

Tested with these same samples, Cylance, F-Secure Anti-Virus, and McAfee managed 93 percent protection and 9.3 points. Overall, it scored 89 percent detection and 8.6 of 10 possible points. The threats it detected still managed to plant some executable files on the test system. Avira detected some, but not all, of those. To complete the test, I launched each sample that survived the initial massacre. Avira detected all but one of the same samples from this hand-modified set, suggesting that its signature-based malware detection isn't too rigid. Specifically, I change the filename, append zeroes to change the length of the file, and tweak a few non-executable bytes. And it eliminated 83 percent of the samples at this stage, just by looking at them.Īs a further test of this simple on-access scanning, I use a second set of samples, created by modifying each of the originals. It did pop up a couple of those small floating windows, but they finished and vanished quickly. This time around the process was much calmer.
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It popped up warnings about having detected one, or three, or 15 samples, and cluttered the desktop with small floating windows labeled "Luke Filewalker" and other captioned "System is being scanned." It even wanted a reboot, even though all it had seen was static samples, no malware execution. When I last evaluated Avira, it made quite a fuss during my first test, which simply involves opening a folder containing malware samples that I've analyzed by hand. Even so, I still run my hands-on malware protection tests, to get a feel for how the product does its job. Those impressive lab test scores mean that Avira can resist against malware attack. At the top, Bitdefender's aggregate score was 9.9, and Kaspersky took perfect scores in all the latest tests, resulting in a perfect 10 points. Avast Free Antivirus also managed 9.4 points.

Tested by all four labs, Avira scored 9.4 of 10 possible points, which is quite good. I use an algorithm to map all the scores onto a 10-point scale and come up with an aggregate result.

Along with Bitdefender, F-Secure, and Kaspersky Free, Avira managed Level 1 certification. This lab's other main test evaluates protection against a spectrum of malware types, offering Level 1 certification to products that completely prevent all the attacks, and Level 2 to those that remediate the effects of an attack within 24 hours. And fail is just what Avira did in this lab's banking Trojans test, along with more than half of the other tested products. If products don't achieve near-perfect protection, they simply fail. Scoring of tests from MRG-Effitas is a bit different from the rest. Along with Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Sophos, and several others, Avira took the top score, AAA certification. Products can earn certification at five levels: AAA, AA, A, B, or C. The techs at SE Labs search the web for real-world malicious websites and use a capture and replay system to hit multiple antivirus utilities with the exact same attack. Avira earned a perfect 18 points in this test, along with Kaspersky and McAfee. To cover all facets of antivirus functionality, AV-Test Institute rates products on how well they protect against malware, how little they interfere with performance, and how carefully they avoid flagging valid programs or websites as malware, with 6 possible points in each area.
