AV-Comparatives malware removal test

[YeOldeStonecat]

Interesting reading, seeing how well a bunch of AV products do at cleaning a system infected with a # of popular in the wild malware.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/removal-tests

eScan, Microsoft, and Symantec took the top 3 spots.

Go Microsoft MSE!

 

[gimp]

and I was just there looking for recent tests with MSE.

Guess I didn't check all the sections!

 

[evilsofa]

Wish they had tested Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware; I'd like to know how it compared. It was interesting to see that none of the tested programs removed all traces of all 10 malwares.

Remember, detection and prevention of attempts to infect a protected system is an entirely different situation than removing an existing infection. Far better to not have to remove it in the first place.

eScan, Microsoft, and Symantec took the top 3 spots.

Incorrect. You missed the vital phrase "In no particular order". The six products that took the top slot were eScan, Symantec, Microsoft, F-Secure, Kapersky and BitDefender.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Wish they had tested Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware; I'd like to know how it compared. It was interesting to see that none of the tested programs removed all traces of all 10 malwares.

Incorrect. You missed the vital phrase "In no particular order". The six products that took the top slot were eScan, Symantec, Microsoft, F-Secure, Kapersky and BitDefender.

The "AV" in AV-Comparatives is for "AntiVirus". Malwarebytes is a malware removal tool, but not antivirus.

And not "incorrect"..I mentioned the top 3 spots. Simple reasoning because only 3x products in their very easy to read chart at the bottom of the article received a good/good rating. Those 3 were the 3 I mentioned.

There were 6x products that received their "Advanced +" rating, yes, and they actually were in a particular order. Note that they listed those 6 products not in alphabetical order, but in order of ratings on their easy to read chart above the award lists.

 

[InvisiBill]

The "AV" in AV-Comparatives is for "AntiVirus". Malwarebytes is a malware removal tool, but not antivirus.

In that case, what's an AV program doing messing with malware? Typically malware has very little in common with a virus, other than both being things you don't want on your system. If I'm trying to remove malware, I'd personally rather have a program made to remove malware than one made to keep viruses from infecting my system.

I think most people now consider all of these products "anti-bad-software" apps. As such, I think any good test should include any relevant "anti-bad-software" app. It's like not including the Prius in a gas mileage comparison for commuter cars because it's a hybrid rather than a gasoline-engine car. Yes, it's technically a little different, but it has a lot in common and serves the same purpose. You may have to take into account other factors (like battery maintenance costs on the Prius and the fact that Malwarebytes is a mainly a cleanup tool) to get a good, full comparison. However, I think that not including a product made specifically for the task of malware cleanup because it's technically not an AV program is a little deceptive.

I had to play devil's advocate a bit here, but it just seems like sort of a stupid test. Let's test which screwdriver works the best for hammering nails, and we'll exclude hammers from the test because we're a screwdriver testing place. Wouldn't it be better to test all available tools to see which one best achieves the goal? Instead they're testing a subset of tools which happens to meet one unrelated criterion (being an AV program).

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I think most people now consider all of these products "anti-bad-software" apps. As such, I think any good test should include any relevant "anti-bad-software" app. .

Yeah many antivirus products have been adding adware/spyware to the areas they cover over the past few years. Eset got on that bandwagon early on with their NOD32 product, calling it "anti-threat" instead of just "anti-virus". Other AV vendors have been following suite over the past few years.

It's good to have 1 program that covers both areas. Imagine having to have 3 or 4 or 6 resident programs instead, 1 for antivirus, another for anti adware, another for anti spyware, and another for anti rootkits, perhaps another for anti keyloggers, and another for anti backdoor IRC bot.