March 02, 2023 | Text: Markus Selinger | Awards
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AV-TEST Award 2022: Tested and Award-Winning Security

For many security manufacturers, it is once again time for a small drumroll: The lab at AV-TEST evaluated all the test data of the year 2022 and determined the best products in their test category. Now it is time to recognize these software products with the international accolade for IT security, the AV-TEST Award. This year, the AV-TEST Institute is giving a total of 27 awards to products from 14 well-known security companies. Also this year, the institute is giving initial awards for ADVANCED PROTECTION under Windows, alongside previous test categories of PROTECTION, PERFORMANCE and USABILITY for Windows, as well as ANDROID SECURITY and MAC SECURITY. In all categories, AV-TEST is recognizing products for consumer users and for companies with the coveted award. The curtain’s up and it’s time for the winners to take the stage.

AV-TEST Awards 2022: Only the best security products receive the AV-TEST Award.
AV-TEST Awards 2022:

Only the best security products receive the AV-TEST Award.

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A turbulent year with malware, botnets, ransomware and APT groups 

After cybergangsters used the year 2021 with its many pandemic challenges, such as home office or mobile office working, for attacks, some experts expected to see an ebb of cyberattacks for 2022. But the year 2022 turned out completely different than expected: Botnets pounced on vulnerabilities, proliferating exploits and putting lots of servers under pressure with DDoS attacks. Many APT groups expanded their attacks with ransomware, refining the digital blackmail of their victims with devious methods. Spam and phishing also surged at times, which could hardly have been expected. 

Security systems and software solutions have put up a defense against mounting cyber risks, and they have done so with a high level of success. After all, if you more closely examine why a PC of a consumer user or that of a corporate user has been hit by a cyberattack, it is normally due to carelessness, such as false trust, forgotten updates or missing security modules. 

Malware samples in the billions

Just how heavily the teams of attackers have geared up is also manifest in an enormous number: At the turn of the year 2022 to 2023, AV-TEST registered more than 1 billion malware samples for Windows in its database. The constantly moving wave of attacks is broken by the existing security solutions for consumer users and companies under Windows, Android and MacOS. In their class, the products are required to detect the more than 1 billion malware samples for Windows, the 33 million dangerous apps for Android and the more than 900,000 special malware variants for MacOS. These high numbers are already documented by the respective malware detection in the AV-ATLAS statistics tool.

But do the security products in the market really identify all variants of malware samples? Which of the solutions fulfill their promise to deliver the highest level of protection under Windows, Android or MacOS? All the answers to these questions are provided by the continuous product tests in the independent labs of the AV-TEST Institute. The experts there evaluate the lion's share of products in the market at regular intervals according to pre-determined and transparent test rules.

Here is how AV-TEST gives the awards

The classical test categories are PROTECTION (protection function), PERFORMANCE (speed) and USABILITY (user-friendliness) for each product, whether it is evaluated under Windows, Android or MacOS. A distinction is also made between user groups: In each category, the laboratory tests the products for consumer users and corporate users. The constantly revised tables of results on the AV-TEST website quickly reveal the products that are able to fend off thousands of new malware variants – and those that are not. 

The 2022 Awards feature a new category: Starting this year, the team from AV-TEST is also giving awards in the category of ADVANCED PROTECTION under Windows. For these live tests, products are required to fend off ransomware, for example, and the lab evaluates the attack and its prevention in concrete terms, step by step. 

Among Windows products, the AV-TEST Institute confers awards in the categories of Best Protection, Best Performance and Best Usability, and also Best Advanced Protection. For the protection of Android and MacOS, the institute gives additional Best Android Security and Best MacOS Security awards. The accolades are awarded for both consumer products and solutions used in a corporate environment.

In the overall evaluation of tests in the year 2022, some products managed to achieve several top rankings. However, the products do not have to share the award, quite the contrary: In these cases, AV-TEST is pleased to confer several awards in one category to the winners for their outstanding performance.

AV-TEST Award Best Protection 2022

Best protection for consumer users:
Avast Free AntiVirus
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Best protection for consumer users:
AVG Internet Security
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Best protection for consumer users:
Avira Internet Security for Windows
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Best protection for consumer users:
McAfee Total Protection
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Best protection for consumer users:
Norton mit Norton 360
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For outstanding performance in protection against malware under Windows for consumer user products in the test period of 2022, the AV-TEST Institute confers the AV-TEST Best Protection 2022 Award for consumer users to Avast Free AntiVirus, AVG Internet Security, Avira Internet Security for Windows, McAfee Total Protection and Norton with Norton 360.

Best protection for corporate users:
Symantec (Broadcom) Endpoint Security Complete
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Best protection for corporate users:
Trend Micro Apex One
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In view of perfect protection against malware, far above the industry average, the independent test institute AV-TEST is giving the Best Protection 2022 Award for security solutions for corporate users under Windows to the security products Symantec (Broadcom) Endpoint Security Complete and Trend Micro Apex One.

AV-TEST Award Best Performance 2022

Best performance for consumer users:
PC Matic Application Whitelisting
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Good security products work quickly, silently and unobtrusively in the background. That is why they are also not supposed to show a conspicuously high system load under Windows. In the test period of 2022, a product for consumer users showed consistently that it not only provides strong protection, but also conserves system resources. For this, the institute is giving the AV-TEST Best Performance 2022 Award to the consumer user product PC Matic Application Whitelisting.

Best performance for corporate users:
Kaspersky Internet Security
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The protection of office PCs and notebooks with Windows needs to be good, and above all, it needs to occur with a low system load. Because especially in offices, the workstation PCs are not always new and fast. For its especially economical use of Windows system resources, the lab from AV-TEST is recognizing the corporate solution Kaspersky Endpoint Security with the AV-TEST Best Performance Award 2022.

AV-TEST Award Best Usability 2022

Best usability for consumer users:
Kaspersky Internet Security
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Every false malware warning on a Windows PC is terribly unsettling for users and actually should not happen to a security program. That is why the lab evaluates in each test as to whether the security helpers are also able to distinguish between harmless and malware applications. For the best performance in this category, the institute is conferring the AV-TEST Best Usability 2022 Award to the security software for consumer users Kaspersky Internet Security.

Best usability for corporate users:
G DATA Endpoint Protection Business
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Best usability for corporate users:
Kaspersky Endpoint Security
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Best usability for corporate users:
Kaspersky Small Office Security
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In times of heavy ransomware and phishing attacks, security teams in corporate environments react quite nervously to any alarm sounded by an endpoint security solution for Windows. For less workload in the SOC team and IT support, solutions should not cause so-called false positives. For their outstanding performance in the detection of harmless or dangerous applications under Windows systems, the team from AV-TEST is conferring the Best Usability 2022 Award to the corporate solutions G DATA Endpoint Protection Business, Kaspersky Endpoint Security and Kaspersky Small Office Security.

AV-TEST Award Best Advanced Protection 2022

Best advanced protection for consumer users:
Microsoft Defender
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Best advanced protection for consumer users:
PC Matic Application Whitelisting
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For the first time in its 12-year award history, the AV-TEST Institute is conferring some awards in the category of ADVANCED PROTECTION. For live tests in the lab, consumer user products under Windows are required to fend off ransomware, for example. The lab evaluates the attack and its prevention step by step and awards its protection score. For outstanding enhanced protection against malware for consumer user products, AV-TEST is conferring the Best Advanced Protection 2022 Award to Microsoft Defender Antivirus and PC Matic Application Whitelisting.

Best advanced protection for corporate users:
Microsoft Defender Antivirus
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Best advanced protection for corporate users:
Xcitium Client Security
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In its new award category ADVANCED PROTECTION, the lab from AV-TEST recognizes superior protection solutions for corporate users, which are evaluated step by step in a live test. In doing so, it analyzes whether ransomware is detected, for example, or in which stage it is stopped fully or partially, or not at all. In terms of corporate user products with a consistently high protection score, AV-TEST is recognizing Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Xcitium Client Security with the AV-TEST Best Advanced Protection 2022 Award.

AV-TEST Award Best Android Security 2022

Best Android Security for consumer users:
Avast Mobile Security
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Best Android Security for consumer users:
AVG AntiVirus Free
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Best Android Security for consumer users:
Bitdefender Mobile Security
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Best Android Security for consumer users:
Norton mit Norton 360
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Best Android Security for consumer users:
Trend Micro Mobile Security
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Some claim that the smartphone has now replaced the dog as man's most faithful companion. Today's mobile devices running Android are not only popular among consumer users, but also among cybercriminals, specifically as a target. For the best protection against apps infected with malware from all possible sources, the lab evaluates security apps for Android devices throughout the year. For peak performance and extraordinary overall protection of consumer users, the AV-TEST Institute is conferring the Best Android Security 2022 Award to the security apps Avast Mobile Security, AVG AntiVirus Free, Bitdefender Mobile Security, Norton with Norton 360 and Trend Micro Mobile Security.

AV-TEST Award Best MacOS Security 2022

Best Mac Security for consumer users:
Avast Security
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Best Mac Security for consumer users:
AVG AntiVirus
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Best Mac Security for consumer users:
Norton mit Norton 360
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Best Mac Security for consumer users:
Trend Micro Antivirus
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It took some time before so-called experts also acknowledged the growing cyber risk for private users of MacOS devices. While Apple is already doing a good job with MacOS, users seeking more security should opt for security software. The lab at AV-TEST discovered the best system watchdogs for MacOS in continuous tests in 2022. For its special performance in protecting MacOS PCs for consumer users, the institute is conferring the AV-TEST Best MacOS Security 2022 Award to Avast Security, AVG AntiVirus, Norton 360 and Trend Micro Antivirus.

Best Mac Security for corporate users:
CrowdStrike Falcon
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Although Windows PCs predominate in corporate environments, a large number of office PCs with MacOS systems do in fact exist. Corporate user PCs running on MacOS are not immune to security threats such as ransomware, which makes it necessary to protect these systems especially well. The best endpoint security solution tested in the AV-TEST lab is receiving the AV-TEST Best MacOS Security 2022 Award for its exceptional performance: CrowdStrike Falcon

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