Security Shootout: 10 Top Antivirus Apps Put to the Test

Posted 04/16/2010 at 12:17pm | by Paul Lilly

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The Pros and Cons of an Internet-Based AV Approach

We get it—you’re a power user who pushes the limits of your PC, and you’re not about to stuff a full-blown security suite into your finely tuned rig, no matter how lean the footprint might be. After all, if you’re not doing anything risky, then you have little to worry about, right?

Fair enough, but keep in mind there are some things that are simply out of your control. USB keys, digital photo frames, and even driver discs have been found to contain malware. So even if you refuse to install AV software, you should consider turning to the cloud once a month.

Almost every major AV vendor offers free online scanning, but there are pros and cons to this approach. On the plus side, cloud-based scanners tend to always be up to date, and because you’re not installing any software, there’s nothing to rob your system of any resources. Groovy, right? Not so fast, Peter Brady. By relying solely on the cloud, there’s nothing to stop your system from becoming infected in the first place, whereas taking a proactive approach effectively puts up a wall against malware.

When it comes to checking out just a file or two, we especially like Virus Total (www.virustotal.com). After you upload the questionable file, Virus Total taps into 40 different updated scan engines, so if the file turns out to be dirty, there’s a good chance one of the engines will catch it. For more comprehensive scanning, head over to Panda ActiveScan 2.0 (http://bit.ly/2T0ite).

New Threats Call for a New Breed of Antivirus

Most tech historians credit Richard Skrenta for having written the world’s first computer virus. At the time a 15-year-old freshman in high school, Skrenta wrote what would be called “Elk Cloner” on an Apple II computer as a practical joke.

Today, there are more than a million viruses in the wild, but it’s not just the sheer numbers that pose a problem for antivirus programs. The biggest issue for AV software is how to detect a virus strain never before seen, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Worms like Conficker end up costing corporations millions of dollars while continuing to evolve at a rapid pace.

It’s no longer enough to simply update AV definitions when new threats are detected, and while pulse updates—minor updates throughout the day rather than one big one every 24 hours—have helped, AV vendors have had to get just as creative as the hackers they’re trying to combat. AV apps now employ heuristic scanning, whereby the scan engine looks at certain instructions or commands that are out of the ordinary. A good scanner will also look for signs of suspicious behavior, such as attempting to change security settings or copying files to system directories. When it detects pieces of code or behaviors that aren’t consistent with how most clean programs operate, it’s a red flag that something malicious might be going on.

In the end, the best line of defense is still you, the user. Rely on smart computing first and your AV software second.

The Final Word

What became all too obvious during our comparative evaluation of AV suites is that a strict appraisal of feature lists, and even performance numbers, tells just part of the story. Only by using these apps in a real-world way were we able to conclude, for example, that ESET Smart Security remains a favorite, that the free Microsoft Security Essentials is a great solution for cheapskates, that McAfee has redeemed itself, and that Trend Micro Internet Security Pro just plain sucks.

All compared AV apps also employed heuristic analysis.