Curiously, there has been a constant fall in the number of participants whose solutions reached the end of the tests and were certified. Specifically: in 2020 there were six VPN packages, in 2021 – three, and finally, this year there were only two left: Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection and Norton Secure VPN (bringing to mind the “Highlander” movie tagline: “There can only be one”). The reason is that participants in a public certification test may choose not to have their results published if either they’re not satisfied with them or their products don’t meet the certification requirements.

This certification test evaluates many factors that affect usage of a VPN: usability, OS compatibility, server locations, upload and download speeds, security, transparency, etc. We were confident in both the stability and security level provided by our VPN solution, so were most interested in the additional performance comparisons with the other VPN products available on the market. Having that in mind, and before the public certification test was started, we asked AV-TEST to test an additional six VPN solutions fully in parallel with the public certification performance test and in full accordance with its methodology. As a result, an extended performance comparative report was published.

The participating VPNs were tested for both their download and upload performance, torrent download performance, YouTube streaming, and measured latency at three geographic locations – the U.S. West Coast, the Netherlands, and Japan. All tests were conducted for the “best” local connection as well as two geographic overseas connections. With the public certification test, there was only one difference: the results achieved by any of the tested products were not excluded.

The Magnificent Seven were: Avast SecureLine VPN, ExpressVPN, Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection, Mullvad VPN, NordVPN, Norton Secure VPN, and Private Internet Access.

AV-TEST performed this test in parallel for all products several times a day for a week, which allowed them to average the results of the performance test. So, let’s dive deep into the numbers and see how modern VPN solutions outperform good old dial-up access or ADSL.

The Speedtest, or There and Back Again

For most VPN use cases in everyday life, download speed is more important than upload speed, but for a full-fledged test, one needs to analyze both. The performance test used virtual machines configurations hosted in the Microsoft Azure cloud, and all products were run with their default, out-of-the-box configurations. And trust me, those VMs were pretty good and had a stable and very, very fast internet connection, with reference unencrypted download and upload speeds of up to 9Gbps. Yes, gigabits per second!

The first set of tests – download, upload and latency performances – were conducted using the “industry standard” Ookla LLC speedtest.net command-line application and compared to an unencrypted reference speed benchmark. They show how fast you can surf the web anonymously all around the globe, since all these tests were run for both local and overseas locations, as pictured below.

The comparative test local and overseas connections map

Due to the nature of the technology, using a VPN connection almost always reduces performance, and in the graph below we do see a significant drop in speed compared to an unsecured connection. Such is the price of anonymity. But let’s be honest: compare these values with the bandwidth provided by your ISP, and you’ll realize that in most cases you’ll never notice a drop in speed since your connection is still slower.

The comparative local and overseas results for the unencrypted download and upload performances, and the industry averages for all three tested locations (the more the better)

However, “average performance” is good for statistics and comparisons, but in everyday life you’re unlikely to prefer an “average car”. So let’s compare how fast all the test participants are, and we’ll see a noticeable difference in performance between the winners and the rest:

The combined averages for download and upload performances for local and overseas connected VPN servers (the more the better)

Kaspersky wins almost every race, with the exception of overseas upload average performance due to an unpatched server issue that had not been fixed at the time of testing.

The Latency of Clouds

– What do we want?
– When do we want it?
– Lag-free gaming!
– Now!

Ping time is vital for gamers. If the ping is too slow, players can react as fast as they want, but their reaction in the games they play doesn’t get through due to latency. In the public certification test, Kaspersky VPN showed an average local latency of 5.3 milliseconds across all locations compared to Norton Secure VPN’s average latency of 13 milliseconds (Boom! You lose). In the extended comparative test it shared second place in the local latency test with NordVPN – just behind Mullvad VPN – thus beating the industry average for VPNs. The overseas latency test showed no differences worth mentioning when comparing VPN products, as well as when comparing them to an unencrypted reference.

Leechers in the dark

Where do we value privacy the most? With good old torrents, for sure. Therefore, the speed of leeching through a VPN tunnel is critical for all torrent lovers. The test measured the time between the start of downloading a torrent and the end of writing the torrent file to the hard drive through a third-party torrent client.

The combined averages for the torrent download speeds (the more the better). * Norton Secure VPN doesn’t support torrents on tested servers

And here Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection wins again for both local and overseas torrent leeching.

The Tubes Burst

We all love Netflix. Video streaming services are booming and now they generate most internet traffic. And it is these video streaming services that like to annoy the user with geo-blocking the most – but which can be bypassed with a VPN! Therefore, a stable video stream without frame loss and delays through VPN plays such an important role. And here’s some good news for you movie buffs: Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection, as well as all other tested solutions, successfully passed the 4K streaming test with minor issues that users won’t notice (such as a few dropped frames and millisecond range lags).

Over Hill and Under Hill

However, in addition to the performance, it’s worth comparing other parameters of the tested solutions in the public certification test. Compared to Norton Secure VPN, Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection – using the OpenVPN protocol – supports more operating systems (including Linux, ChromeOS, AndroidTV and FireTV), has three times more server locations (90 vs. 29), and successfully passed all transparency tests. But what’s crucial is that Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection showed impeccable leak resistance in all security tests, while Norton Secure VPN allowed a DNS leak on reconnect, briefly exposing the device’s DNS queries.

Transparency is a precious thing

In terms of transparency and confidentiality, Kaspersky takes the privacy of its customers very seriously: the solution doesn’t collect more data than necessary, uses the highest industry standards to secure collected data, and the company regularly gets audited and publishes transparency reports.

Product security is ensured by Kaspersky’s vulnerability management and disclosure program, including its Bug Bounty Program. Kaspersky is also known as a pioneer in the creation of Transparency Centers all over the world to allow independent assessments of the company’s solutions’ security and safety.

The Last Stage

With unmatched performance in most of the speed tests conducted, Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection is the overall fastest VPN product tested in the performance test, and ranked #1 in most of the categories tested. It showed outstanding download and torrent speed in both local and overseas scenarios. In particular, the solution outperforms other participants at least two-fold in terms of overseas data transmission. Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection is the leading product for the local upload test, with results that are twice the industry average.

The measured latency is in the top three among all tested products. Like all other products, Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection had no problems playing 4K video from a local or overseas connection. It’s expected that once the problem with unpatched overseas servers is fixed, the performance of overseas uploads, which is currently below average, will improve significantly. Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection successfully passed all security tests and was awarded the “Approved Virtual Private Network Solution” badge.

And finally, if you’re a number-cruncher, you should definitely check out both reports’ PDFs here and here, where you’ll find plenty of crisp numbers to crunch.

Ah, the title of this post may have given it away, but yes, of course, it’s ransomware (aka cryptomalware, but I’ll stick with the simpler, less tongue-twisting, and professional term ‘ransomware’).

So: ransomware. Bad. How bad?…

Well, it’s actually so bad, and has been so consistently bad for years, so deeply embedded in all things digital, and has so overwhelmed so many large organizations (even indirectly being followed by human deaths), which (large organizations) have forked out so much money to pay ransoms for, that the world’s news media has become almost indifferent to it. It’s stopped being headline news, having been transformed into an every-day casual event. And that’s what’s most worrying of all: it means the cyber-scumbags (apologies for such a strong language, but it’s really the best way to describe these folks) are winning; cyber-extortion is becoming a seemingly inevitable reality of today’s digital world and it seems there’s nothing can be done about it.

And they’re winning for three reasons:

Third (I’ll start at the end): the ‘big boys’ are still playing their schoolyard geopolitical games, which blocks national cyber-polices exchanging operational information for coordinated searching, catching, arresting and charging of ransomware operators.

Second: users aren’t prepared – resilient – enough to respond to such attacks.

And first (most important): not all washing powders are the same anti-ransomware technologies are equally effective – by a long way.

Often, ‘on the tin’, anti-ransomware technologies featured in cybersecurity solutions are claimed to be effective. But in practice they don’t quite do exactly what it says on the tin, or – if they do, consistently. And what does this mean? That users are scandalously unprotected against very professional, technically sophisticated ransomware attacks.

But don’t just take my word for it. Check what the trusted German testing institute – AV-TEST – say. They’ve just published complex research on the ability of cybersecurity products to tackle ransomware. They paid no attention whatsover to marketing claims (à la ‘this deodorant is guaranteed to last for 48 hours’), and didn’t just use widely-know in-the-wild ransomware samples. They besieged several of the top cybersecurity solutions in real ‘battlefield’ conditions, firing at them all sorts of live-ammunition ransomware artillery that’s actually out there today. As mentioned, no in-the-wild samples, but those technically capable of weaponizing a ransomware attack. And what did they find? On the whole – something thoroughly shocking and scary:

Now, simply checking fresh samples of, say, 20 regular ransomware families known to every security vendor (in other words, samples already in the cybersecurity vendors’ databases) – almost all cyber-protection copes well with this.

However, the research objective was to see what happens when things are made tougher – to test as close to real life conditions as possible. How do the products react to new attack methods of ransomware malware? What happens if it covertly penetrates a corporate network and starts causing havoc? How well do the products prevent network attacks where user files in shared folders are encrypted remotely – including network attacks that use ransomware samples that were successfully detected and blocked in the basic initial scenario?

Just three (3!) tested products out of 11 managed to deal with such kinds of new, tricky ransomware attacks. And among them, only our Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud protected user data with a 100% result. Note that attacks aimed at stealing user data are still among the most widespread – posing a serious threat to organizations whose project documentation, customer information, backups and other data are stored in networked locations.

But that’s not all! Are you sitting down?…

Most of the tested security solutions not only failed to detect attacks and protect user files, but also managed to delete the text messages from the cyber-extortionists containing the ransom demands! But those messages can contain the technical information for recovering the encrypted files! This information is what is used by cybersecurity experts in their attempts to help the victim: to identify the malware, find a vulnerability in the encryption algorithm, and either develop a decryptor for retrieving valuable data or suggest resorting to an existing decryptor from independent open sources (for example, No More Ransom).

Not fallen off your chair yet? Good. Then we’ll add some more findings that may amaze you…

AV-TEST also checked how well the security solutions do examining ‘entrails’ of ransomware still poorly used in-the-wild ransomware or even APTs, but which pose a threat to society as they may start being used soon. For example: abuse of legitimate Windows services, encryption via hard and symbolic links, delayed packet encryption, or encryption via memory-mapped files. Fourteen different techniques in total. And what do you think was found in the testing? Again, it was only our Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud that demonstrated a 100% result: every single user file was protected and all the threats were eliminated from the targeted system!

Oh, and one last thing: only two products were able to roll back changes made to user data after a remote ransomware attack. Needless to say – our product was one of them.

In general, while up in the higher-echelons of world power they’re still squabbling over whose economic-geopolitical model is best, and which products to allow or ban due to their origin and ‘national interests’ – regardless of their actual quality and usefulness for real users – fortunately, users can continue to decide for themselves by choosing the best solution. ‘Best’ as in: the most effective, efficient, reliable and fast, and with a no-compromise approach to stopping attacks of any kind and no matter where from.

So there you have it. A short piece to show you that it’s not only the devil that can hide in the details, but also… a heavenly savior – in this case anti-ransomware tech that… actually works).

You can find more details on the results of the testing in this post.

May the Ransomware Protection Force be with you!

Those aren’t idle questions: Partial protection against ransomware is a dubious achievement. If a solution can’t stop a threat in its tracks, then where is the guarantee that it at least kept critical files safe?

With that in mind, independent company AV-Test put 11 endpoint protection platform products through their paces in 113 different attacks to determine to what extent they actually protect users. AV-Test selected Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud for testing, and our product performed flawlessly throughout. The tests used three scenarios:

Protection of user files against prevalent ransomware

The first test scenario envisaged the most typical ransomware attack, one in which the victim runs malware on their computer, and the malware tries to get to local files. A positive result means the threat was neutralized (that is, all malware files deleted, execution of processes stopped, all attempts to gain a foothold in the system thwarted), with every single user file unencrypted and accessible. AV-Test performed a total of 85 tests in this scenario with the following 20 ransomware families: conti, darkside, fonix, limbozar, lockbit, makop, maze, medusa (ako), mountlocker, nefilim, netwalker (aka mailto), phobos, PYSA (aka mespinoza), Ragnar Locker, ransomexx (aka defray777), revil (aka Sodinokibi or Sodin), ryuk, snatch, stop, and wastedlocker.

In this scenario, nearly every security solution did an excellent job, which is not surprising; it used well-known malware families. The next scenarios were more difficult.

Protection against remote encryption

In the second scenario, the protected machine held files that were accessible over the local network, and the attack came from another computer on the same network (the other computer had no security solution, leaving the attackers free to run the malware, encrypt local files, and then search for accessible information on neighboring hosts). The malware families were: avaddon, conti, fonix, limbozar, lockbit, makop, maze, medusa (ako), nefilim, phobos, Ragnar Locker, Ransomexx (aka defray777), revil (aka Sodinokibi or Sodin), and ryuk.

The security solution, seeing a system process manipulating local files but unable to see the launch of the malware, could not check the reputation of the malicious process or the file that initiated it — or scan the file. As it turned out, of the 11 testees, only three offered any kind of protection against this type of attack, and only Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud handled it perfectly. Moreover, although Sophos’ product was triggered in 93% of cases, it fully protected the user’s files in only 7%.

Protection against proof-of-concept ransomware

The third scenario shows how products cope with malware that they cannot possibly have encountered before and that could not, even hypothetically, be present in malware databases. Because security can identify a yet-unknown threat only by means of proactive technologies that react to the malware’s behavior, the researchers created 14 fresh ransomware samples that employed methods and technologies that cybercriminals rarely use, as well as some original never-before-seen encryption techniques. As in the first scenario, they defined success as threat detection and blocking, including maintaining the integrity of all files on the victim’s machine and completely removing all traces of the threat from the computer.

Results varied, with some (ESET and Webroot) not detecting the custom-made malware at all and others performing better (WatchGuard 86%, TrendMicro 64%, McAfee and Microsoft 50%). The only solution that demonstrated 100% performance was Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud.

Test results

To sum up, Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud outperformed its competitors in all of AV-Test’s scenarios, protecting users against threats both known in the wild and newly created.

Aggregate results of all three test scenarios.

Incidentally, the second scenario revealed another, somewhat unexpected fact: Most of the products that failed to protect users’ files nevertheless removed the ransom note files. Even leaving aside the failure, that’s not good practice; such files may contain technical information that could help incident investigators recover data.

You can download the full report, with a detailed description of the test malware (both known and created by testers), after filling the form below.

That’s where independent testing comes in. Independent expert ratings can be trusted; they are what they say they are. To minimize randomness and get a more meaningful aggregate score, users should base their choice of security solution on several independent tests all at once. Testers don’t work together to compile an overall rating, however. So to make it easier for you to get a handle on all things AV-related, every year we combine the results of various independent studies into the Top 3 metric.

So, what is the Top 3 metric?

The metric is calculated on the basis of tests conducted by the world’s biggest and most reputable labs: AV-Comparatives, AV-Test, SELabs, MRG Effitas, Virus Bulletin, ICSA Labs, and PC Security Labs. We take into account both general and task-specific testing — for example, benchmarking of AV antiransomware performance, analysis of protection mechanisms for Android, measuring of false positives, and so on.

Each vendor’s products have three key stats: number of annual tests; number of top-three finishes; and number of first-place results. To make the results more balanced, companies that rarely reach out to independent experts (those with less than 35% participation rate in tests) are not included in the metric.

In 2017, well-known AV vendors such as Avast, AVG, Avira, BitDefender, ESET, F-Secure, G DATA, McAfee, Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Lab, and many others featured in the Top 3 metric. 133 companies in total. See here for metric details and descriptions.

Top of the class

The undisputed leader over the past twelve months — for the fifth consecutive year! — is Kaspersky Lab. Our products not only were the most tested (86 times), but finished in the top three in 91% of all cases! In total, we scored 78 top-three hits and 72 firsts. For comparison: second-place BitDefender took part in just 61 tests and medaled in 44.

What’s the upshot?

So many golds for our products can mean only one thing: Thanks to Kaspersky Lab’s technological advancement and experience in the field of IT security, our solutions offer the most reliable protection for your devices against any threats, including the newest and most complex, and without crying wolf. And if you’re wondering which awards our products picked up in 2017, and what they mean, check out this post.

Choosing an antivirus solution can be a difficult task; many companies develop AV products, and each one likes to toot its own horn. All the same, you don’t have to take the developer at their word. To help users make an informed decision, independent testing labs regularly conduct research looking into whether a particular solution is good at identifying different malware types, if it runs fast, and whether it triggers false alarms.

Of course, we would like you to choose one of our solutions — but for the right reasons. So, in this post we’ll discuss the awards Kaspersky Lab products have received from independent testing labs. You can find details on the awards in an earlier post.

The most important point is that we receive awards from many test labs. Had Kaspersky Lab products received a bunch of awards from just one organization, the testers’ impartiality or the test’s accuracy could be brought into question. But here, most labs are in agreement. See for yourself:

February 21, 2019, update

In an annual report by independent test lab AV-Test, Kaspersky Lab products received a record number of awards: a total of eight certificates in four categories. Kaspersky Internet Security was honored with three prizes: Best Protection, Best Repair, and Best Usability.

In addition, two of our business products, Kaspersky Endpoint Security and Kaspersky Small Office Security, triggered the fewest false alarms. Our Small Office solution also won the Best Protection award, and Kaspersky Endpoint Security got Best Performance.

Finally, the free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool was named Best Repair utility. Especially gratifying, Virus Removal Tool has now received this award five years running.

February 15, 2019, update

In AV-Comparatives’ independent report for 2018, Kaspersky Internet Security was named a Top Rated Product. Our solution received the maximum score in five out of seven tests and showed outstanding performance in the remaining two.

In addition, our product picked up separate awards in three special nominations: Kaspersky Internet Security was awarded Gold for Malware Removal, Silver for Lowest False Positives, and Bronze for Real-World Protection. AV-Comparatives also noted Kaspersky Internet Security’s user-friendly interface and wide range of additional features.

We congratulate @Kaspersky on receiving AV-Comparatives’ Top Rated Product Award, as well as other awards for individual tests in 2018.https://t.co/Ko931GFgZg pic.twitter.com/gjmlSrzmSo

— AV-Comparatives (@AV_Comparatives) February 15, 2019

January 31, 2019, update

Independent test laboratory AV-Test has awarded our family protection solution, Kaspersky Safe Kids for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android with three “Approved” certificates. As tests have revealed, Kaspersky Safe Kids is more effective than internal operating system tools in blocking inappropriate content. What’s more, Safe Kids can protect children from a wider variety of online dangers. For example, Safe Kids allows you to control private data transfer, protect family budget from online money traps, monitor for cyberbullying as well as help you watch for online grooming and more. As AV-Test experts found out, some of these features are unique to our Safe Kids protection software.

August 20, 2018, update

Kaspersky Internet Security has surpassed a host of rival solutions to receive the annual MRG Effitas Online Banking/Browser Security Award 2017/18 after consistently passing quarterly banking certification tests across a 12-month period. This is the fourth time in a row that our solutions have received this award – and we are the only one to claim it so many times in a row.

July 5, 2018, update

The latest MRG Effitas quarterly assessments showed that our products provide effective protection for both computers and smartphones. Kaspersky Internet Security received a Level 1 Certificate in the Online Banking test — the top award for antivirus software — neutralizing each and every one of more than 300 threats included in the test suite.

In the MRG Effitas 360 test, our solution once again proved to be 100% effective against ransomware and financial malware. Based on the results for the whole test cycle, Kaspersky Internet Security picked up a Level 1 Certificate.

Its mobile cousin Kaspersky Internet Security for Android also scored well and delivered the best performance in both test categories: Early Stage Detection, which tested the antivirus solution’s ability to neutralize threats immediately after download to the device, and Detection During Installation.

Kaspersky Anti-Targeted Attack Platform 2.0.0.122 (KATA) received two new quality certificates from ICSA Labs. During anti-targeted attack test rounds in Q1 and Q2 2018, our product left the competition trailing. For the fifth consecutive time, KATA posted the best result in this category, detecting all threats bar none with no false positives. No other solution in this class can boast of such success.

Meanwhile, SELabs gave its highest award to three of our products all at once. Kaspersky Internet Security neutralized more threats than any other product without a single false positive, becoming the best antivirus product for home PC. Kaspersky Small Office Security took gold for Small Business Anti-Virus Protection, and Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Windows did likewise for Enterprise Anti-Virus Protection. It’s worth noting that all three of our products notched up the highest possible score: 1,116 out of 1,116. No competitor solution achieved such towering results.

Last but not least, one of our most important results came in NSS Labs’ Advanced Endpoint Protection comparative analysis of 20 security products for business. During testing, Kaspersky Endpoint Security detected 99.4% of all threats, again with no false positives. Of particular note is the 100% protection against exploits, blended threats, and advanced evasion techniques, as well as the 100% result in HTTP attack scenarios and malware protection in documents and in offline mode.

As a result of this cumulative assessment, Kaspersky Endpoint Security received the top score in Security Effectiveness among all test participants. After factoring in the total cost of ownership, our solution was given the highly prized Recommended status.

March 21, 2018, update

AV-TEST results for 2017 show that our consumer and corporate products excelled once again, readily repeating last year’s success in the Best Performance, Best Repair, and Best Usability categories. Our flagship product — Kaspersky Internet Security — tops all three. The small business solution Kaspersky Small Office Security won acclaim for its performance, and Kaspersky Endpoint Security for large corporations was noted for the absence of false positives. This year too, the free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool picked up the AV-TEST Best Repair award.

PC Magazine tested and evaluated our parental control solution, Kaspersky Safe Kids, awarding it four stars and calling it “an excellent choice.” The magazine noted that Safe Kids is affordable compared with similar products, and highlighted its flexible settings and impressive set of functions.

Tom’s Guide awarded three of our products. Kaspersky Internet Security received the Best Midrange Antivirus Product, Kaspersky Total Security was named the Best Premium Security Suite, and Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac was called the Best Antivirus for Mac.

March 1, 2018, update

Kaspersky Internet Security for Android placed first in AV-Test’s “The best antivirus software for Android” (January 2018). Our product got 6 out of 6 points for Protection and Usability, plus 1 extra point for Important Security Features.

Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac showed a 100% detection rate for MacOS malware in AV-Test’s “Antivirus Solutions for macOS Sierra.” Testers also highlighted its performance and low system load — the difference in performance between our security solution running and not running is less than 1%, which is unnoticeable in everyday use.

Our Windows flagship product, Kaspersky Internet Security, came in second in German Computer Bild magazine’s 2018 test.

February 19, 2018, update

Most tested, most awarded. In 2017 Kaspersky Lab products participated in 86 independent tests and reviews. Our products were awarded 72 firsts and achieved 78 top-three finishes. The Top 3 metric represents the aggregate scores achieved by over 80 well-known vendors in the security industry’s most respected, independent tests and reviews. Sustained performance across multiple tests and products gives a more meaningful assessment than a one-off performance in a single test.

February 8, 2018, update

Kaspersky Internet Security received MRG Effitas’ principal annual Online Banking/Browser Security Award for the third year in a row. This high level of security is maintained by the Safe Money component built into our security solution.

February 6, 2018, update

Our flagship solution, Kaspersky Internet Security, was awarded AV-Comparatives’ Outstanding Product Award 2017. This is the seventh year in a row our company has demonstrated the highest results on AV Comparatives’ tests. Actually, we are the first and only antivirus solution developer to have achieved such outstanding results.

January 10, 2018, update

PCMag awarded Kaspersky Anti-Virus its Editors’ Choice and named it a pick for Best Antivirus Protection of 2018. In another article, The Best Security Suites of 2018, Kaspersky Internet Security received the same accolade. It’s not the first time we received this award — our products earned the same awards a year earlier.

2016–2017 awards

There are many awards and certificates out there, and some companies are still summarizing the results of 2017, so hopefully, we’ll receive awards from them soon; we will update this post as they come in. For now, here is a list of the most important awards we have already received.

Consumer product awards

Our flagship security solution, Kaspersky Internet Security, participated in the largest number of tests and therefore received the most awards. To begin with, in AV-TEST’s annual analysis, Kaspersky Internet Security won in the Best Performance (more proof that Kaspersky doesn’t cause “lag”) and Best Usability categories, with the lowest false positive rate (i.e., Kaspersky doesn’t raise flags for no reason).

In addition to its top product awards, PCMag named Kaspersky Internet Security an Editors’ Choice. In 2016, AV Comparatives awarded us its Outstanding Security Product Medal and a good number of Advanced+ Certificates for various months, and MRG Effitas testers gave us certificates for passing two tests: an Online Banking Certification Test and the 360-degree Assessment & Certification. The first one means Kaspersky Internet Security is good at protecting online payments and other transactions, and the second one proves it is also good at protecting from a variety of threats, including ransomware. Details about MRG Effitas’ tests and our solutions’ performance on them can be found here.

Independent SE Labs also awarded Kaspersky Internet Security its highest rating, AAA, based on comparative testing. Finally, Virus Bulletin gave us a VB100 Certificate for Kaspersky Internet Security catching 100% of threats and raising zero false flags during its test.

Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Total Security are identical in terms of antivirus engines and security functions (you can learn about the differences between the two here), so you are safe to apply these awards to Total Security as well. They are the same solution, so it is just as reliable, works just as fast, and is just as accurate when distinguishing between malware and benign code. Kaspersky Total Security simply has several additional useful functions.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus has fewer functions and hasn’t participated in as many tests. However, that didn’t prevent it from winning PCMag’s Editors’ Choice award.

The mobile version of our protection solution, called Kaspersky Internet Security for Android, received the AV-TEST certificate.

Another product, Kaspersky Safe Kids, also received two AV-TEST certificates, one for the Android version and the other for the Windows version.

The free Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool was awarded AV-TEST’s Best Repair Award — in other words, the testers found it was the best at restoring a computer after an infection (though the best plan, of course, is not to get infected at all). A complete list of our awards can be found here.

Business product awards

Business products for both enterprises and small businesses received awards just as often as consumer-side applications did — or maybe even more often.

One of the most important was the 2017 Platinum Award from Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice, awarded to Kaspersky Endpoint Security. That award means the users of our solution rated it highly for ease of use, reliability, simplicity of installation, and technical support desk professionalism.

Kaspersky Endpoint Security also received awards from AV-TEST for the lowest false alarms rate and best protection. SE Labs gave our app the highest rating, AAA, and Virus Bulletin gave it a VB100 Certificate, which we discussed above.

Our small business protection solution, Kaspersky Small Office Security, also received an impressive number of awards. AV-TEST gave it three awards: best protection, best performance, and fewest false alarms. The product also received SE Labs’ AAA rating.

Another of our products, Kaspersky Security for Linux Mail Server, received Virus Bulletin’s highest Spam+ Verified rating in spam blocking, for recognizing more than 99.8% of all spam messages.

Summing up

Everyone has the right to say their product is great, but to get a good idea of which protection is really better, don’t just take the developer’s word for it. This is why independent tests exist, and they show that Kaspersky Lab’s products won’t let you down; they are capable of detecting everything that should be detected, and they won’t bother you with false alarms or bog down your computer. You can read more about independent testing and our awards here.

If you download software from official websites only, avoiding torrent trackers and shady forums, there is probably nothing wrong with your apps — you just have a classic false positive. These warnings should not occur; they do nothing but confuse users. In the worst case scenario they might lead to people ignoring or even disabling their antivirus solutions. Every day Internet is topped up with new legitimate apps and important updates that should not be considered dangerous by various security products.

Experts from the independent IT-security laboratory AV-Test spent 14 months — from January 2015 through February 2016 — testing how well 33 security solutions avoided false positives. The laboratory examined 19 consumer antivirus products and 14 solutions for corporate users.

AV-Test checked how well the security solutions blocked or warned users about legitimate websites, software, and certain actions carried out while installing and using legitimate apps.

ICYMI: In 2014, Kaspersky products took part in 93 independent tests & won first place in 51 https://t.co/9sLZpFaeyx pic.twitter.com/toMG7Wwrg6

— Kaspersky Lab (@kaspersky) March 30, 2015

To obtain relevant and reliable test results, AV-Test fed antiviruses a batch of 7.7 million files that included the latest versions of popular programs such as Microsoft Windows 7, 8, and 10 and Microsoft Office. In addition, the laboratory put to the test 7,000 websites and launched 280 applications — twice.

In general, all of the antivirus programs performed quite well. Yet the vast majority failed certain tasks — but not Kaspersky Internet Security, which made it through all of the tests without triggering a single false alarm, leaving Intel Security (McAfee), Bitdefender, AVG, and Microsoft in the dust. As for enterprise software, only Kaspersky Endpoint Security and Kaspersky Small Office Security aced all of the tests error free.

Kaspersky has come out top on an AV-Test speed test! Check out the results here – http://t.co/XZ2juJWnU2 pic.twitter.com/9qA0jaqQ8l

— Kaspersky Lab (@kaspersky) May 2, 2015

This is not the first time Kaspersky Lab has received AV-Test’s recognition. Earlier this year the laboratory called our solutions “the most efficient and reliable system watchdogs”: easy to use, with minimal system load and very strong protection.

We regularly send our solutions for independent analysis to make sure Kaspersky Lab is continuing in the right direction and doing everything we can to keep our clients safe. Having installed Kaspersky Internet Security, you can explore the Internet confident that your security solution will not waste your time with false flags.

Windows 10 is still making its way towards general adoption, but it has already overtook Windows 8.1 with 16.53% (as of March 2016). That’s more than enough to attract attention from cybercrooks; AV-TEST used 140 samples of 0-day malware and 14,658 widespread samples during the protection rate tests.

Microsoft does a great job making its systems secure, but there are many other issues that end-users and businesses may face.

First among the peers: Kaspersky Small Office Security beats competitors #tests, #Windows10

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AV-TEST examined 11 different Windows 10 compatible corporate solutions, among which was Kaspersky Small Office Security. The tests covered three categories, with AV-TEST specialists evaluating protection, speed, and usability.

The protection test took place in two stages. First, protection against 0-day malware attacks, inclusive of web and e-mail threats was tested. Secondly, the solutions were tested in their ability to detect widespread and prevalent malware discovered in the last 4 weeks by AV-TEST. To assess the performance of security solutions under Windows 10 the testers mimicked typical user behavior, launching popular websites, downloading and installing frequently-used applications, and copying of files both locally and in a network.

The usability assessment focused on the influence of the security solution on the usability of the Windows 10 system. Two different factors were considered: how much the user was distracted by warning messages about unknown programs or false positives (users strongly dislike “paranoid” serial warnings), and the false detection of safe programs as malicious software. Overall more than 1.3 million samples were used to examine the false detections rate.

Kaspersky Small Office Security came out ahead of all competitors: it was the only solution to achieve the maximum 6 points in every category for a total of 18 points overall.

This means that Kaspersky Small Office Security is currently the best Windows 10 compatible corporate solution on the market. As Maik Morgenstern, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) AV-TEST pointed out, “Even when the solution is installed using standard settings, it can satisfy the most demanding customer security requirements.”

Kaspersky Small Office Security made it ahead of all competitors in latest examination by #AV-TEST

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Konstantin Voronkov, Kaspersky Lab Head of Endpoint Product Management, commented: “In this age of raising cybercrime Kaspersky Lab is strongly focused on delivering best of breed security solutions that have minimum impact on user productivity. We understand that ransomware, spyware and banking Trojans can not only paralyze businesses but also damage reputations. Kaspersky Lab delivers a truly multilayered protection, which prevents attacks at all stages: from multiple vectors of infection monitoring and prevention, to post-execution applications behavior control. Security is always a tradeoff with usability, and we are proud to be recognized as the best security solution, as well as the solution that has minimum impact on productivity, identifies the minimum level of false positives and maximizes the automatic mitigation and prevention of attacks.”

A detailed report on the tests is available at AV-TEST’s site.

More information on Kaspersky Small Office Security is available here.

Apart from acknowledgement, these tests also let us understand if the company is ready to face new cyber threats. As the results of the last AV-Test evaluations show, we did a good job in 2015.

Kaspersky Internet Security was awarded a pair of first prizes for the best usability and minimum system load, provided together with very strong protection. Our free Virus Removal Tool was also acknowledged as the most efficient system cleanup and repair tool.

RT @kaspersky: Kaspersky products led the way in the Top-3 Protection rating for 2014 http://t.co/UWSajmBYib pic.twitter.com/kMNMeY0sxd

— Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) March 4, 2015

Good protection handles your system resources carefully

During the performance test Kaspersky Internet Security proved that a good security solution demands only few system resources while still providing best protection. But how was the test conducted?

To bring the results closer to reality, AV-TEST experts mimicked typical user behaviour: they launched different websites, downloaded and installed software, copied data and performed other operations. All of these actions were guarded by active security solutions. In all scenarios Kaspersky Internet Security provided minimum load for Windows resources.

The AV-TEST AWARD 2015 'Best Performance' goes to @Kaspersky Internet Security https://t.co/uTXHO6x7uk @e_kaspersky pic.twitter.com/K3BRAydmUf

— AV-TEST GmbH (@avtestorg) February 17, 2016

“The Internet Security Suite from Kaspersky Lab was and is one of the most secure solutions, yet is also so superb in handling PC resources, that this performance deserves an award,” — said Guido Habicht, AV-TEST CEO.

Efficient security solution is easy to use

AV-TEST laboratory awarded Kaspersky Internet Security with another prize — for the best usability. In this research experts evaluated program performance under everyday conditions and how often it comes up with false positives.

The AV-TEST AWARD 2015 'Best Usability' goes to @Kaspersky Internet Security https://t.co/Jzb3WmsLCG @e_kaspersky pic.twitter.com/fOgo3VmhfS

— AV-TEST GmbH (@avtestorg) February 17, 2016

Kaspersky Internet Security was required to visit thousands of websites and monitor hundreds of installations of applications, and scan millions of clean files throughout the year, all of these without classifying these files and processes as suspicious or infected. The solution passed the tests with flying colors.

“The system watchdog Kaspersky Lab Internet Security operates as a powerful, discreet bodyguard in the background and stands for a high level of security,” — summarized Maik Morgenstern, AV-TEST CTO.

The best security solution never leaves users out in the cold

If you don’t have any security software yet, and your PC is facing a state of doom right now, don’t worry: as AV-TEST research revealed, you have free and reliable tool for system cleanup and repair, more specifically — Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool.

The AV-TEST AWARD 2015 'Best Repair' goes to @Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool https://t.co/wHILZbMlrd @e_kaspersky pic.twitter.com/42YKMWADjN

— AV-TEST GmbH (@avtestorg) February 17, 2016

This utility software coped perfectly well with 120 malware pieces and repaired infected system almost from the ruins. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool showed 99% recover rate, while the average result of all other tools was only around 78 percent.

“If it comes to the worst, the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool reliably helps users restore a clean system,” — concluded AV-TEST experts.

AV-Test released a new list of newly reviewed endpoint protection products. Kaspersky Small Office Security product swept the board, getting six out of six marks in all three test categories – protection, performance, and usability.

The comparative tests, which took place during November and December 2015, included the evaluation of eleven endpoint protection products designed for business use. What is extremely important here is that tests were ran on a new Windows 10 platform this time.

Each product was put through a series of realistic test scenarios, which examined how well they responded to real-world threats such as malicious e-mail attachments and infected websites, as well as the detection of prevalent malicious files.

The best antivirus software for Windows 10 clients (business user): https://t.co/u1W9O4rq9M pic.twitter.com/VITYg0hHOB

— AV-TEST GmbH (@avtestorg) January 26, 2016

Also tested: the impact of the software on the overall speed and usability of the system. This includes accessing other programs and files, as well as interruptions caused by system scans and warning messages.

When it came to protecting against malware infections, Kaspersky Small Office Security scored six out of six, operating above the industry average for protecting against zero-day malware attacks and detecting widespread and prevalent malware.

In regards to usability and system speed, Kaspersky Lab’s product also performed above the industry average, which resulted in high marks from AV-Test. This is also true for the false detections of legitimate software as malware during a system scan. Take a look at the results:

So, while the IT world gradually embraces Windows 10, here’s the list of the best endpoint protection products for companies running Windows 10. And who is at the top? :-)

AV-Test granted Kaspersky Small Office Security a well-earned “Approved Corporate Endpoint Protection” badge, reinforcing its position as the product of choice for small businesses.

For further information on the features and protection provided by Kaspersky Small Office Security, visit here.

To read the complete AV-TEST report, please visit here.

Top accuracy

The first new trophy is an AAA certificate from Dennis Technology Labs. In its tests, Kaspersky Small Office Security achieved the maximum possible score and was awarded appropriately.

During testing, experts not only looked at each product’s response to harmless or malicious programs and websites, but also calculated a total accuracy rating. This rating is formed of two components. The first one is a protection rating, which is based on the way in which each solution handles threats: neutralizes them, completely mitigates the consequences of infections, or prevents them altogether.

The second – a legitimate software rating – depends on which harmless objects are identified as threats: if a solution blocks a popular program, the penalty is higher than if a rarely used legitimate application is blocked. Kaspersky Small Office Security produced no false positives, while blocking all infection attempts.

In fact, KSOS was the only solution to achieve the highest possible Total Accuracy Rating.

Top performance

Another meaningful award comes from AV-Test. In the last week of July this testing lab published a report where it gave the “Approved Corporate Endpoint Protection” certificate to Kaspersky Small Office Security, claiming that it is one of only two products achieving an 18 out 18 score.

The testing methodology used by AV-Test evaluates security products on three criteria: usability, performance, and protection. In testing carried out by AV-Test, usability traditionally means the absence of false positives.

Kaspersky Small Office Security produced no false positives, while having no significant effect on the overall testing system performance, thus achieving top performance and usability scores.

100% detection

Virus Bulletin has also awarded Kaspersky Small Office Security with a top award: VB100 certificate.

The tests were carried out in April; Kaspersky Small Office Security successfully detected 100% of modern threats both in on-demand and in on-access tests. The solution produced no false positives and achieved the top mark “solid” for stability, meaning that no problems were identified during testing.

Later, in early July, Virus Bulletin released a separate review of Kaspersky Small Office Security. It includes a detailed analysis of the functions included in the latest version of the solution (which happened to be released in April), and researchers particularly emphasized the convenience and ease of managing the product via a cloud-based console.

Smaller businesses matter

Smaller businesses are a cornerstone of the modern economy in developed markets. In 2013, IDC estimated there were about 80 million businesses with fewer than 10 people on their staff, and a few million more companies run by 10-20 people.

Starting a company is, of course, a huge challenge and not without risks. Company owners understandably look to save on anything secondary, and often see cybersecurity as such a thing. They often tend to think they are safer than the larger entities, since “they have nothing to steal”.

But in 2013, Verizon estimated that more than 30% of data breaches occurred at companies with 100 or fewer employees. Cybercriminals don’t care about size or the “default” value of the targeted company’s data: They just look for weak points to enter and to get access to bank accounts.

As soon as businesses begin processing credit card payments, storing customer information, or even creating plans for new products, they possess information that is valuable to cybercriminals.

In fact, some attackers may prefer these “soft targets” that are known to have poor IT protection. The resulting payoff for each victim attacked is smaller, but it can require less effort for the cybercriminal to successfully attack numerous VSBs instead of a single larger business. So the potential profit looks good enough.

Last year’s survey by Kaspersky Lab showed that smaller businesses are well aware of cyberthreats, but their priorities lie elsewhere from IT security, even though a single incident is often enough to put the company out of business. This most likely means that such low prioritization of IT security in VSBs is caused by budgets: They just don’t have enough funds to adopt more advanced IT and IT Security measures.

That’s why Kaspersy Small Office Security was created. Built to include business-grade technologies in a form that doesn’t require IT expertise to operate, it is also very affordable.

It employs the industry’s leading anti-malware engine, along with a software vulnerability scanner. Kaspersky Small Office Security also includes both malware protection and anti-theft features for mobile devices, which VSBs are rapidly adopting, along with data encryption tools to ensure customer data is protected from theft or accidental deletion. As shown above, the leading test laboratories meet this suite with high acclaim. Perhaps, it is time to give it a try?