Comparison of Proactive Detection

When new viruses, worms and other malicious attacks strike, traditional signatures are insufficient. Every minute you wait for an update is another minute that your computer and network are vulnerable to damage, infection, or identity theft. ThreatSense™ Heuristics closes the window of vulnerability by safely identifying and stopping malware as it attempts to run on your computer.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus has consistently been rated as the best protection against zero-day threat and attacks by the world's leading proactive antivirus testing organizations.

AV-Comparatives.org
The independent testing institution, AV-Comparatives.org, is an antivirus research project coordinated by Andreas Clementi with the support of the Innsbrucker Kompetenzzentrum / Computernotdienst. The AV-Comparatives.org May 2008 "Retrospective/Proactive Antivirus Test" compared 16 different antivirus products' abilities to proactively identify the increasing complexity and nature of the zero-day threat. The stringent testing used recent "In-the-Wild" samples and a variety of other malware, Trojans, viruses and worms affecting Windows and other operating systems. To effectively test the products for proactive detection, the organization used new malware samples, and tested them against the products without updating the antivirus signatures.

Proactive Threat Detection

Out of numerous antivirus products tested across multiple categories, ESET NOD32 Antivirus received the top rank in proactive on-demand detection, and on-demand scanning speed, earning the status of Best antivirus product of 2007. ESET NOD32 Antivirus was recognized for its advanced heuristics scanning capabilities at a high rate of speed and accuracy. In contrast, many competing antivirus products consume significantly more system resources, slowing computer and network performance and response times, resulting in poor end-user experience.

AV-Test.org
AV-Test is a joint-research project of the University Magdeburg and AV-Test GmbH. The Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg is located in Germany and has over 13,500 students. The tests are conducted in the research labs at the Workgroup Business Information Systems at the Institute of Technical and Business Information systems. Currently, the virus test lab has two professors and approximately fifteen students working regularly on virus replication, analysis and tests of antivirus products. AV-Test GmbH is a security consultancy company with a special focus on computer virus incidents.

Heuristic Detection

Source: Dirk Knop, Jurgen Schmidt: vAuf der Pirsch: 17 Antivirenlosungen under Windows Vista and XP" ( Going Hunting: 17 AV solutions for XP and Vista). c't 01/2008, pp.92-103, Verlag Heinz Heise, Hanover, Germany.

 

ESET NOD32 Antivirus' heuristics still remain undefeated. With one-month old signatures, the scanner found nearly 70% of the threats. Even inexperienced users can modify the settings easily. ESET NOD32 Antivirus's fast scanning speed is a definite positive, finishing the tests quickly while keeping a good detection rate of Zoo viruses. Small size of update files, fast scanning speed and accurate detection make it an all-round winner in the leading group of antivirus programs.