Advanced+ Rating in AV-Comparatives Proactive Test – March 2014

avc proactive march 2014Emsisoft Anti-Malware has received an Advanced+ rating in AV-Comparatives’ latest Proactive Test. This is the highest rank a participating anti-malware can receive!

About the Test

AV-Comparatives’ Proactive Test is the second half of the organization’s File Detection Test, which initially ran in March. The Proactive Test measures an anti-malware’s ability to proactively protect a computer from the latest malware threats using heuristic and behavior blocking components alone. Emsisoft Anti-Malware was one of only 13 vendors brave enough to sign up for testing. What followed was exposure to 1200 new and very prevalent malware signatures, collected nearly 3 months after the anti-malware stopped receiving updates. The task was then to prevent infection – without access to an up to date online signature database.

Advanced+ Results

Emsisoft Anti-Malware achieved an 85% Proactive Protection rate. That means that even if our software didn’t utilize a real-time, signature database capable of detecting 99.5% of everything it sees, we would still be able to protect our users from 85/100 malicious programs. An important caveat here is that many of our Proactive Protections only received “half credit” because they relied on user interaction. Were we to make an anti-malware that allowed for less user flexibility and freedom of choice, our Proactive Protection rate would soar – however so would our false positives. Just as it did in the first half of testing, Emsisoft Anti-Malware had very few false alarms: 3 to be exact, none of which came from a body of 200 of the most commonly downloaded software packages, according to AV-C.

About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an independent not-for-profit organization offering systematic testing that checks whether security software, such as PC/Mac-based antivirus products and mobile security solutions, lives up to its promises. Using one of the largest sample collections worldwide, it creates a real-world environment for truly accurate testing. AV-Comparatives offers freely accessible results to individuals, news organizations and scientific institutions. Certification by AV-Comparatives provides an official seal of approval for software performance which is globally recognized.

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Full March 2014 Retrospective/Proactive Test results available for download here.

Senan Conrad

Senan Conrad

Senan specializes in giving readers insight into the constantly and rapidly changing world of cybersecurity. When he’s not tapping away at his keyboard, he enjoys drinking a good coffee or tinkering in his workshop.

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