Kaspersky Internet Security does not cry wolf

Picture this irritating scenario: You are installing an update for Notepad++, Yahoo Messenger, or WinRAR and your antivirus pipes up to warn you the software is malware. You know that

Picture this irritating scenario: You are installing an update for Notepad++, Yahoo Messenger, or WinRAR and your antivirus pipes up to warn you the software is malware. You know that these are not exotic applications. They’re quite commonly used software, and every security solution ought to know about them. Is something wrong with your antivirus? Has the developer’s site been hacked?

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.

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.

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.

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