Consumer Reports: security tools test

[Negative]

CR rated them on blocking, features, and ease of use. The features rated are "Protects browser", "Protects start-up", and "Describes spy-ware".
Spybot scored "very good" on Blocking, "very good" on features", and "very good" on "ease of use." It's a Consumer Reports Quick Pick Recommendation.

F-Secure (#1) and Spy Sweeper (#2) scored "Excellent" on Blocking, "Excellent" on Features, and "Very good" on ease of use.
Spyware Doctor (#3) scored "Excellent" on Blocking, "Very good" on Features, and "Very good" on ease of use.
Trend Micro's product (#4) scored, respectively, Excellent, Excellent, and Good.
Ad-Aware (#5) scored Very good, Excellent, and Good.


Soooo... Spybot apparently doesn't pick up as much "dirt" as some of the other products; because it is free, though, it is recommended. What I like about CR is that they make it extremely easy to pick out either the absolute best performer (in this case, F-Secure) OR the best VALUE (in this case, Spybot). The vacuum test you're referring to, I assume, recommended a 50%-picker-upper over an 80%-picker-upper because the latter cost 10 times as much...

[RoadClosed]

I use commercial tools to control a bunch of users who are clueless to what lurks among email and internet sites. I would have to compare the ability to see a snap shot at the click of a mouse for the entire enterprise before I would accept perhaps a quicker update. Especially when I can force stricter policies through McAfee in the interim before patch.

Not sure why they recomended a vacuum over an expensive model, unless you could by like 7 for the cost of 1. But they have a long and trusting track record with me. Hell my walmart POS vacuum is better than a 1000 dollar Kirby some dumb ass GF I had bought years ago.

[dalek]

Not all reviews are accurate, but CR does come out the best of the bunch, however they do rely on other's for their information as well.

Seems the worst one out there was PC World's recent reviews...

Consumer Reports backs up CNET and PC Mag

The well-regarded U.S. product-testing magazine, Consumer Reports, hit the newsstands last week with its own ratings of PC security programs. The lab's testing separately rated the antivirus, antispyware, and antispam programs available from each vendor. In addition, the magazine contracted with security experts to generate 5,500 original virus variants to test behavior-based protection. CR also monitored how quickly the companies released updated signatures in real time over a period of weeks as new threats emerged on the Net.

Zone Alarm Security Suite received Consumer Reports' Quick Picks award — the magazine's version of Editors' Choice — for "the best all-around protection." Perhaps because it's well known that security suites haven't yet mastered the latest spyware, CR also gave Quick Picks awards to Webroot Spy Sweeper and PC Tools Spyware Doctor in the antispyware category (with the free Spybot as a complement).

These ratings make sense. They dovetail with CNET and PC Magazine's latest findings, both in the rankings and the award winners. Besides PC Magazine's Editors' Choice for the Zone Alarm Security Suite, for example, Editors' Choice awards also went to Webroot and PC Tools in the magazine's latest, July 2006 reviews of antispyware apps.

To be sure, it's not unusual for magazines to differ in their ratings of computer products. For one thing, PC World's tests were conducted in April using ZASS version 6.0 and the then-current versions of competing products. The other publications' latest awards are based on the newer ZASS 6.5.

But when a category is as important as security suites, and when one magazine's rankings deviate so much with no logical basis, I look for a reason.

I found the answer in personal interviews with principals at AV-Test, Symantec, McAfee, and Zone Labs. To solicit comments, I provided AV-Test and PC World with draft copies of this story. I then participated in a telephone conference call with PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken, test center director Ulrike Diehlmann, and senior associate editor Narasu Rebbapragada.

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/060810/