All reportsCan Your Anti-Virus Really Stop a Hacker?
Most anti-virus software claims an ability to block viruses, stop ransomware and protect your personal information. But when a real hacker comes knocking, will it actually work?
At SE Labs, we find out by doing something different.
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To find out, we test like hackers
We Test Like Hackers. That means we copy real cyber attacks to see how anti-virus programs perform in the real world. We send fake, tricky emails, run ransomware on real Windows systems and try to sneak in through the digital back door, just like the bad guys do.
Don’t just trust the label.
Why? Because the best way to know if your anti-virus works is to test it the same way criminals would.
In this report, we show you how popular security programs for home users handled realistic attacks.
If you’re relying on your anti-virus to protect your online banking, photos, passwords and other personal files, it’s worth knowing if it’s up to the job.
Don’t just trust the label. See how these tools perform when it actually counts.
Which solutions to trust?
If your organisation depends on endpoint security to protect sensitive data, this report will show you which solutions are worth your trust, and which ones may leave you exposed.
We should be able to rely confidently on the security products that everyone tells us we need. The endpoint protection products in this report have undergone the most strenuous testing available, and they’ve come out well. They’ll provide you with strong protection while you use your computer to do something useful, fun or both.
How we test
We tested a variety of anti-malware (aka ‘anti-virus’; aka ‘endpoint security’) products from a range of well-known vendors in an effort to judge which were the most effective. Each product was exposed to the same threats, which were a mixture of targeted attacks using well-established techniques and public email and web-based threats that were found to be live on the internet at the time of the test. The results indicate how effectively the products were at detecting and/or protecting against those threats in real-time.
Choose your reports and reviews carefully
We pride ourselves on a level of transparency that elevates our work above the less open reports available. But don’t just take our word for it. This report has gone through the AMTSO certification process to ensure that we say what we’re going to do; do it; and can prove it. Our results help vendors improve their products and buyers choose the best for their own needs.
