Blog Edmonton Tek |

Feb08

Microsoft Security Essentials Tanks Another Antivirus Test

posted by Store

Microsoft Security Essentials has once again proven that it’s not adequate for protecting a user’s computer, after failing another antivirus test by scoring well below competitors’ products. Dennis Technology Labs evaluated eight major antivirus programs from October to December 2012, awarding each program both a total accuracy rating and a protection rating, and in their testing they found Microsoft Security Essentials to be significantly worse than the other seven products on the test bed.

The total accuracy rating measures how a product manages to protect a system against malware, but also how it handles legitimate applications. Dennis Technology Labs awards points for stopping threats and allowing legitimate programs to be installed and run, while subtracting points when a threat fails to be stopped and when legitimate files are handled incorrectly.

Total accuracy ratings can range from a maximum of 400 down to -1000: Microsoft Security Essentials scored a paltry 30 in this arena, while other products such as Norton Internet Security 2013 – which scored 388.5 – almost reached the maximum score. Awards are handed out for programs that perform to a decent standard, ranging from AAA to C, however Microsoft Security Essentials performed so poorly that it didn’t qualify for any of the awards. All the other products gained an award, and five of them gained at least an A.

Next up was the protection ratings, which ranked a product on how it performed at handling malware only. Here points were awarded for neutralizing and defending against malware, while points were removed if a threat managed to run on a system; the best attainable score here was 300 and the worst was -500. Microsoft Security Essentials scored -70, the only program to score negatively, while most other programs scored between 250 and 300.

When looking more closely at the data given, it turns out MSE only protected against 59% of the sample range of threats, while the average was 92% protection and Trend Micro Internet Security 2013 managed a perfect score of 100% protection. On the positive side, Microsoft Security Essentials did not report any false positives during testing, the only product aside from Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 that managed this feat.

It should be noted here that MSE was the only free anti-malware solution tested, but even so it goes to show how inadequate Microsoft’s product is against a proper paid anti-virus application. If you were going only by Dennis Technology Labs’ tests, you should replace MSE with either Norton Internet Security 2013, ESET Smart Security 5 or Kaspersky Internet Security 2013, which were the top three best performing programs.

Source: Dennis Technology Labs (PDF) via: PCMag

Jan23

Android malware to reach 1 million cases in 2013

posted by Store

The amount of malicious Android apps will reach 1 million specimens in 2013, if predictions from Trend Micro’s annual security report are to be believed. The Japanese security company announced that in 2012 they detected 350,000 “malicious and high-risk Android app samples”, which was a significant increase over the paltry 1,000 apps detected in 2011, but they expect to detect a further 650,000 pieces of malware in the upcoming year.

What took the Windows malware market 14 years to achieve, Android has managed in just three years. Trend Micro reports that the same kind of threats seen in the early PC malware days are being seen in Android today, including aggressive adware that sells user data, as well as premium service abusers that send expensive premium SMS messages to recoup monthly fees. In 2012, 605 Android malware families were detected, and this is expected to grow in 2013.

Premium service abusers were the most abundant threats in 2012, with adware, data stealers and malicious downloaders also topping the charts with significant figures. Most Android malware is disguised as a popular app, tricking unsuspecting users into downloading it before proceeding on their malicious paths; Trend Micro found rouge versions of popular apps such as Bad Piggies, Angry Birds Space and Instagram among others.

Interestingly – and quite rightly – Trend Micro includes aggressive ad networks as part of their malware count, with any app that gathers user data without notification, or pushes adverts through notifications, being marked as adware. They say the “aggressive display of ads is reminiscent of Windows adware, which have been plaguing desktops and laptops and annoying users with pop-up messages.”

In 2013, Trend Micro predicts a range of new types of malicious Android attacks, which include:

New delivery methods including abusing social networking apps and synced accounts
QR code abuse
Combined mobile/desktop attacks, particularly targeting online banking
More rootkits for avoiding malware detection
Abusing new payment methods including NFC

The company also has advice for people wanting to protect their devices from attacks, which includes using built-in security methods, reading app permissions and potentially investing in a security app, which Trend Micro just so happens to make.

Source: Trend Micro (PDF) | Graphs from Trend Micro’s report

Jan16

Microsoft Security Essentials fails AV-Test certification (again)

posted by Store

Once again, Microsoft Security Essentials has failed AV-Test’s antivirus certification, after not meeting the criteria to pass their December 2012 testing suite. AV-Test conducts antivirus software testing every month, pitting 25 programs against 0-day attacks and known malware while also testing the repair capabilities of the software and its usability. To pass certification, the app must score at least 11 out of a possible 18 points across the three tested categories; MSE scored 10 and so just managed to fail the criteria.

Security Essentials failed largely due to poor protection against 0-day real-world attacks, protecting against only 78% of attacks. While this may not sound particularly bad, and it’s an improvement over 71% protection of November, it still falls well short of the industry average 92% protection in this area. MSE also failed to meet the industry average detection of malware discovered in the last 2-3 months, scoring just 90% compared to an average of 97% across other suites. An overall poor Protection score of just 1.5/6.0 meant MSE couldn’t manage the required 11 points.

MSE was one of three antivirus suites that failed the certification in December 2012, the others being AhnLab with a measly score of 8.5 and PC Tools Internet Security with 10. While MSE is a free suite, it does not excuse its poor performance in testing, as many other free programs such as Avast, AVG’s Free Edition, ZoneAlarm and Panda Cloud all gained certification.

When it comes to the best antivirus suite, the winner once again was Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 which scored 16.5 out of 18. Kaspersky’s antivirus suite and Symantec’s Norton suite also scored highly, passing certification with 16 points, while numerous other applications managed to improve their scores in this round of testing.

It should be noted here that AV-Test performed all antivirus testing on Windows 7, so it’s unclear if the integrated implementation of Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 8 performs any better than the standalone free suite for Windows 7.

Source: AV-Test

Nov29

Microsoft Security Essentials loses AV-Test certificate

posted by Store

Every two months, AV-Test takes a look at popular antivirus software and security suites and tests them in several ways. In their latest test which was performed on Windows 7 during September and October, Microsoft Security Essentials didn’t pass the test to achieve certification. Although that may not sound that impressive, Microsoft’s program was the only one which didn’t receive AV-Test’s certificate. For comparison, the other free antivirus software, including Avast, AVG and Panda Cloud did.

There are three categories where the programs receive points: protection, repair and usability. When added all up, the software needs to have at least 11 out of 18 points to pass the test. Security Essentials only got 10,5 points, which brings up the question: What’s the cause?

It seems that Security Essentials failed to recognize enough zero-day threats with detection rates of only 69% in September and 64% in October, where the average is 89%. The rest of the scores remain largely unchanged when compared to the previous test. It’s only honest to mention though that most of the programs tested scored lower than in May and June.

Bitdefender Internet Security is the winner with 17 out of 18 points. F-Secure Internet Security and Kaspersky Internet Security came in second and third respectively with 15,5 and 15,0 points. Out of the free programs, ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall got the highest score with 14,5 points. In the similar test for business protection software, Microsoft Forefront Endpoint only gathered 9,5 points.

Source: PCMag | Images via AV-Test

Cart

Microsoft Security Essentials Tanks Another Antivirus Test

Android malware to reach 1 million cases in 2013

Microsoft Security Essentials fails AV-Test certification (again)

Microsoft Security Essentials loses AV-Test certificate

On Sale

Product Categories

Submit Support Ticket