Security-software vendors whose products stood up to the cyber-threats of 2021 have been rewarded by AV-Comparatives for their achievements. This year, due to Coronavirus restrictions, there was no actual awards ceremony. Nevertheless,  a number of different vendors were given awards for their security products.

As in previous years, there were major awards for the best Windows security products in the Consumer Main Test Series. This subjects consumer security products to a number of demanding tests, covering different protection scenarios, false positives, and impact on system performance.

The “Product of the Year” award for the best overall results went to McAfee, showing that the product has improved over recent years.  Avast, AVG and Bitdefender also achieved exceptional results in the year’s tests, and were rewarded with “Outstanding Product” awards. Kaspersky was also honoured for its excellent results, receiving a “Top-Rated Product” award.

In 2021, as in the previous year, restrictions to stop the spread of the Coronavirus had a big impact on how people lived and worked. All over the world, millions of people continued to work from home. This meant that businesses needed to think about protecting not only their own devices, but also their employees’ home computers. More Covid-19-related scams were used by cybercriminals to spread malware, and targeted attacks on enterprises and government networks continued too.

Amongst the products tested by AV-Comparatives in 2021 were: security programs for Windows consumer devices, macOS and Android; EPP (endpoint protection) and EPR (endpoint prevention and response) products for enterprise; anti-phishing and parental control products. Overall, AV-Comparatives performed more tests than ever before, so as to keep up with the cybercriminals.

AV-Comparatives’ test methodologies are designed to provide rigorous tests that emulate real-life scenarios. A certification by the Austrian test lab is a guarantee of an effective and reliable product.

Both the Consumer and Enterprise Main Test Series consist of a number of different individual tests, which together provide an all-round assessment of the products’ capabilities. These were: Real-World Protection Test (protection against Internet-borne malware); Malware Protection Test (protection against malware on the local area network or external device); Advanced Threat Protection Test (protection against targeted attacks); Performance Test (impact on system speed); False Positives Test (number of false alarms).

The following vendors (in alphabetical order) received awards for their products in AV-Comparatives’ tests of 2021 – please click on the vendors’ name to see details:

Acronis; Avast; AVG; Avira; Bitdefender; Broadcom; Check Point; Cisco; CrowdStrike; Cybereason; Elastic; ESET; F-Secure; FireEye; Fortinet; G Data; K7; Kaspersky; McAfee; Malwarebytes; Microsoft; NortonLifeLock; Palo Alto Networks; Panda; Sophos; TotalAV; Total Defense; Trend Micro; VIPRE; VMware.