Symantec: Endpoint Protection

During September and October 2011 we continuously evaluated 7 endpoint protection products using settings as provided by the vendor. We always used the most current publicly-available version of all products for the testing. They were allowed to update themselves at any time and query their in-the-cloud services. We focused on realistic test scenarios and challenged the products against real-world threats. Products had to demonstrate their capabilities using all components and protection layers.

Protection Protection against malware infections (such as viruses, worms or Trojan horses)			Sep	Oct
Protection against 0-day malware attacks, inclusive of web and e-mail threats (Real-World Testing)	Industry average: 94 Samples used: 104	in %	100	100
Detection of a representative set of malware discovered in the last 2-3 months (AV-TEST reference set)	Industry average: 99 Samples used: 248,788	in %	99	96
Detection of widespread and prevalent malware (according to AV-TEST data)	Industry average: 100 Samples used: 5,000	in %	100	100
Protection Score: 4.5/6.0

Repair Cleaning and repair of a malware-infected computer			Sep	Oct
Detection of actively running widespread malware (including Rootkits and stealth malware)	Industry average: 97 Samples used: 37	in %	100
Removal of all active components of widespread malware (including Rootkits and stealth malware)	Industry average: 84 Samples used: 37	in %	92
Removal of further malicious components and remediation of critical system modifications	Industry average: 68 Samples used: 37	in %	78
Repair Score: 5.0/6.0

Usability Impact of the security software on the usability of the whole computer (lower values indicate better results)			Sep	Oct
Average slow-down of the computer by the security software in daily use	Industry average: 10 Number of test cases: 5	in s	5
False detections of legitimate software as malware during a system scan (false positives)	Industry average: 3 Samples used: 450,772	in #	3	5
False warnings of certain actions during download, installation and use of legitimate software	Industry average: 0 Samples used: 30	in #	0
False blockings of certain actions during download, installation and use of legitimate software	Industry average: 0 Samples used: 30	in #	0
Usability Score: 5.0/6.0