The AV-Comparatives Security Summit 2025 recently concluded in Innsbruck, bringing together an international audience of over 50 IT security analysts, researchers, and industry professionals from 15 countries. This prestigious event, known for its expert discussions and in-depth evaluations, highlighted outstanding cybersecurity solutions based on AV-Comparatives’ rigorous testing conducted throughout 2024.

The summit began with an exclusive tour of the Alpenzoo, Europe’s highest zoo, located 700 meters above sea level. Attendees explored the zoo’s diverse alpine wildlife, home to approximately 2,000 animals from 150 native species. The rewilding and conservation efforts, along with feeding sessions of bears, ibex, and lynx, provided a unique nature-focused experience before transitioning into the cybersecurity discussions.

New tests and methodologies were presented at the conference, including the EDR Detection Validation Test, a recap of the EPR Test, and other offensive security tests. This set the stage for a day of expert presentations attended by leading analysts – among them representatives from Forrester and Frost & Sullivan – alongside researchers and cybersecurity professionals. The conference featured a lineup of renowned experts, analysts, and industry pioneers, covering crucial cybersecurity topics:

• Allie Mellen, Principal Analyst at Forrester, shared her approach in “How I Leverage 3rd Party Labs”, providing valuable perspectives on how independent testing shapes industry best practices and decision-making.
• Prof. Dr. Pascal Schöttle from the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) discussed “The Cyber Resilience Act and its Meaning for Cybersecurity Vendors”, providing valuable perspectives on how independent testing shapes industry best practices and decision-making.
• Jeannette Jarvis of the Cyber Threat Alliance emphasized the crucial role of intelligence-sharing in cybersecurity, highlighting the need for industry-wide collaboration in her talk “Allies in Defense – A Collaborative Effort for a Safer Cyber World”, a theme that resonated strongly with the attending analysts.
• Peter Egglseder from Shelly addressed “Building Trust in IoT”, exploring cybersecurity challenges in the Internet of Things, an area of increasing concern for security researchers.
• Dragos Gavrilut of Bitdefender presented “Unmasking”, revealing deep-dive research into nation-state cyber-attacks, an investigation closely followed by attending analysts and security experts.
• Eddy Willems (WAVCi) and Senior Research Fellow Righard Zwienenberg from ESET captivated the audience with their storytelling session, “SAETI: State-Actor Empowered Threat Intelligence”, examining advanced persistent threats (APTs) and cyber warfare.
• Jan Brilke delivered “Driving Visibility and Impact,” presenting key data on AV-Comparatives’ research and underlining the importance of independent security testing in shaping media coverage and industry trust – a key takeaway for analysts evaluating cybersecurity reports.
• Daniel Feichter shared his in-depth “EDR Analysis research on reversing detection techniques” – an essential session for analysts focused on evaluating security solutions.

The summit concluded with a  debate led by Eddy Willems titled “Evolving Defenses Against Nation-State Threats“. This session provided analysts and vendors with deeper insights into the crucial role IT security vendors play in defending against advanced cyber threats.

In addition to this year’s talks, vendors were awarded based on rigorous independent testing and evaluations conducted throughout the year.

Awards

For the top-performing security products tested during 2024, AV-Comparatives Approved Product Awards were given out for qualifying consumer and business products, as well as awards for the Consumer Main-Test Series, which included both individual tests and cumulative results. Amongst the products tested by AV-Comparatives in 2024 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 conducted a record number of comprehensive tests to ensure the most reliable evaluations, expanding its testing scope to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats. The following vendors received awards for their products in AV-Comparatives’ tests of 2024 (in alphabetical order): Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, Check Point, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Elastic, ESET, Fortinet, G Data, Intego, K7, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, NetSecurity, NordVPN, Norton, Palo Alto Networks, Rapid7, Securion, SenseOn, Shelly, Sophos, Total Defense, TotalAV, Trellix, Trend Micro, and VIPRE.

Product of the Year Award

ESET received the AV-Comparatives “Product of the Year” award 2024 (1st place overall), reaching top scores throughout the year. The award is given for the highest overall results across all the tests in the Consumer Main-Test Series.

Top-Rated Product Awards

Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, and Kaspersky also achieved excellent results in the year’s tests, for which they were rewarded with “Top-Rated Product” awards.

Consumer / Home User Security Products

For each individual test type (Real-World Protection, Malware Protection, Advanced Threat Protection, Low False Positives, and Low System-Impact), Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards were given. The following vendors won awards in those categories: Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, G Data, Kaspersky, and McAfee.

The Approved Security Product Award was given to all products demonstrating competent performance across all the test types. The following 15 vendors reached this status: Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, Norton, Panda, Total Defense and TotalAV. For further details, please see AV-Comparatives’ 2024 Consumer Summary Report.

Business and Enterprise Security Products

For enterprise products, AV-Comparatives’ Approved Business Security Award was given to vendors whose products demonstrated good levels of protection and performance across the Business Main-Test Series. These were: Avast, Bitdefender, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Elastic, ESET, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, Microsoft, NetSecurity, Rapid7, SenseOn, Sophos, Trellix, VIPRE, and VMware. For further details, please see the report of AV-Comparatives’ Business Security Test report.

The award ceremony concluded with a dinner above Innsbruck’s roofs in the Restaurant Lichtblick.

Message from the CEO

AV-Comparatives’ founder and CEO Andreas Clementi commented: “We extend our thanks to all attendees of this year’s summit and for contributing to its remarkable success. We congratulate all security vendors whose products performed well in our tough, real-world tests, as well as all of the speakers and analysts. Given the ever-changing world of cybercrime, the importance of robust security solutions cannot be overstated.”

Editors, media professionals, bloggers, and others are welcome to utilise the results of all tests at no cost.

Photos by © Christian Forcher / AV-Comparatives