Microsoft Security Essentials fails another antivirus test

[nsane.forums]

Microsoft Security Essentials has once again performed poorly in an antivirus test, scoring significantly lower than competitors in Dennis Technology Labs testing for Q4 2012.

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.

Note: For those questioning the legitimacy of these tests, I recommend reading this article from Sophos' Naked Security blog on anti-virus testing and Dennis Technology Labs.

View: Original Article

[jasonliul]

^_^

[GreenMan]

Nice to see Eset back up again. :D

[vissha]

But MS pre-released the next version 4.2. It may be better in Tests!

[Dark Dragon]

How good can we trust these tests? Couldn't it be the antivirus companies trying to sell off there products so bad that now MSE is included in Windows 8. I agree that MSE is not the best, its missing out viruses now a days.. may be microsofts way to promote other antivirus sales.

[rudrax]

As expected! :rolleyes:

[Gabben]

But MS pre-released the next version 4.2. It may be better in Tests!

Only if it contains major changes but i doubt it.

[Gamkutopolowk]

i know i have Norton IS 2013 is the best 1st rank in the world :medic: :win:

[DKT27]

How good can we trust these tests? Couldn't it be the antivirus companies trying to sell off there products so bad that now MSE is included in Windows 8.

Note: For those questioning the legitimacy of these tests, I recommend reading this article from Sophos' Naked Security blog on anti-virus testing and Dennis Technology Labs.

;)

[avmad]

Someone telling the truth about Bitdefender is refreshing.

It's not as good as Eset :P

(I use neither btw)

[Olexijl]

Where is Avast?

[Nautilus]

I only take AVC and AV-Test into account.

[Nautilus]

i know i have Norton IS 2013 is the best 1st rank in the world :medic: :win:

One of the best...

[JessicaLeigh]

I think its so cute that Microsoft tries with their antivirus program... simply adorable. lolz! Speaking of which, can anyone recommend to me (in a private message) which leading av to use which will allow me to permanently allow the KMS activators to run, and not prompt me as a security alert? Thanks!

[OrbingStorm]

I just bought a pc magazine that says bitdefender,free avast and trendmicro were the best.I notice that the rest here are all security suites where mse is just a antivirus that is designed to work with windows firewall and smartscreen filter on ie.The test seems bias if u ask me.It doesnt even belong in a test like this.

[BDX]

MSE with common sense is good enough.

[Zex]

MSE with common sense is good enough.

This, and a bit stronger Win Firewall and Better Detection for MSE would be perfect

[xpmule]

i miss the testing site antivirus.gr.. they did annual reports that were really well done.

they posted a notice saying they were killing the site and now i can't even find a cache of it :(

every few months they would do a report on the site and also offer a pdf download of it too

anyway year after year Kaspersky and anything that used its sig definitions scored the highest.

If i had to pick one for most effective security wise i would vote for Kaspersky.

[bwop]

Norton #1, again, is a sure sign of payoffs being made.

It's freaking garbage, and I see more infected computers with Norton than with any other AV. Granted, AVG and Mcaffee have lost market share, and they are undoubtedly worse than Norton, but there is just no way that Norton is the best performing AV out there. It's a complete absurdity.

It's starting to be bloatware again too. If you have a less than powerful PC, forget it. Your machine will run like it's powered by snails on a treadmill.

[TShadow]

I'm using MSE since it came out as the only antivirus and I'm the whole day on the net. I never caught anything else than a normal cold, but my different Laptops always have been healthy. There seems not to be any antivirus or malware protection out which does love keygens and kms emulators however. Well that's the price to pay for being here and there.