Comparing Proactive Antivirus Detection
Which security product stops the most zero-day threats?
When new viruses, worms and other malicious attacks strike, traditional signatures are insufficient. Every minute you wait for an update is another minute that your computer and network are vulnerable to damage, infection, or identity theft. ThreatSense Heuristics closes the window of vulnerability by safely identifying and stopping malware as it attempts to run on your computer.ESET NOD32 Antivirus has consistently been rated as the best protection against zero-day threat and attacks by the world's leading proactive antivirus testing organizations.
- AV-Comparatives.org is an Austrian research lab that performs retrospective tests.
- AV-Test.org is a joint-research project of the University Magdeburg and AV-Test GmbH.
AV-Comparatives.org
The independent testing institution, AV-Comparatives, is an antivirus research project coordinated by Andreas Clementi with the support of the Innsbrucker Kompetenzzentrum / Computernotdienst. The AV-Comparatives.org "Retrospective/Proactive Antivirus Test" compared 11 different antivirus products' abilities to proactively identify the increasing complexity and nature of thezero-day threat. The stringent testing used recent "in-the-wild" samples and a variety of other malware, Trojans, viruses and worms affecting Windows and other operating systems. To effectively test the products for proactive detection, the organization used new malware samples, and tested them against the products without updating the antivirus signatures.Proactive Virus Threat Detection
Of the sixteen antivirus products tested across multiple categories, ESET NOD32 Antivirus received the top rank in proactive on-demand detection, and on-demand scanning speed, earning the status of Best antivirus product of 2006. ESET NOD32 Antivirus was recognized for its advanced heuristics scanning capabilities at a high rate of speed and accuracy. In contrast, many competing antivirus products consume significantly more system resources, which slow down computer and network performance and response times, resulting in poor end-user experience.AV-Comparative test results reveal that ESET NOD32 Antivirus has consistently distinguished itself with high proactive detection and performance. Security threats continue to be one of the most critical challenges confronting both enterprises and consumers. With cyber crime emerging as multi-billion dollar industry, hackers continue to look for new ways to reap financial rewards and obtain valuable intellectual property. "By the end of 2007, 75% of enterprises will be infected with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that evaded their traditional perimeter and host defenses. The threat environment is changing - financially motivated, targeted attacks are increasing, and automated malware-generation kits allow simple creation of thousands of variants quickly - but our security processes and technologies haven't kept up." (Source: Gartner's 2007 Predictions) This new online world significantly ups the ante for the baseline requirements in an anti-malware solution.
AV-Test.org
AV-Test is a joint-research project of the University Magdeburg and AV-Test GmbH. The Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg is located in Germany and has over 13,500 students. The tests are conducted in the research labs at the Workgroup Business Information Systems at the Institute of Technical and Business Information systems. Currently, the virus test lab has two professors and approximately fifteen students working regularly on virus replication, analysis and tests of antivirus products. AV-Test GmbH is a security consultancy company with a special focus on computer virus incidents.NOD 32 Detection and Performance
Source: Test performed for c't Magazine, "Die Leibwächter: 17 Virenscanner für Windows XP und Vista" by Dirk Knop (Issue 05/2007, pages 142-153), based on data of AV-Test.orgESET NOD32 Antivirus's heuristics still remain undefeated. With one-month old signatures, the scanner found nearly 80% of the threats. Even the inexperienced users can modify the settings easily. ESET NOD32 Antivirus's fast scanning speed is a definite positive, finishing the tests quickly while keeping a good detection rate of Zoo viruses. Small size of update files, fast scanning speed and accurate detection make it an all-round winner in the leading group of antivirus programs.