AV-Test and AV-Comparatives regularly examine popular antivirus suites for Windows. The latest test results show a negative outlier.

There is an overabundance of antivirus software on the market today. Microsoft Defender is already available to Windows users as standard, but many users opt for an additional solution. The comparison tests from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives will help you find the best solution. Both testing platforms have announced their latest results.

AV-Test uses three parameters to generate a report for each suite: protection, performance and usability. Each of these parameters is rated on a scale of six. X antivirus suites achieve the top grade in the final test:

• Avast
• Avira
• Bitdefender
• Kaspersky
• McAfee
• Trend Micro

AVG, F-Secure, Microsoft Defender and Norton also receive a nice award from AV-Test, but these solutions do not achieve the optimal score for performance and efficiency.

Negative outlier

An antivirus solution also stands out, but in a negative sense: Bkav. This is originally Vietnamese antivirus software that is particularly popular in the home market. It is a lesser-known name in our region, and that turns out to be completely justified. AV-Test included Bkav in its tests for the first time and the antivirus program performed anything but positively.

Bkav barely scored three out of six points in the safety area. In particular, the antivirus appears to be inept at zero-day attacks, of which it only stops 54.5 percent, while other packages stop an average of 99 percent. Ease of use is also a big concern: Bkav gave 258 false positives, compared to the average of one. Fortunately, there is a silver lining: Bkav achieves a performance rating of 5.5, performing just as well as Microsoft Defender in this area.

Fell for

We also take a look at the ratings that AV-Comparatives gives. This test releases ten thousand malware samples onto a device to calculate the protection level. Bitdefender and Norton were caught almost twice, with Bitdefender winning on points due to the lower number of positive results (two against twelve). Trend Micro was deceived 205 times, F-Secure gave the highest number of false positives (25).