Consumer Reports: security tools test

Consumer Reports in its September edition has published a test of 12 anti-virus tools, 12 anti spyware tools, and 13 anti spam tools.

From "Our unique antivirus testing: how we did it"

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To see how quickly software makers update their signature lists, we gave all of the products Internet access. Then we spent weeks closely monitoring each product and noted how early, if at all, the manufacturer equipped it to detect newly discovered viruses.

[...]

To pit the software against novel threats not identified on signature lists, we created 5,500 new virus variants derived from six categories of known viruses, the kind you'd most likely encounter in real life.

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Finally, to see how often the antivirus software raised false alarms by identifying benign files as viral, we scanned more than 100,000 clean files.

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As for the results:

Both BitDefender Standard and Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Antivirus scored excellent (87% and 85%, respectively) on detection; along with Kaspersky's Anti-Virus Personal, they are recommended.

The overall scores (Detection, Features, Ease of Use, Speed):
1. BitDefender Standard - 87%
2. Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Antivirus - 85%
3. Kaspersky Labs Anti-Virus Personal - 82%
4. Norton Antivirus - 80%
5. Norton Antivirus for Macintosh - 80%
6. McAfee VirusScan - 77%
7. Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security - 75%
8. Alwil Avast! Antivirus - 68%
9. F-Secure Anti-Virus - 66%
10. Panda Software Titanium AV - 64%
11. CA/eTrust EZ Antivirus - 57%
12. PC Tools AntiVirus - 41%

For Antispyware:
1. F-Secure Anti-Spyware 2006 - 89%
2. Webroot Spy Sweeper 4.5 - 89%
3. PC Tools Spyware Doctor 3.8 - 88%
4. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3 - 85%
5. Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Plus 1.06 - 79%
6. Spybot Search and Destroy 1.4 - 77%
7. Zone Labs Zone Alarm 6.5 - 76%
8. Sunbelt Software CounterSpy - 70%
9. CA/eTrust Pest Patrol - 67%
10. BitDefender Antispyware 9 - 51%
11. McAfee AntiSpyware 2006 - 44%
12. Microsoft Windows Defender (beta 1) - 43%

Hi Neg...hope you don't mind...thought I would provide another opinion piece..

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Looking for the Right Antivirus, Part V | Best Antivirus of 2006!
The series has reached the end of the road. I've made my decision about the Best Antivirus Product of 2006.

For those of you coming late to this party, over the last six months or so the newsletter has pursued an ongoing series on alternative antivirus packages. Back in December 2005 I wrote that I'd given up on Norton Antivirus and had been testing alternative antivirus utilities since the summer of 2005.

During the last year of testing, I've examined a wide range of antivirus product, and I've explored the features and options of many others. Products tested during this period include Avast 4.6 free and 4.7 Pro, AVG 7.1 Pro and Network Editions, BitDefender 9 Standard and 10 RC1, CA EZ Antivirus and eTrust Antivirus r8, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2006 and Internet Security 2006, Kaspersky 5 and 6, Nod32 2.5, Panda Titanium 2006 and Platinum 2006, and ZoneAlarm Antivirus. I've considered the features and specs of at least a dozen other products and rejected them because something didn't meet my ideal antivirus criteria.

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http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/83.htm#avv

He took Bit Defender off of his review, so I guess a lot of these are subjective eh!

I knew someone would post something like that :D

I think we all know by now that everybody on the entire Internet has a differing opinion on what the best anti-virus product is... I'll go with the testing done by the leading independent consumer union in the world, rather than with Scot's, though - sorry, Scot :p

Hey, Neg! Was there a link to the article, or do you have to be a paid subscriber?

Or, was this from the printed mag?

It's in the September print issue. Last year's results are online ( http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/e...ware/index.htm ), but not the new ones (yet).

Wow. Trend has really dropped from last year (I have the corporate 2006 version), it's good to see the free Avast is holding it's own against the heavy weights, and it is surprising to see F-Secure at #9 for AV and #1 for Antispyware....

Seeing Windows Defender as last for Antispyware is surprising as their Antispyware Beta was fairly decent, maybe switching to Defender has become a low priority for them... :rolleyes:

I'm going to have to find the magazine and see just which versions were tested and what the criteria was. There are differenced in function and support between the consumer products and the enterprise products. And, some freebie versions are crippleware compared to the commercial versions. So, apples to apples comparison may not be possible.

AVG's not on there...

That's interesting that Zone Alarm did well. Considering I often see them downgraded by other leading mega magazines with deep pockets. I am with Negative, the Consumers Union and their laboratories are extremely independent and extremely kick ass. They don't mess around.

Another interesting note is that Spybot is down in the middle. I find it extremely useful. Windows defender? Well it's better than nothing.

Hmm thanks Neg, my enterprise license is comming due.

Hey, Road, that's why I want to see the article. CR does some pretty good comparisons, sometimes. Sometimes you wonder what they were thinking.

I remember a vaccuum comparison in the 80's. They put their stamp of approval on the cheap vaccuum that took out just 50% of the dirt, and diss'd the more expensive machine that got 80% of the dirt. If you made your purchase decision from that, you were condemned to eternal filth.

Why did some of those apps score lower than others. Spybot is the go-to (and free) tool, but they rank it in the middle. Does the automatic updates make the other better? I still run shy of commercial spyware tools, simply because I've heard too many stories, even now, of commercial tools caving to pressure to not treat some things as spyware.