Microsoft Security Essentials gets certified

AV-Test.org, a group with more than 15 years of experience in the area of anti-virus research and data security, has given Microsoft Security Essentials their certificate of approval. They tested 19 anti-virus and security applications in the second quarter this year, all but four certified: Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010, BullGuard Internet Security 9.0, Norman Security Suite 8.0 and McAfee Internet Security 2010.

The AV-Test team said, "During April, May and June 2010 we continuously evaluated 19 security products using their default settings. 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."

The products were tested according to following categories:

• Protection - static and dynamic malware detection, including testing for real-world 0-Day attacks.
• Repair - system disinfection and rootkit removal
• Usability - amount of system slow-down caused by the tools and the number of false positives.

The anti-virus applications were scored from 0.0 (worst) to 6.0 (best), Windows Security Essentials scored a 4.0 in Protection, a 4.5 in Repair and a 5.5 in Usability.

The Windows Security Blog was happy about the certification and said, "the most important validation of AV quality comes from independent certification organizations like VB100, AV-Test and others. With the current version of Microsoft Security Essentials and the new version now available in beta, our commitment remains constant: to provide security you can trust that is easy to use and provides protection that runs quietly and efficiently in the background, ensuring a great Windows user experience."

The three applications that tested highest were Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2010 and Panda Internet Security 2010. None of the applications tested scored higher than a 5.5.

Thanks to forum user Shayla for the news tip.