Vendor: Broadcom
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Is AI able to protect your computer systems?
And are attackers using it to breach your network? Artificial Intelligence is ruling the stock market and may be on the verge of ruling the world if you believe the business influencers. If AI is as powerful as some say, surely it should be able to protect our computer systems from hackers?
The products in this test almost certainly rely on AI-related technologies to detect and protect against attacks. These technologies have been running in the background for about 20 years. We can argue that not only does anti-virus/ endpoint protection use AI, but it’s been doing so for many years, and certainly before Cylance claimed to be the first.
But I did something sneaky there. I slid in the word ‘-related’. Because when people talk about ChatGPT and other popular ‘AI’ tools, they are usually talking about something else. They are amazed by the utility of Machine Learning (ML) systems, which appear to be able to mimic human thought in a rather magical way.
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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.
Lift your org’s security into the top 1%
Back to security basics, lift your org’s security into top 1%. It’s a shocking statistic, but most businesses don’t have a cyber security plan. Given the lack of general interest in cyber security, it’s no wonder that ransomware and less obvious threats are running riot through computer systems all over the world.
The larger the organisation, the more complex its security needs, but at the very core the same old cliched advice still applies to everyone:
- Apply security patches when available.
- Back up your important data.
- Use multi-factor authentication.
- Use endpoint protection.
If that sounds painfully basic and boring, I’m sorry. But it’s still the best advice out there. You don’t need AI, blockchain or other magical concepts to raise yourself to the top 1% of secure internet users.
If you want to know which endpoint protection to use, this report will help you or your business choose. There is, of course, more to cyber security than choosing an ‘anti-virus’ program though!
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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.
Essential Endpoint Security Enterprise
Realistic attacks for useful results
Essential Endpoint Security for Enterprise. Keeping your organisation safe from online threats requires strong endpoint protection. It’s not just important – it’s crucial. So, it’s a good idea to regularly check how well it’s working. Essential endpoint security means checking if the security tools on devices like desktops, laptops, and mobiles do their job.
Why? Because these devices are often the target of online attacks. If they’re not protected, they can become a way for cybercriminals to get to your sensitive information.
Our reports help you choose the best home anti-malware product that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attacks.
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How we test
SE Labs brings a wealth of experience to the table when it comes to testing endpoint protection. We firmly believe in the necessity of conducting these tests regularly to ensure that security vendors are consistently updating and enhancing their effectiveness. Our testing approach involves recreating real-world cyberattack situations, allowing us to assess the performance of endpoint security solutions in terms of detection, prevention, and mitigation.
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.
Critical Endpoint Protection
Realistic attacks for useful results
Endpoint protection is a critical component of any organisation’s cyber security strategy
And if it’s critical then you should test it. And have others run assessments too. Testing endpoint protection involves evaluating the effectiveness of the security solutions. These solutions are deployed on endpoint devices such as desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Endpoint protection testing is necessary because endpoints are often the target of cyberattacks. Endpoints can be used as a gateway to gain access to sensitive data.
Our reports help you choose the best home anti-malware product that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attack.
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SE Labs has extensive experience in endpoint protection testing. We have found that it is essential to conduct these tests regularly to ensure that the security vendors are keeping them up-to-date and effective. Our testing methodology involves replicating real-world cyberattack scenarios. And then evaluating how well the endpoint security solutions perform in detecting, preventing, and mitigating those attacks.
One of the key aspects of endpoint protection testing is the use of realistic attack scenarios. Our team of experts analyses the latest threat intelligence and creates attack scenarios that closely mimic the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by real-world cybercriminals. By doing so, we can determine how well the endpoint security solutions perform in detecting and preventing these attacks.
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.
How can you test and judge endpoint protection products?
Back to basics
How can you test and judge endpoint protection products?
Working out which endpoint protection product is right for your organisation requires a lot of thought.
Each product on the market has a pile of features and they don’t all do exactly the same thing. But at the very least, they should detect and stop malware threats. That should be your baseline when choosing between them. In our latest Endpoint Security (EPS) reports we test and judge endpoint protection products of many of the main brands, and we tell you how we do it.
Our reports help you choose the best home anti-malware product that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attack.
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How we test endpoint protection products
Testing security technology is rarely simple. We’ve talked about online anti-virus reviews before, and how they can be too basic to help make sensible buying decisions. But we don’t have to get bogged down in details here. Let’s get back down to basics. What should endpoint protection products do and how does SE Labs test them?
- Firstly, we install different anti-malware solutions onto real PCs – the sort you have on or under your desk. Then we attack those computers using threats we’ve found on the internet and using targeted attacks that we’ve built in our lab. Fundamentally, we behave like real attackers. It’s the purest kind of test.
- Secondly, we then score products on their performance. They get points for detecting the threat and further credit if they actually stop the attack. If they prevent the attack from running at all they score top marks for ‘blocking’ the threat.
- Lastly, we introduce good emails, websites and programs to the targets. If a security product blocks those, we deduct a lot of points because they are hampering users from using their computers properly.
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.
Read this SE Labs assessment of world-leading endpoint security products and discover how they handle well-known threats and targeted attacks.
Five Antivirus Myths Busted
And why do we still believe them?
Anti-virus, or endpoint security plays an essential part in protecting Windows PCs. Whether you are working in the world’s largest enterprise, or using a small personal laptop, you need a last line of defence against attacks who use malicious code to steal or damage your data.
Our reports help you choose the best enterprise anti-malware product that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attacks.
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Antivirus myths you shouldn’t believe
- Anti-virus slows your computer.
- Anti-virus only stops viruses.
- You must pay for great protection.
- Detection means protection.
- Updates are no longer necessary.
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.
Choose your reviews carefully
3 reasons our enterprise tests are trustworthy
This security report compares anti-malware products. Its job is to help you make informed buying decisions.
Our reports help you choose the best enterprise anti-malware product that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attack.
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Product factsheets:
Three reasons our security tests are the most trustworthy
There are a few questions you should ask when you look at a security report. These are all very important but in random order here they are:
- Is the test realistic?
- Does the tester explain how they tested?
- Does the tester explain how they make money
from the report?
There are all sorts of other little details to consider, which are often things security vendors get anxious about. These include technical details relating to the testing environment and the threats used to test the products. But ultimately, as a reader, you should care most about the list above.
Choose your reviews carefully
If you see a security report that isn’t realistic and transparent treat it with extra care. For more information about fake anti-virus reviews please see our blog post on the subject. If you want to make the most informed purchase of security software choose your 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.
Enterprise Anti-Virus Testing
How hard should a security test be?
Thank you for opening this report. I hope you’ll be able to use it to get a better idea about which anti-malware products you might want to buy (or get rid of!)
Our reports help you choose the best enterprise anti-malware product that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attack.
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Product factsheets:
Enterprise Anti-Virus Testing
The report starts off with a list of products, each of which win impressive-looking awards. But have you considered what those awards mean? How come there aren’t any massive losers in the list? How hard is this security test anyway?
Baseline Testing
There are lots of ways you can test products. You could prod a teddy bear and say, “well, that looks good enough,” or you could take it to pieces and analyse every component forensically for build and functional quality. “This toy looks safe, its parts are large, soft and non-toxic, and we can’t burn it easily. Plus, it’s got big, cute eyes.” This could be a baseline for cuddly toys: SAFE, with cuteness as an extra bonus.
For anti-malware products we have to consider a few different things, including the following:
- Is it really an anti-malware product? Is it at least basically functional?
- Can it determine a good quantity of common malware, without blocking lots of useful software?
- Can it stop the malware, as well as simply detecting it?
Which enterprise anti-virus?
Everyone tells you that you need it, but which one?
Which enterprise anti-virus is the best? Our reports help you choose the most appropriate enterprise anti-malware product that can protect your organisation from ransomware and other types of attack.
Choose the best enterprise anti-malware solution
Classic cybersecurity advice always includes a plea to, “install anti-virus” or “use endpoint protection software”. Journalists, bloggers and even governments hand this information out, as if it helps. Most platforms, including Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS, include anti-virus so the question then becomes, “which enterprise anti-virus?”
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How do you choose?
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides some mature and detailed advice but stops short of helping readers work out which products might be most suitable. The only time it tries to help in this respect ends in a bizarre suggestion that you might prefer a product that implements the Anti-Malware Scan Interface (AMSI). This feature is only relevant if you are developing security software yourself.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the US gives advice on stopping ransomware. At the bottom of the list, including useful items such as, “update and patch” and “keep your personal information safe” is the instruction to, “install antivirus software, firewalls and email filters.” Nowhere does any such organisation help you choose which is the best or most appropriate for your organisation.
When you search for, “best business anti-virus” or, worse, “best home anti-virus” you’ll see millions of links to better or lesser-known magazine websites and slightly shady reseller’s blogs. Some of the most respectable technical websites run sensible and unbiased reviews and there’s where you start to get somewhere: opinions on interfaces and prices. But how effective are these products?
Find the best reviews
The best reviewers delegate the really technical business of testing endpoint security to the professional testers. If you read their reviews you’ll see our name in there somewhere.
This is because organisations such as SE Labs spend all of their time testing security products – it’s what we specialise in. In our case we learn how the criminals behave and then copy them closely. This produces the most realistic results you can hope to see in a public security test. We also ensure that our reports are reviewed by the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) to validate that we’ve tested fairly.
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.
Choose the best enterprise endpoint security solution
Choose the best enterprise endpoint security solution
Welcome to the first edition of the Enterprise Advanced Security test that compares different endpoint security products directly. We look at how they handle the major threats that face all businesses, from the Global 100, down to medium enterprises. And most likely small businesses, too.
We give an overall score but also dig down into the details that your security team will care about. This report explains the different levels of coverage that these products provide.
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Product factsheets:
An Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) product is more than anti-virus, which is why it requires advanced testing. This means testers must behave like real attackers, following every step of
an attack.
While it’s tempting to save time by taking shortcuts, a tester must go through an entire attack to truly understand the capabilities of EDR security products.
Full attack chain testing
Each step of the attack must be realistic too. You can’t just make up what you think bad guys are doing and hope you’re right. This is why SE Labs tracks cybercriminal behaviour and builds tests based on how bad guys try to compromise victims.
The cybersecurity industry is familiar with the concept of the ‘attack chain’, which is the combination of those attack steps.
Fortunately the MITRE organisation has documented each step with its ATT&CK framework. While this doesn’t give an exact blueprint for realistic attacks, it does present a general structure that testers, security vendors and customers (you!) can use to run tests and understand test results.
The Enterprise Advanced Security tests that SE Labs runs are based on real attackers’ behaviour. This means we can present how we run those attacks using a MITRE ATT&CK-style format.
Endpoint Detection Compared
You can see how ATT&CK lists out the details of each attack, and how we represent the way we tested, in Appendix A: Threat Intelligence, starting on page 15. This brings two main advantages: you can have confidence that the way we test is realistic and relevant, and you’re probably already familiar with this way of illustrating cyber attacks.
