results appear regularly for all the main programs;

Tests are conducted at the request of each program's manufacturer, so a program will not be included in a test that the manufacturer considers unsuitable;

Tests are done using all types of malware, including viruses, worms, trojans, bots, adware and spyware;

Different types of test simulate a program's ability to detect both known and new, unknown threats, and also simulate the average user's real-life experience of surfing the Internet in the "real-world" Dynamic Tests;

Performance Tests are conducted to see how much an antivirus program slows down the PC it's protecting.

Consequently, we regards AV-Comparatives' tests as the best source of information available on the effectiveness of antivirus progams, and are grateful to them for permission to publish their test results. If you would like to find out more about AV-Comparatives and their tests, please visit their website .

 

Other leading antivirus testing institutes

AV-Test

AV-Test (www.av-test.org) is based in Magdeburg, Germany, and was founded in 2004. Like AV-Comparatives, it is widely regarded as conducting highly effective tests on antivirus programs. Many of its tests are commissioned by computer magazines, whose editors decide which programs are to be tested. As different computer magazines ask for different programs to be tested, it is more difficult to find regular reports on all antivirus programs. For this reason, we have used AV-Comparatives' results as the basis for our recommendations here, despite the excellence of AV-Test's research.

 

Virus Bulletin

Virus Bulletin (www.virusbtn.com), based in Abingdon, England, gives awards called VB100 to programs which identify 100% of viruses and worms from the Wildlist collection. Whilst Virus Bulletin is widely recognised as an excellent virus-testing institute, and the VB100 tests are highly regarded, it should be noted that they only cover self-replicating malware (viruses and worms). Today, these threats represent less than 25% of all the malicious programs in circulation. Thus, a VB100 award does NOT mean that an antivirus program will recognise 100% of dangerous programs.

 

Last updated: 27th March 2010 18:25

 

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