14 DAY TRIAL // German antivirus test lab AV-TEST published the results of a new research conducted in September and October 2017 on a total of 21 security products for Windows 10 Home, and this time the results come with a few surprises.
Just like expected, Kaspersky Lab topped this round of tests with the maximum score, as it achieved 6 points out of a maximum test for protection, performance, and usability.
But the more unexpected achievement comes from AhnLab, whose V3 Internet Security managed to match Kaspersky’s performance and also receive the top score. AhnLab thus scored better than the majority of well-known security products from Bitdefender, Symantec, Avira, and ESET.
There are four different companies that were very close to the maximum score with 17.5 points following the tests, namely Symantec, McAfee, Bitdefender, and Avira, while VIPRE Security and Trend Micro were next with a total score of 17 points.
Chinese security protection is a no-go
Symantec and McAfee products had similar performance with 6 points for protection and usability, but only 5.5 points for performance, while Bitdefender got the maximum score in the first 2 tests but was awarded only 5.5 points for usability.
Microsoft is far behind with a score of 14 points in this new round of tests, with Windows Defender outclassing Comodo’s security solution that was awarded only 13 points. Windows Defender received 5 points for protection and performance, and 4 points for usability.
AV-TEST says it also conducted two different tests on Qihoo 360 Total Security to determine the offered performance with the available configurations, namely with the default settings and with the additional Avira and Bitdefender engines enabled.
In the first test, 360 Total Security got 13 points, while using the two engines the Chinese security software somehow managed to score even worst, dropping to 10 points. Shockingly, the two antivirus engines reduced the protection score to only 1 point, with 5.5 points for performance and 3.5 points for usability.
UPDATE: Due to an error in AV-TEST's graphs, the original article stated that Qihoo 360 Total Security with the two extra engines scored worst than the default configuration. The German testing lab has confirmed for us that it's the default version the one that got the lower score. Article updated with the correct graph and info. Thank you, eric, for reporting this!
