Competitive Benchmarks: AV-Test.org

SMB Endpoint Testing Results

In May 2011, AV-Test.org performed endpoint security benchmark testing on five market-leading SMB endpoint solutions from Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, ESET, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro. The Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security outperformed its peer competitive products in the overall results and Exposure Layer results.

Testing Methodology

Traditional tests have focused on identifying the product that can best detect a set of known malware files during a closed test. This type of testing is outdated and does not take into account how threats typically propagate today, or how computers are used. In this test, AV-Test.org utilized a testing methodology that is more real-world focused in which the samples are malicious URLs with associated malware files and allowed the solutions to block threats at their source (Exposure Layer), during download (Infection Layer) or on execution (Dynamic Layer). Also tested is the ability to source, analyze and protect against any samples that went undetected during the first round by re-testing 1 hour later.

Trend Micro outperforms all other vendors

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And in the time to protect category, Trend Micro performed well.

Why Trend Micro outperformed the competition

Trend Micro has outperformed the competition in a number of recent tests (See NSS Labs and Dennis Technology Labs) due to the Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure that powers products for consumer, SMB, Enterprise, Partner and SaaS customers but also powers our mobile, endpoint, server, messaging, gateway and SaaS solutions. This unique cloud-client architecture that uses Smart feedback to source new potential threats, patent-pending correlation to analyze multiple threat vectors (web, email, file) in real-time and in-the-cloud reputation databases to deliver protection wherever our customers connect, allows Trend Micro to react faster than other vendors against new threats. Our cloud-based protection network is the most evolved and comprehensive network in the industry blocking billions of email, web and file-based threats targeting our customers daily.

Trend Micro Consistency over Time

Traditional tests have focused on identifying the product that can best detect a set of known malware files during a closed test. This type of testing is outdated and does not take into account how threats typically propagate today, or how computers are used. As such, Trend Micro has been commissioning AV-Test.org monthly to utilize a testing methodology that is more real-world focused in which the samples are malicious URLs with associated malware files and allowed the solutions to block threats at their source (Exposure Layer), during download (Infection Layer) or upon execution (Dynamic Layer). Also tested was the ability to source, analyze and protect against any samples that went undetected during the first round by re-testing 1 hour later. Over time, it has become apparent that Trend Micro’s approach using the Smart Protection Network and multiple layers of protection has identified an ability to consistently block real-world threats more effectively than its competitors.

From the chart below, you see the overall results for each product tested (Enterprise Endpoint Solutions) since May 2010 through May 2011. Most vendors have wide fluctuations or lower numbers in their results which are due to a number of factors:

1. Vendor is still focused on file-based protection which is difficult to keep updated with the number of new threats being released each hour.
2. Vendor does not provide blocking of malicious URLs, which is the source of most infections today.
3. Vendor does not have automated sourcing of unknown threats.
4. Vendor does not have automatic correlation of new threat data in order to quickly identify unknown threats
5. Vendor does not have cloud-based protection and still requires signature files to be delivered to each and every endpoint computer, thus delaying the time to protect.

Why Trend Micro outperformed the competition

Trend Micro has outperformed the competition in a number of recent tests (See NSS Labs and Dennis Technology Labs) due to the Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure that powers products for consumer, SMB, Enterprise, Partner and SaaS customers but also powers our mobile, endpoint, server, messaging, gateway and SaaS solutions. This unique cloud-client architecture that uses Smart feedback to source new potential threats, patent-pending correlation to analyze multiple threat vectors (web, email, file) in real-time and in-the-cloud reputation databases to deliver protection wherever our customers connect, allows Trend Micro to react faster than other vendors against new threats. Our cloud-based protection network is the most evolved and comprehensive network in the industry blocking billions of email, web and file-based threats targeting our customers daily.

Archives

• December 2009 (PDF)
• June 2010 (PDF)
• October 2010 (PDF)
• January 2011 (PDF)