Microsoft security essentials fails to get AV- Test certifications.

A German based Independent IT Security Institute AV Test gives a thumbs down to Microsoft Security Essentials as it fails to secure the required points needed to get their certification.

To those who don’t know, AV-Test continually tests popular security suites against real world threats and provides results in their site every 2 months. They give a certification based on scores they achieve in 3 categories: Protection, Repair and Usability.

Each category have points from 0 to 6 that a product can achieve- and it needs a total of 11 out 18 to get their certification. Their testing methodology with regular reports is what made AV-Test a reliable source for end users to know what is good. Most of the tests are done with Windows 7 and XP.

Security Essentials taken a bad hit when in Protection category- something that a lot of people who are using this service will be concerned about.

The September- October report that came out shows that Microsoft security essentials 4.0 and 4.1 secured 1.5 out 6.0 in protection, 3.5 out 6.0 in repair and 4.0 out of 6.0 in usability.

Essentials failed in Protection category because it was ineffective against zero- day threats with a protection rate of 69 in September and 64 in October. This is not a good sign for Microsoft.

There’s also a disappointment in Repair category as the scores for malicious components removal and remediation of critical system modification is not to a level where an end user who may or may not be a power user or be just someone using the system for work and school.

Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 gets the highest score with a total of 17 out of 18 points. However many of security suites were able to achieve 100% in both September and October reports. Back to the drawing board for Microsoft Security Essentials.

Although the test is done with windows 7, Windoes 8 users need to be more concerned since Defender is enabled automatically if you do not use your preferred security guite. In all seriousness, Microsoft should work on solving this serious problem. Its also a wake up call for some users since they do tend to trust a service based on a brand’s name rather than actual service- protecting your system in this case. Always check out for reviews.

Source: PC Mag | AV Test