Fastest PC security software revealed
PassMark, a PC benchmark and diagnostic software development company based in Australia, recently revealed the top performing PC security products based on the surprising results of their benchmarks.
According to PassMark, their tests were conducted on 14 Internet security, 14 Anti-virus and 14 total security products, and measured 17 performance metrics including boot time, user interface launch time, memory usage and network throughput.
In a disclosure statement in the recently released report, PassMark stated that Symantec funded the production of the report and supplied some of the test scripts.
Tests were conducted on a PC running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit over the period of July 2010 to February 2011. A full description of the testing environment and methodology is available in the PassMark report that is freely downloadable from their website.
Internet Security Software
In the Internet security software category the highest possible PassMark score is 238, which attainable only if a product has scored first place in all 17 performance metrics.
Norton Internet Security 2011 came out on top with a score of 195, followed by ESET Smart Security 4 with 174 and G Data Internet Security 2011 at 141.
Anti-virus software
The PassMark anti-virus software rankings also work out of a maximum possible score of 238, similar to that of the Internet Security Software benchmark.
Norton’s latest anti-virus product comes out on top again, but is followed closely by the free alternative offered by Avast!. The below table lists the overall results of all fourteen anti-virus packages tested.
| PassMark February 2011 Anti-virus software benchmark | |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Overall Score |
| Norton Anti-virus 2011 | 170 |
| Avast! Free Anti-virus 5 | 165 |
| Avira AntiVir Personal 10 | 159 |
| ESET NOD32 Anti-virus 4 | 152 |
| AVG Anti-virus 2011 | 124 |
| G Data Anti-virus 2011 | 120 |
| AVG Anti-virus Free 2011 | 119 |
| Kaspersky Anti-virus 2011 | 113 |
| Rising Anti-virus 2011 | 111 |
| Panda Anti-virus | 109 |
| McAfee Anti-virus Plus 2011 | 109 |
| Trend Micro Titanium Anti-virus Plus 2011 | 92 |
| Microsoft Security Essentials | 91 |
| Quick Heal Anti-virus Pro 2011 | 83 |
Total security software
PassMark’s Total Security software rankings are scored out of a maximum of 85 which is also only attainable if a product places first in all 17 metrics.
The below table shows the results of all 5 packages tested by PassMark.
| PassMark February 2011 Total Security software benchmark | |
|---|---|
| Product name | Overall score |
| Norton 360 version 5.0 | 70 |
| Kaspersky PURE | 59 |
| McAfee Total Protection 2011 | 50 |
| Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 | 38 |
| BitDefender Total Security 2011 | 37 |
This is surprising as Norton’s tools have had a reputation of being resource-intensive for many years.
According to Dan Nadir, senior director of product management for Norton consumer security at Symantec, the performance of Norton products is something they have worked on for the last number of years.
“We want to be known as the number one in performance and number one in protection,” Nadir said.
Fastest PC security software revealed << Comments and views
Jan Vermeulen is a guest of Symantec in London
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