AV-Comparatives, a company specializing in the comparison of anti-malware programs, has published the results of its latest study, which includes tests conducted between the most popular antiviruses on the market in the months of July and August 2022, and… the usual trend is confirmed. O.

More or less because the most effective antiviruses according to AV-Comparatives are, with exceptions, almost common. In this comparison Avast Free Antivirus, AVG Free Antivirus, Avira Prime First, G Data Total Security and Trend Micro Internet Security follow, they are based on the best of a total of seventeen alternatives, among which, yes, the one from Microsoft is also counted.

Entering the topic with some context, AV-Comparatives’ “real-world protection” test suite is designed to determine the anti-malware protection capabilities of a connected system and web interaction scenario. Basically, they are dedicated to dealing with “harmful URLs” of all kinds.

The table showing the results of AV-Comparatives therefore distinguishes between four factors: “blocked” or successfully blocked malicious content; “compromised” or content that is not blocked and is likely to compromise the system; “user dependent” or when user intervention is necessary to prevent or resolve a problem; and ‘false positive’, or… you get the idea.

Well, as you can see the aforementioned Avast Free Antivirus, AVG Free Antivirus, Avira Prime, G Data Total Security and Trend Micro Internet Security are the only ones that come out of the test unscathed, while there are those that fall where it hurts. the most, which is in the failure to detect malware capable of infection. And they are familiar names.

The worst performers are ESET Internet Security, Malwarebytes Premium, K7 Total Security, Total Defense Essential Antivirus and TotalAV Antivirus Pro, but also Microsoft Defender, which is also growing in false alarm detection, an aspect in which both G Data and Trend Micro also stand out for the worse. Overall, however, Malwarebytes, K7 and NortonLifeLock Norton 360 Deluxe come out worst in this comparison.

In this regard, it is worth noting that, except in the most extreme cases, the differences with respect to the type of test, the sample and the number of tests performed are not very significant. Another factor to consider is that the level of protection depends on much more than what is assumed keep the system and all sensitive software up to date read browsers and anything that connects to the internet.

Despite this, AV-Comparatives’ back-to-back tests include thousands of malicious URLs throughout the year, and this trend is worth noting. And this trend tells us that Microsoft Defender is not the best antivirus, especially when working offline; and is still one of the most recommended.