Rating of free antiviruses: review, description and reviews. “Cyber ​​antibiotics” of the year: the best in the treatment of active infection

This week, Chad Skipper of Cylance published Security Testing Houses: Know the Truth! ", which is a must-read for people interested in testing security solutions. It contains a number of serious accusations against some testing laboratories and manufacturers (without indicating their names), for example:

Manufacturers pay to have their products tested to be 100% effective

· bribery of testing laboratories to hide negative test results

Although I have been working in this industry for over 17 years, I am not aware of a single case described above. However, I agree with most of the article. I will name just a few points: outdated testing methods, lack of used samples, the need to pay for participation in testing, etc.

And this needs to be corrected. That's why there are organizations like AMTSO (Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization) and the first thing that comes to my mind after reading the above article is that "we need to invite Chad to the next AMTSO event." But it turns out that when I mentioned this to AMTSO, I was informed that he had already registered for the upcoming event, which will take place next month in Malaga. Cool!

Chad ended his article with the words “Test for Yourself.” I agree with this too, and in fact, this is exactly what has been happening for a long time. Our very large clients from various sectors of the economy (government organizations, telecommunications, finance, healthcare, industry) have already chosen our EDR solution (Adaptive Defense 360) after several months of intensively and thoroughly testing various solutions themselves.

The truth is that this type of do-it-yourself testing is only available to large corporations. Small and medium-sized enterprises do not have enough resources to correctly perform thorough testing, and therefore, when adopting own decision trust the results of professional testing laboratories. Security Week's Kevin Townsend wrote about this issue a few months ago in his fantastic article "Inside The Competitive Testing Battlefield of Endpoint Security."

Among all the regular tests performed by major testing labs, one of my favorite tests is the Real-World Protection Test performed by AV-Comparatives. In the generalized test report for February-June 2016 from 1868 test trials(PDF) check how many manufacturers have achieved a 100% result with 0 false positives? Nobody. Obviously, Chad cannot mean AV-Comparatives when he says that manufacturers pay money to produce a result with 100% efficiency.

When IoT botnets like Mirai paralyze Amazon or Twitter web pages, at worst it just makes customers nervous. However, each time it is confirmed that such attacks disrupt daily life.

An example is the latest attack that affected Finland. At the beginning of November last year, hackers disabled central heating control systems. Residents of a town in the east of the country had to endure cold temperatures of -10 degrees for several days. The chaos stopped only after complete shutdown control computer from the network.

It is still unknown who was behind the attack. What is clear is that such attacks are relatively easy to carry out. Criminals who specialize in them can be hired on the darknet for just a couple of hundred euros.

The ease of turning your computer into a zombie

The largest botnets, such as BredoLab, can consist of 30 million zombie devices. IT experts of the main antivirus companies know how attackers manage to create such gigantic networks in principle: there are still too few users turning to modern virus protection. With the security package installed, it is unlikely that hackers would be able to seize control of the computer in order to use it for their own criminal purposes.

However, you should also be careful when using antiviruses: not every product that promises to detect absolutely all pests copes with its task in reality. Together with AV-Test, one of the largest and most respected testing laboratories, we carefully studied 22 security solutions that will reliably protect your personal computer from attacks.

However, today this is not enough, since other devices also require protection no less strong than on a PC. Nowadays, many people use their smartphone more often than their home computer.

Information from mobile devices is an extremely attractive target for attackers, be it access to email or an online banking account. In this regard, in this article we will also tell you which antivirus products should be used to protect Android devices.

Of course, even with the best antivirus you cannot count on 100% invulnerability to every new attack. In the end it's all about you own knowledge and behavior. That's why we asked leading experts in the field of information security how they themselves protect their devices from dangers from the Internet.

How to protect yourself in Europe

According to the latest survey conducted by Bitkom, not everyone trusts an antivirus package to protect their computer. IT experts strongly disagree with this and strongly recommend using security packages.

Security programs:
use on private computers

Comparison of antivirus packages

Desktop antivirus tests have one small drawback: they only reflect the immediate picture. For the average user, security software runs for many months, so it was important for us to check packages over a long period of time. The AV-Test laboratory has been engaged in such testing for many years.

Thus, these professionals have tremendous experience. Even the “sharks” of the antivirus industry turn to AV-Test to test their secret prototypes before publishing their products. For our purpose, AV-Test used a magnifying glass to examine the antivirus solutions available today.

Since such large-scale checks take more than one week, there is a risk that by the time the magazine is published, some of the tested versions will already be taken off sale.

But don’t worry about this, because on the one hand CHIP will inform you monthly about the current status antivirus systems, on the other hand, as a rule, you buy from most developers not a product that you can use for 12 months, but an annual subscription, which automatically provides you with the latest version of the program.

So, don't let the date on the box fool you - thanks to the built-in update feature, you'll always have the latest version.

You have to pay for pleasures, and you have to pay for free pleasures. Well, it’s never happened to anyone: they downloaded a pirated program, followed an unknown link, and on you they picked up viruses. Then we pay with the loss of information, and sometimes money. At best, we spend time searching for and destroying the malware, rejoicing if it didn’t manage to do much harm, and regretting that we didn’t get good protection in time.

Which antivirus should you trust with your security, since they are all different? Of course, the strongest. Today I have prepared a rating of the best antiviruses of early 2018 based on the results of the last half of 2017. Unexpected discoveries await you!

Who compiles antivirus program ratings and how?

Inexperienced users usually follow the recommendations of friends or the advice of “gurus” from computer forums. However, people’s opinions, based only on their personal experience, can hardly be called objective: some people like one thing, others another. Meanwhile, there is data that you can really trust: these are the results of comparative tests conducted by specialists from independent professional laboratories. Such as, and some others. Their activity consists of a thorough, comprehensive study of the properties of antivirus products and comparative assessment their effectiveness.

Testing is carried out in various areas. For example:

• The best antivirus for Windows.
• The best means of protecting mobile devices.
• Best performance in treating active infection, etc.

Researchers publish summary reports on their websites and in specialized online publications. Products that have received a maximum of gold-silver-bronze medals, especially in several categories and in different laboratories, are objectively the best.

Major League 2018: antiviruses with the maximum detection rate and the fewest errors

And antivirus programs aimed at the home segment should not require serious mental effort from the user during installation and configuration, but at the same time they should provide a high level of security. Therefore, developers are tasked with customizing their products to optimal performance default. More precisely, maintain a golden balance between the level of detection of malicious objects and false detections. Ideally, the first indicator should be 100%, and the second 0%, but in real conditions, few succeed.

Based on the results of dynamic testing carried out for 5 months in a row, experts from the AV-Comparatives laboratory determined which antiviruses protect the system best using default settings. By the concept of “best protection” they meant the maximum level of recognition of various malware and the minimum level of false positives.

The top five were:

• First place: (Germany) - a comprehensive solution that includes an anti-virus scanner, a personal data protection tool, a website security monitor, etc. The cost of an annual license for 1 computer is approximately $35.

• Second place: (Romania) – universal antivirus with a multi-level web protection system. The promotional price for an annual license for 3 devices is $49.99 (this is with a discount).

• Third place: for all devices (Russia) - a powerful anti-virus processor with advanced capabilities. The cost of an annual subscription for 3 devices is 1990 rubles.

• Fourth place: (USA). A single machine license costs $38.49 (discounted) per year.

• Fifth place: (Czech Republic). Free.

Free is good… it happens!

And now the promised surprise and pleasant surprise. To ensure the proper level of security for your devices, you don't have to buy an expensive commercial product. Some free antiviruses cope with this task no worse than paid ones.

Not only solutions with a minimum basic level of protection are non-commercial. Many of them are packages that, in addition to antivirus, include a firewall, tools for protecting user personal information, a password manager, web security modules, vulnerability scanners, etc. At the same time, they do an excellent job of detecting and removing all types of malicious objects and effectively preventing re-infections.

So, according to comparative tests, the best free ones in 2017 were:

• Already familiar
• (Czech Republic) .

• (Spain).

• (USA).

The free use of these products is unlimited, but some require annual license renewal.

“Cyber ​​antibiotics” of the year: the best in the treatment of active infection

Truly good antiviruses can not only repel potential threats, but also cope with the treatment of active infections, which means running on an infected machine without problems, cleaning out malicious objects of any type, and ideally restoring damaged operating system functions.

The AV-Test laboratory determined how standard antivirus systems and . Each prototype passed more than 450 tests. The study was carried out for about 6 months on real computers in Windows environment 7. Therefore, the accuracy of the result is beyond doubt.

Based on the testing results, the following leaders were identified:

• Utility (USA).

• Kaspersky Internet Security and utility (another name AVPTool).
• (USA).

• Avast!FreeAntivirus.

As for repairing damage to Windows after infection, only Kaspersky Lab products have this ability among the leaders in this rating. They also do a good job of cleaning viruses and restoring the functionality of unbootable systems, for example, those blocked by a ransomware Trojan or with a damaged bootloader. For this purpose, the Laboratory has released a free bootable rescue disk - an image for recording on DVD or USB flash drives. The disk's toolkit includes a powerful anti-virus scanner and system recovery tools.

The best protection for operating systems

Windows 10

M icrosoft has recently equipped its products with built-in and, in their opinion, full-fledged antiviral agent MSE ( Microsoft Security Essentials), which was renamed to “Windows Defender”. However, the “Defender” does not provide any special protection. In collaboration with Windows Firewall(which the user must still configure) it only creates a basic barrier against the most serious threats.

Microsoft's malware detection rate Security Essentials significantly lower than the leaders of today's ranking. And even below average. However, in 2016 there was progress. If several years ago MSE showed record low efficiency in tests, today it is simply low.

According to the AV-Test laboratory, the best performance Windows protection 10 demonstrated the following applications:

• Already familiar Avira Antivirus Pro.
• Excellent in every way
• Popular in Europe, but not in Russia BitdefenderInternetSecurity.
• A promising Japanese antivirus.

• And an Indian product known in eastern countries .

The assessment was carried out according to three main parameters:

• quality of protection, including against malware unknown to the antivirus;
• impact on the overall performance of the computer (the less, the better);
• ease of use (usability) and the number of false detections.

The first two products showed the same excellent results. The other three are only 0.5 points behind them.

Android

Special, increased requirements are placed on mobile platform protection tools. In addition to a high level of detection and neutralization of threats, they should not reduce the autonomy of the device, take up a lot of memory space and unduly affect network traffic (as some operators still charge for each kilobyte downloaded and sent to the network).

According to AV Test, 6 products meet these criteria. I am very pleased that several free solutions were among the leaders. Here they are:

• (Great Britain).

(includes paid and free options).

Also, as in previously published lists of antiviruses, this rating is not based on my subjective preferences (I myself use Windows Defender), but only on test results conducted by such laboratories as AV-test.org, av-comparatives.org, Virus Bulletin ( virusbulletin.org), which are recognized as objective by the majority of antivirus market participants. At the same time, I tried to take into account the results for the three latest versions of the OS from Microsoft - Windows 10, 8 (8.1) and Windows 7 and highlight those solutions that are equally effective for all these systems.

Warning: Since there may be novice users among the readers, I want to draw their attention to the fact that under no circumstances should you install two or more antiviruses on your computer - this can lead to difficult-to-solve problems with Windows operation. This does not apply to the Windows Defender antivirus built into Windows 10 and 8, as well as to individual malware and unwanted software removal utilities (that are not antiviruses), which will be mentioned at the end of the article.

The best tested free antiviruses

Most antivirus product manufacturers provide their paid antiviruses or comprehensive solutions for Windows protection for independent testing. However, there are three developers for whom free antiviruses are tested (and have good or excellent results) - Avast, Panda and Microsoft.

I will not limit myself to this list (there are excellent paid antiviruses with free versions), but let’s start with them, as proven solutions with the ability to evaluate results. Below is the result of the latest av-test.org tests for antiviruses (free ones are highlighted in color) on home Windows computers 10. In Windows 7 the picture is approximately the same.

The first column in the table indicates the number of threats detected by the antivirus, the second - the impact on system performance (fewer circles - worse), the last - user friendliness (the most controversial mark). The presented table is from av-test.org, but the results are approximately the same for both av-comparatives and VB100.

Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials

Windows 10 and 8 have their own built-in antivirus - Windows Defender ( Windows Defender), and additional modules protections such as filter Smart Screen, firewall and user account control (which many users unwisely disable). Available for Windows 7 free Microsoft Security Essentials (essentially an analogue of Windows Defender).

In the comments, questions are often asked about whether the built-in Windows 10 antivirus is enough and how good it is. And then in 2018 the situation changed compared to what it was before: if in the previous year the Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials tests showed the degree of virus detection and malware below average, then now the tests are in both Windows 7 and Windows 10, and from different antivirus laboratories show the maximum level of protection. Does this mean that now from third party antivirus can I refuse?

There is no clear answer here: previously, according to tests and statements from Microsoft itself, Windows Defender provided only basic system protection. The results appear to have improved since then. I can’t answer whether the built-in protection is enough for you, but I can highlight some points that suggest that perhaps you can get by with such protection:

1. You don't disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows, and maybe you don't even work under the Administrator account. And you understand why sometimes User Account Control asks you to confirm your actions and what the consequences of confirmation may be.
2. Turn on the display of file extensions in the system and you can easily distinguish an image file from executable file with an image file icon on a computer, flash drive, or in an email.
3. Check the downloaded program files, and if they are packaged in RAR, unpack and check them doubly carefully.
4. Do not download hacked programs and games, especially those where the installation instructions begin with “disable your antivirus.” And don't turn it off.
5. You can add a couple more items to this list.

The author of the site is limited precisely Windows Defender over the past few years (six months after the release of Windows 8, I switched to it). But he has two licensed software packages from Adobe and Microsoft installed on his computer from third-party software, one browser, GeForce Experience and one portable text editor, also licensed, nothing else can be downloaded or installed on the computer (the programs from the articles are checked in virtual machine or on a separate experimental laptop designed for these purposes).

Avast Free Antivirus

Until 2016, in first place among demons paid antiviruses was Panda. In 2017 and 2018 - Avast. Moreover, the company provides Avast Free Antivirus for tests, and not paid ones comprehensive packages protection.

Judging by the results in various tests, Avast Free Antivirus provides close to the leaders in the ratings of paid antiviruses in Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10, has a negligible impact on system performance and is easy to use (you can argue here: the main negative review by Avast Free Antivirus - annoying offer to switch to paid version, otherwise, especially in terms of protecting your computer from viruses, there are no complaints).

Using Avast Free Antivirus should not cause any difficulties for novice users. The interface is clear, in Russian, new useful (and not so useful functions) similar to what you can find in complex paid security solutions appear regularly.

Among the additional features of the program:

• Creating a rescue disk to boot from and scan your computer for viruses. See also: .
• Scanning browser add-ons and extensions - the most common cause the fact that unwanted advertisements and pop-ups appear in the browser.

When installing an antivirus, you can configure which additional protection components you need; perhaps some of the above are not required. A description of each item is available by the question mark next to it:

You can download Avast antivirus for free on the official page https://www.avast.ru/free-antivirus-download.

Panda Free Antivirus (Panda Dome)

After the disappearance of the above-mentioned Chinese antivirus 360 Total Security from the ratings, Panda Free Antivirus (now Panda Dome Free) became the best (today - rather second place after Avast) among free antiviruses for the consumer segment, showing in 2018 detection results close to 100% and removal in both synthetic and real-world tests on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10 systems, carried out using various methods.

The parameter in which Panda is inferior to paid antiviruses is the impact on system performance, but “inferior” does not mean “slows down the computer” - the lag is relatively small.

Like most modern antivirus products, Panda Free Antivirus has an intuitive interface in Russian, standard functions of real-time protection and on-demand scanning of your computer or files for viruses.

Additional features include:

• Protection of USB drives, including automatic “vaccination” of connected flash drives and external hard drives (prevents infection by certain types of viruses when connecting drives to other computers, the function is enabled in the settings).
• View information about processes running in Windows with information about their security.
• Detection of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that are not viruses.
• Very convenient (for a beginner) setting up antivirus exceptions.

Overall - convenient and understandable free antivirus, which works on a “set it and forget it” basis, and its rankings suggest that this option may be a good choice.

You can download Panda Free Antivirus from the official website https://www.pandasecurity.com/russia/homeusers/solutions/free-antivirus/

Free antiviruses that are not tested but are supposedly good

The free antiviruses listed below do not take part in tests of antivirus laboratories; however, instead of them, the top lines in the ratings are occupied by paid comprehensive protection products from the same development companies.

It can be assumed that the free versions of the best paid antiviruses use the same algorithms to identify and remove viruses in Windows and their difference is that some of the additional modules are missing (firewall, payment protection, browser protection), and therefore I think it makes sense to list list of free versions of the best paid antiviruses.

Kaspersky Free

Relatively recently, a free Kaspersky antivirus was released - Kaspersky Free. The product provides basic anti-virus protection and does not include numerous additional protection modules from Kaspersky Internet Security 2018.

Over the past two years, the paid version of Kaspersky antivirus has received one of the first places in all tests, competing with Bitdefender. The latest tests conducted by av-test.org under Windows 10 also show maximum scores in detection, performance and usability.

Reviews about free version Kaspersky antivirus is mostly positive and it can be assumed that it should show excellent results in terms of preventing computer infections and removing viruses.

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition

The only antivirus in this review without a Russian interface, Bitdefender Antivirus Free is a free version of the long-time leader in a set of tests - Bitdefender Internet Security. Recently released updated version This antivirus has acquired a new interface and support for Windows 10, while maintaining its main advantage - “silence” with high operating efficiency.

Despite the simplicity of the interface, the almost absence of settings and any additional options, I personally consider this antivirus to be one of the best free solutions, which, in addition to providing a decent level of user protection, will almost never distract from work and does not slow down the computer at all. Those. If we talk about my personal subjective recommendations for relatively experienced users, I recommend this particular option (I used it myself, installed it on my wife’s laptop a couple of years ago, I don’t regret it).

More details and where to download:

Avira Free Security Suite 2018 and Avira Free Antivirus

If previously only a free product was available Avira Free Antivirus, now in addition to it, Avira Free Security Suite has appeared, which includes, in addition to the antivirus itself (i.e. Avira Free Antivirus 2018 is included in the kit) a set of additional utilities.

• Phantom VPN - a utility for secure VPN connections (500 MB of traffic per month available for free)
• SafeSearch Plus Password Manager and Web Filter - browser extensions. Validates search results, stores passwords, and checks the current website respectively.
• Avira Free System Speedup- a program for cleaning and optimizing your computer (includes useful things such as finding duplicate files, permanent deletion, and others).
• Software Updater is a tool for automatic update programs on the computer.

But let's focus on the Avira Free Antivirus (which is part of the Security Suite).

Avira free antivirus is a fast, convenient and reliable product, which is a limited-function version of Avira Antivirus Pro, which also has the highest ratings for protecting Windows from viruses and other common threats.

Among the features included in Avira Free Antivirus are real-time protection, real-time virus scanning, creation boot disk to check for viruses Avira Rescue CD. Additional features include checking the integrity of system files, searching for rootkits, managing the Windows firewall (enabling and disabling) in the Avira interface.

The antivirus is fully compatible with Windows 10 and in Russian. Available for download on the official website http://www.avira.com/ru/

AVG AntiVirus Free

Not particularly popular with us, free AVG antivirus AntiVirus Free shows almost the same virus detection and performance results as Avast Free in some TOP antiviruses, and according to some results (including in tests with real samples on Windows 10) is superior. The paid version of AVG has some of the best results in recent years.

So, if you tried Avast and didn't like it for some reason unrelated to virus detection, perhaps a good option would be to try AVG Antivrus Free.

In addition to the standard functions of real-time protection and on-demand virus scanning, AVG includes “Internet Protection” (this is a check of links on sites, not available in all free antiviruses), “Personal Data Protection” and email.

At the same time, on this moment this antivirus is in Russian (if I’m not mistaken, the last time I installed it, there was only English version). When installing an antivirus with default settings, you will have the full version of the antivirus for the first 30 days, and after this period, paid features will be disabled.

Download AVG Free Antivirus can be found at https://www.avg.com/ru-ru/free-antivirus-download

360 Total Security and Tencent PC Manager

Note: On this point, I cannot say that it is correct to include these two antiviruses in the list of the best, but it makes sense to pay attention to them.

Previously, the free antivirus 360 Total Security, having been tested by all the specified laboratories, famously bypassed most paid ones and free analogues based on the totality of results. Also, for some time this product was present among the recommended antiviruses for Windows on the English-language Microsoft website. And then he disappeared from the ratings.

The main reason for disqualification, from what I was able to find, is that during testing the antivirus changed its behavior and did not use its own virus search engine and malicious code, and the BitDefender algorithm included in it (and this is a long-term leader among paid antiviruses).

Is this a reason not to use this antivirus- I will not say. It seems to me that no. A user using 360 Total Security can also enable BitDefender engines and Avira, ensure almost 100% detection of viruses, as well as use many additional functions and all this is free, in Russian and indefinitely.

From the comments I received on my review of this free antivirus, most who try it once usually stick with it and are happy with it. And only one negative review that appears more than once - sometimes it “sees” viruses where they shouldn’t be.

Among the free included additional features (besides the inclusion of third-party antivirus engines):

• System cleaning, Windows startup
• Firewall and protection against malicious sites on the Internet (as well as setting up black and white lists)
• Launch suspicious programs in the sandbox to exclude their influence on the system
• Protecting documents from file-encrypting ransomware (see). The function does not decrypt files, but prevents encryption if such software happens to be on your computer.
• Protecting flash drives and other USB drives from viruses
• Browser protection
• Webcam protection

Another free Chinese antivirus with a similar interface and history is Tencent PC Manager, the functionality is very similar (except for some missing modules). The antivirus also includes a third-party antivirus engine from Bitdefender.

As in the previous case, Tencent PC Manager received high marks from independent antivirus laboratories, but was later excluded from testing in some of them (remained in VB100) due to abuses related to the fact that the product used techniques to artificially increase performance in tests (in particular, “white lists” of files were used, which may be unsafe from the point of view of the end user of the antivirus).

Additional Information

Recently, one of the main problems Windows users became various kinds of substitution of pages in the browser, pop-up windows with advertising, self-opening browser windows (see) - that is, various types of malware, browser hijackers and AdWare. Moreover, very often, users who encounter these problems have a good antivirus installed on their computer.

This antivirus rating is updated once a year and over the previous years it has accumulated many comments from user experience on the use of various antiviruses and other PC protection tools. I recommend reading below, after the article - it is quite possible that you will find new and useful information for yourself.

Nowadays, there are probably practically no people left who use a computer and do not use the Internet. But exactly world wide web is the main source of danger for your iron friend. A huge amount of malicious software located there can enter your system at any time and cause you a lot of trouble. Intrusive advertising, porn banners, extortion and fraud, theft of personal data, destabilization of the operating system, destruction of data on the hard drive - this is not a complete list of problems that you may encounter when using the global web. If so, providing protection workstation from malicious software is the number one task for any user.

Unfortunately, the OS's own security system, as a rule, cannot provide reliable protection and the use of additional specialized anti-virus software is mandatory in our time. This is especially true for those who use the Windows operating system. It is the most common one in the world and therefore most susceptible to attacks using malware.

MODERN INTERNET THREATS

The term “malware” refers to any program created and used to carry out unauthorized and often malicious actions. As a rule, these are various kinds of viruses, worms, Trojans ( keyloggers, programs for stealing passwords), macro viruses, boot sector viruses, script viruses and Trojans, fraudulent software, spyware and adware. Unfortunately, this list is far from complete; every year it is replenished with more and more new types of malware.

What types of computer threats can any ordinary user encounter? global network Internet?

• Cybervandalism. Distribution of malware with the aim of damaging user data and disabling the computer.
• Fraud. Distribution of malware to obtain illegal income. Most programs used for this purpose allow attackers to collect confidential information and use it to steal money from users.
• Hacker attacks. Hacking of individual computers or entire computer networks in order to steal confidential data or install malware.
• Phishing. Creation of fake websites that are an exact copy of existing ones (for example, a bank website) with the aim of stealing confidential data when users visit them.
• Spam. Anonymous mass mailings emails that clog up users' email inboxes. As a rule, they are used to advertise goods and services, as well as phishing attacks.
• Adware. Spreading malware that runs ads on your computer or redirects search queries to paid (often pornographic) websites. It is often built into free or shareware programs and installed on the user’s computer without his knowledge.
• Botnets. Zombie networks consisting of computers infected with a Trojan (including yours), controlled by one owner and used for his purposes (for example, sending spam).

Well, is it impressive? I think now you understand how important it is to take seriously the issue of the safety and security of your computer from intruders and the impact of malware. Currently there is great amount companies that develop anti-virus software and, as you understand, it is not difficult to get confused with its choice. But this is a very important moment, since it is the antivirus that is the wall protecting your system from the flow of infection pouring from the network. And if this wall has many gaps, then there will be zero sense in it. So in this article we will test the most common antivirus programs, get acquainted with their capabilities and user interface, and of course see how successfully they manage to deal with malware.

TESTED ANTI-VIRUS PRODUCTS

Since almost every manufacturer has several anti-virus products in its assortment, two from each company were selected for testing: entry-level software that provides minimal protection against viruses and a comprehensive solution for protecting your computer from Internet threats.

A total of 12 products took part in testing:

• Kaspersky Lab: Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 and KasperskyInternetSecurity 2011
• Doctor Web Company: Dr. Antivirus. Web and Dr. WebSecuritySpace
• ESET Company: ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security
• AVAST Software Company: avast! Free antivirus and avast! Internet Security 6
• Symantec: Norton™ AntiVirus 2011 and Norton™ Internet Security 2011
• CompanyAVG: AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 and AVG Internet Security 2011

The choice in favor of these manufacturers was not made by chance. The products of these companies throughout recent years is most popular among computer users in the Russian Federation.

We'll start with screenshots of user interfaces so you can compare the design working shell each antivirus product. I also found it interesting to use slogans from the developers of these programs in the descriptions of the pictures, with which they position their creations on the anti-virus software market.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 - a solution for basic computer protection against malware.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 - the optimal solution for safe work in the Internet. The product provides constant protection against modern Internet threats, regardless of whether you work, use online banking services, shop, communicate or play online.

Dr.Web Antivirus - basic protection computer from all malware with additional protection against network attacks thanks to the built-in firewall.

Dr.Web Security Space Pro - a solution for comprehensive PC protection against Internet threats: viruses, rootkits, email worms, hacker utilities, spam, phishing messages, infected Internet pages, cybercrime targeting children and unauthorized access from outside.

Eset NOD32 Antivirus - reliable protection of your home computer from viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, adware and potentially dangerous software, rootkits and phishing attacks, and effective quick treatment of infected files and system recovery.

Eset NOD32 Smart Security - an intelligent comprehensive solution for ensuring the security of your home computer, belongs to the Internet Security class solutions and is recommended for most users who actively use the computer and the Internet.

avast! Free antivirus 6 - free antivirus, often superior in its characteristics paid products competitors and is the minimum required protection against viruses and spyware.

avast! Internet Security 6 - Provides comprehensive anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and anti-firewall protection, now enhanced with new technology to create an isolated, intruder-invisible virtual desktop where you can securely shop and bank online.

Norton™ AntiVirus 2011 - Fast protection that does more than just stop viruses and spyware.

Norton™ Internet Security 2011 - Reliable fast protection on the Internet, without fear.

AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 - The most downloaded free Antivirus program in the world. Social network protection, including Facebook and Twitter. Noticeable protection. Absolutely free. Always.

AVG Internet Security 2011 - Maximum protection for everything you do online.

ANTI-VIRUS PROTECTION TECHNOLOGIES

Now, let's take a look at the antivirus protection technologies used. The presence of a particular technology as part of an antivirus package depends on how the product is positioned on the market and affects its final cost.

File antivirus. A component that controls the computer's file system. It checks all opened, launched and saved files on your computer. If found known viruses, as a rule, you are asked to disinfect the file. If for some reason this is not possible, then it is deleted or moved to quarantine.

Mail antivirus. Provides protection for incoming and outgoing mail and scans it for the presence of dangerous objects.

Web antivirus. Performs anti-virus scanning of traffic transmitted via the Internet HTTP protocol, which ensures the protection of your browser. Monitors all running scripts for malicious code, including Java script and VB script.

IM antivirus. Responsible for the security of working with Internet pagers (ICQ, MSN, Jabber, QIP, Mail.RUAgent, etc.) checks and protects information received via their protocols.

Program control. This component logs the actions of programs running on your operating system and regulates their activities based on established rules. These rules regulate program access to various system resources.

Firewall (firewall). Ensures your work safety local networks and Internet, tracking activity in incoming traffic that is characteristic of network attacks that exploit operating system and software vulnerabilities. To all network connections rules are applied that allow or prohibit certain actions based on the analysis of certain parameters.

Proactive protection. This component is designed to identify dangerous software based on analysis of its behavior in the system. Malicious behavior may include: activity typical of Trojan programs, access to the system registry, self-copying of programs into various areas file system, intercepting data input from the keyboard, injecting it into other processes, etc. In this way, an attempt is made to protect the computer not only from already known viruses, but also from new ones that have not yet been investigated.

Anti-Spam. Filters all incoming and outgoing mail for unwanted emails(spam) and sorts it depending on the user settings.

Anti-Spy. The most important component designed to combat fraud on the Internet. Protects against phishing attacks, backdoors, downloaders, vulnerabilities, password crackers, data hijackers, keyboard loggers and proxies, paywall dialers, joke programs, adware, and annoying banners.

Parental control. This is a component that allows you to set access restrictions for using your computer and the Internet. With this tool, you can control the launch of various programs, Internet use, visiting websites depending on their content, and much more, thereby protecting children and adolescents from negative influences when working on a computer.

Safe environment or sandbox (Sandbox). Limited virtual space that blocks access to system resources. Provides secure work with applications, documents, Internet resources, as well as web resources Internet banking, where security when entering sensitive data is of particular importance. It also allows you to run unsafe applications internally without the risk of infecting the system.

Summary table of tested functionality antivirus programs

In addition to the basic anti-virus protection tools, to attract customers, many anti-virus software developers include additional components in their complex products, such as:

• Backup. Means for implementation Reserve copy data. Using it, you can always restore your information if it is lost.
• Data encryption. Designed to protect confidential user information from unauthorized access and prevent data leakage when the operating system stores service information on disk or incompletely destroys user files.
• Password manager. Automates the entry of passwords and other data on web pages, relieving the user of the need to create and remember passwords. Helps create unique, hack-resistant passwords for each account. Allows you to import passwords from other programs and effectively counteracts keyloggers.
• System Setup. Analyzes the performance of the operating system and allows you to manually or automatic mode optimize its operation.

These additional options are designed to enhance users' data security capabilities and protect all information created and stored in digital form. Depending on the antivirus application The functionality of these components may vary. Examples of such comprehensive solutions include: Kaspersky Crystal, Eset NOD32 Titan and Norton 360.

OWN METHODS AND TEST RESULTS

Now it’s time for the practical part, in which we have to test our competitors in practice. Each antivirus was given the task of scanning a folder in which a set of various viruses, Trojans and other malicious programs was placed, consisting of 7,700 infected files with a total size of 12 MB. In the scanner settings of anti-virus programs, the priority task was set to treat the detected infected file and only delete it if treatment was impossible. At the time of scanning, the resource consumption of each application was recorded, namely the load on CPU And RAM, and at the end of the scanning procedure - the number of detected, deleted and disinfected objects. All competitors took part in the testing, but as it turned out in practice, virus scanners for antiviruses and InternetSecurity class solutions from the same manufacturer are no different and their results are almost the same. Therefore, in order not to clutter pivot tables and histograms, it was decided to report only the results of products that provide comprehensive protection.

Summary table of anti-virus scan results for malware detection

Having received the results antivirus scan, let's take a closer look at some of them.

Oddly enough, not a single antivirus was able to detect one hundred percent of infections. For control, our test set of viruses was checked by the product Kaspersky WorkSpace Security 6, which belongs to the corporate sector of solutions and therefore was not included in our review, which detected viruses in all 7,700 files. Well, among our contestants the top three were as follows: Avast! IS 6 fell just short of the 100% result, Norton Internet Security 2011 detected 96% of threats, and Kaspersky Internet Security neutralized 7,108 infected files.

The next important indicator was practically failed by three software products. From the diagram we see that antivirus solutions from Avast! and AVG were unable to cure a single object and all threats they detected were removed. You might think that these products simply do not have the possibility of treatment at all, although the manufacturers themselves state the opposite. Well, another outsider was NOD32 Smart Security, which managed to disinfect only 40 files. Perhaps many users think that treating infected files is a complete waste and that it is more important to simply detect the threat and delete the infected file. Well, what if your personal or system files are infected? Deleting the former can lead to the loss of important information for you, and the latter can lead to the crash of your operating system. So the task of anyone good antivirus, still first try to cure the infected object, returning it to its original state, avoiding its complete removal.

Having received such discouraging results of scanning and processing of found threats by all antiviruses, it was decided to carry out additional testing. To understand its essence, first let's take a look at the diagram showing the number of files remaining after scanning an infected folder from each antivirus product.

The variation in the number of remaining files from different antivirus solutions is impressive. As one might expect, they greatest number remained with those antiviruses that were actively involved in the treatment of infected objects. But are the remaining files really safe for the system? To answer this question and check the effectiveness of each antivirus, it was decided to pit our competitors against each other and scan the remaining files with each of the competitors' products.

Summary table of detected threats when rescanning folders “cleaned” by antiviruses

The results of the re-scan brought us another unpleasant surprise. Even after being scanned by two different antiviruses, the folder containing viruses was not completely cleaned. And only after being scanned three times, sequentially with Kaspersky, Doctor Web and Avast antiviruses, was it possible to obtain a one hundred percent result.

Well, now let's summarize all the test results obtained. We will evaluate our competitors using a 5-point system. For obtaining a 100% result, the antivirus solution is assigned 5 points, and for its complete absence, of course, no points are awarded. Accordingly, 1, 2, 3 and 4 points will correspond to 20, 40, 60 and 80 percent indicators. The total assessment of antivirus programs will consist of four parameters recorded by us:

• the number of infected files detected during the first scan (the total number of infected files is taken as 100% - 7700)
• number of files disinfected (100% - 7700)
• the total number of infected files detected by each antivirus from its competitors during repeated scanning (100% is taken to be the total number of remaining files for all antiviruses after the first scan, equal to 12673)
• average of detected remaining threats (100% - 7700)

The top three included antivirus products that can still treat infected files, and not just delete or quarantine them. As we have already noted, this is a fairly important skill of modern antivirus programs, which every product that expects mass success must have. Despite this, it is worth noting that the absolute leader in detected threats is the Czech antivirus Avast! and the completely unexpected failure of his popular compatriot NOD32. We will make final conclusions about our competitors a little later, but now let's look at the time spent by each antivirus to process threats and the amount of system resources used for this.

As expected, the antiviruses that performed the worst in treatment showed the minimum scanning time.

Almost everything modern antiviruses I can automatically regulate the load on system resources depending on the number and priority of running applications. In many of them, in addition to automatically self-configuring the priority level of anti-virus protection relative to other running programs, there is also special options, which allow you to manually set this parameter in accordance with your tasks. Our test scan was carried out on an idle system and therefore many programs tried to use processor resources to the maximum. As can be seen from the diagram, KIS 2011 and NIS 2011 had the least CPU load, which affected their processing time for detected threats, which was significantly longer than that of other antiviruses. As for the load on the computer's RAM, it was insignificant for all applications, and the overall memory usage indicator differed from the standard one (when the system is in a state of inactivity) by no more than 5-10%.

RESULTS OF TESTING BY WESTERN EXPERTS

Having completed our own research of our competitors, for the sake of completeness, let's also turn to latest results testing of antivirus software, which is regularly carried out by two of the most popular and authoritative European publications - the British Virus Bulletin and the German AV-Test. Let me make a reservation right away that one of the participants in our review, namely the Dr.Web company, does not provide its anti-virus software for testing to European experts. In particular, according to Doctor Web employees, its withdrawal from the VB100 test participants in 2008 was due to imperfect testing methods used by Virus Bulletin and, accordingly, subsequent incorrect assessment of the quality of antiviruses.

The essence of testing VB100 is to check the antivirus module for collections of “wild viruses” (Wild List) and “ clean files"(Clean Sets). An antivirus that does not miss a single instance from the first list and does not “call” a single file from the second list a virus is awarded VB100%. To the credit of our competitors, according to the results of the latest tests, almost all of them were awarded. Symantec, the manufacturer of anti-virus products Norton, which was last tested in 2010, also successfully, is missing from the list.

Results of the latest antivirus tests by Virus Bulletin magazine

The research agency AV-Test recently published test results for the 2nd quarter of 2011, in which 22 antivirus products took part, 5 of which were our competitors (one program from each manufacturer, and as you understand, the exception was Dr.Web ). The study was conducted according to three criteria: protection, treatment and ease of use (usability). The protection test covers static and dynamic detection of malware (viruses), including real-time (on-the-fly) attack testing. The treatment test tested the ability to disinfect and remove rootkits from an already infected file. The usability test (ease of use) checked possible slowdowns in work personal computer that could be caused by the antivirus, as well as the number of false positives. An antivirus product must score at least 11 out of a possible 18 points to receive certification.

Results of antivirus testing by the companyAV-Test 2011, 2nd quarter.

As you can see from the table, all of our competitors passed certification, and there were two leaders: Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 and Norton Internet Security 2011.

RESULTS

Now, having such extensive information on each of the products, it’s time to summarize. In general terms, it is worth saying that none of the antiviruses we tested proved to be ideal protection for home use. Each has its own shortcomings to one degree or another, and the only thing worth mentioning is the fact that not one of them was able to identify all infected objects. However, the products we selected for testing are the most popular and best-selling antivirus solutions on the market, which means that with the highest probability, you will still have one of these antiviruses installed on your home computer. If so, let’s still try to determine the most optimal antivirus solution to protect your home PC from the products we've tested.

We'll start with perhaps the biggest and most unpleasant surprise - the Czech product NOD32 from Eset company. For quite a long time, this antivirus has been one of the most budget-friendly solutions, while remaining quite reliable protection for desktop and mobile computers, which undoubtedly attracts quite a large number of users to it. All the more surprising is the fact that despite quite positive reviews from Western experts, in our testing NOD32 showed the worst results in identifying infected files and practically equal to zero rate of treatment of detected threats. Perhaps in the future the situation with one of the most popular and oldest antivirus products will change, but today we would not recommend it for installation on your computer.

Another Czech company that took part in our review and, on the contrary, pleasantly surprised, was Avast Software with free Avast antivirus! Free Antivirus 6 and paid solution Avast! Internet Security 6. About five years ago I had personal experience using this antivirus on workstations, which at first left quite a pleasant impression. But a year later, serious problems began to appear in the form of many missed threats and a large number of false positives. In the last 3 - 4 years, for me personally, the attitude towards this product has been quite dismissive, and now we can state the fact that over the years the developers have done serious work on the bugs. Antiviruses from this company showed the most best result when identifying threats from our collection of viruses, they have a very nice and understandable user interface with voice guidance in Russian, and the Internet Security class product shines with rich functionality. True, they failed to become leaders in our review due to the absolute impossibility of treating the detected threats. At the same time, in the user interface settings you can select actions on the infected file: disinfect, delete, quarantine, or do nothing. Western journalists in their studies gave him a rating of 4 for treatment. This means that, in theory, Avast should and probably can cure, but what threats remain a mystery to us. Otherwise, this is a very good product and probably the best free solution On the market.

The American company AVG, like Avast Software, is promoting a free antivirus and a paid comprehensive product on the market. At the same time, AVG Antivirus 2011 is quite popular among home users, but its older competitor is not so widely represented on the Russian market. But this is understandable, since AVG has the worst user interface localization of all our competitors. The names of all functional components of the antivirus remain in English, which largely worsens the usability for Russian-speaking users (not to mention beginners). Test results for these products were below average. A fairly high rate of undetected viruses from the test collection and the inability to treat infected files dropped them to penultimate place. The solutions from AVG were not highly appreciated by foreign experts either. Having such mediocre performance, the ability to somehow stay afloat is probably only left to a free antivirus, but AVG Internet Security is unlikely to be successfully sold on the Russian market in the near future.

Well, now it's time to talk about leaders. Based on our testing data and the results obtained by foreign experts, the first place is occupied by the Kaspersky Lab product - Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. This is largely due to the highest rate of disinfected infected files and a fairly decent result in detecting infected objects. But in addition to the fact that it coped well with its direct responsibilities (detection and protection against all kinds of Internet threats), its additional advantages include a fairly thoughtful and attractive user interface, rich functionality (the most advanced of all the products under consideration) and a way to provide information in in a form that is understandable (and, if desired, detailed) for the user. By the way, the last indicator was lame in almost all participants in our testing. The number of scanned files was not always correctly indicated; the report logs contained a minimum of information, some of it contradictory, which made it very difficult to obtain reliable information about the number of disinfected, quarantined, and removed threats.

Second place, apparently in all respects, should be given to the product of Symantec - Norton Internet Security 2011. Good indicators of detection and treatment of threats in our testing, one of the leaders in anti-virus protection among foreign experts, excellent functionality- what doubts can there be? But they exist. Probably, Symantec products can be called the most thoughtful and slow of all presented. The longest scanning time is mainly due to its high scanning requirements. system resources, and in particular to the speed of work hard drive. Our test bench was a laptop with a slow hard drive (5200 rpm), which literally choked when processing infected files, and Norton periodically declared the low performance of our storage medium. Against the backdrop of such appetites for the hard drive subsystem, the active distribution of Norton antivirus, as a pre-installed demo product with new laptops, which mostly have hard disks at low speed.

Installing the antivirus and the procedure for registering it also took a lot of time, but when after that you also needed to download 150 MB of updates, which subsequently took another 10 minutes to install, you involuntarily ask the question, when will it all end? After this, the uninstallation, which lasted about half an hour, did not even raise any questions (although with such a long procedure it seemed that the computer had completely frozen). But that's not all. When trying to view various types of information and reports in the log (scan results, quarantined objects, last scanned files, etc.), we had to wait 22 minutes for them to appear on the screen. Eventually Norton testing Antivirus 2011 and Norton Internet Security 2011 took a huge amount of time and turned into a real chore.

Another disadvantage of these products is their user interface. Primitive appearance, many options for turning on/off some proprietary technologies with names that are incomprehensible to the average user, and at the same time there is no way to simply select the type of automatic action on an infected file when it is detected. In general, it seemed that such a parameter as “ease of use” (usability) was treated superficially in Norton products, to put it mildly. Perhaps these factors are the reason why this product is not very popular on the Russian market, despite its good anti-virus engine and rich capabilities.

Well, the last one on our list is the solutions from the Doctor Web company. I know the products of this company from one wonderful free utility, CureIT!, which is essentially the same antivirus scanner, only without the possibility of updating virus databases. She has helped me out more than once when I needed to quickly scan my computer to detect and eliminate possible virus threats. Therefore, I expected almost one hundred percent results from the file antivirus module of this company, but in practice everything turned out to be not so rosy. The third result in detecting threats and not very rich functionality makes the anti-virus product Dr.Web Security Space Pro a strong middle peasant. Its undoubted advantages include: large percentage disinfected files, high speed scanning and processing of threats (the most high speed among antiviruses that can disinfect files), a simple and intuitive user interface. Undoubtedly, this is a product that deserves attention and will definitely find its buyer.

In conclusion, I would like to give you some tips on purchasing licenses for antivirus products. To begin with, you can familiarize yourself with the cost of 1-year licenses for all tested antiviruses.

It's worth noting that many antivirus software developers offer various programs on purchasing licenses, giving users the opportunity to save money when purchasing their products. As a rule, about various discounts, promotions and special offers can be read on the developer's website. Consider the fact that purchasing an electronic license, when you only receive the product key itself and download the antivirus distribution kit from the developer’s website, is almost always cheaper than purchasing boxed version with disk. Remember that using one antivirus product for several years is very profitable, since renewing a license, unlike its first purchase, costs 40 - 50% less. If possible, cooperate with friends, as can be seen from the last table, most developers, whether you like it or not, sell you a license for several PCs. In any case, with a one-time purchase of several licenses, the cost of the product is significantly reduced.

Let me finish our review of antivirus products here. I hope this material will help you make such a responsible and important decision as choosing protection against Internet threats for your computer.

P.S. While this article was being prepared, several updated products appeared on the market: Kaspersky Internet Security 2012, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and AVG Internet Security 2012, which you can expect to see in the near future.