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For years, Microsoft's antivirus has been the sad sack in antivirus tests. Several labs have taken to calling Microsoft's performance a baseline. If you can't beat the baseline, you're doing something wrong. That trend seems to be changing, though. In the latest test results reported by AV-Test Institute, Microsoft earned a respectable 14 points (out of a possible 18). That's a lot better than its previous score of 9.5 points; 10 points is the minimum to pass this test.

It seems that Microsoft is on a roll. Dennis Technology Labs certifies antivirus products at a number of different levels: AAA, AA, A, B, and C. For the first time, Microsoft managed AAA certification.

Real-Life Malware

The researchers at Dennis Labs search for websites hosting drive-by downloads and other types of attacks. They capture the entire contents of each attack page and use a playback system to expose each antivirus to precisely the same attack. This kind of testing is quite labor-intensive. Dennis Labs typically evaluates nine or 10 products, where AV-Test and AV-Comparatives include over 20.

An antivirus product that detects the launch of malware and neutralizes the malicious process gets one point. If it also removes all executable traces of the malware, that's worth another point. For the best scenario, when the antivirus completely prevents execution of malware, three points are awarded.

Points go both ways, though. If the malware slips past the antivirus and runs rampant on the test system, that takes away five points. In past years, Microsoft frequently wound up with a below-zero total score.

The final score also takes into account false positives, meaning erroneous identification of legitimate files as malware. Microsoft earned a perfect score in the false positive test, as did Kaspersky£35.99 at Kaspersky UK, Norton£39.99 at NortonLifeLock, and a few others.

Kaspersky, Norton, Trend Micro, ESET, and Microsoft all earned AAA certification. The remaining products all took AA certification; there was no score lower than AA.

What Happened to Enterprise?

I follow the periodic consumer product tests released by Dennis Labs, but the researchers there also test SMB and Enterprise products. I don't normally look at those other reports, but the Technical Director of the Labs suggested I should take a peek this time.

As noted, the free, tiny Microsoft consumer product managed AAA certification for the first time. However, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection, the Enterprise-level product, completely tanked. It didn't even score well enough to merit certification at the C level. Most of the other products came in at the AAA level, a couple at the A level.

I can't explain that discrepancy, nor can the researchers at Dennis Labs. All I can do is congratulate Microsoft on the success achieved by the free consumer-facing product.

Image courtesy of Flickr User ToddABishop.