NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Products Tested:

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013
ESET Smart Security 6
Norton Internet Security 2013
Avast! Free Antivirus 7
AVG Anti-Virus Free 2013
BitDefender Internet Security 2013
Microsoft Security Essentials
Trend Micro Internet Security 2013
McAfee Internet Security 2013

The effectiveness of free and paid-for anti-malware security suites varies widely.

Every product except one was compromised at least twice. The most effective were compromised in up to three per cent of the cases, while the least effective (McAfee Internet Security 2013) was compromised by 19 per cent of the threats.

Avast! Free Antivirus 7 was the most effective free anti-malware product, closely followed by AVG Anti-Virus Free 2013.

In terms of protection, the top five products were from Kaspersky, Symantec, ESET, BitDefender and Trend Micro. All require a license that costs money.

Blocking malicious sites based on reputation is an effective approach.

Those products that prevented users from visiting the malicious sites in the first place gained a significant advantage. If the malware can’t download onto the victim’s computer then the anti-malware software faces less of an ongoing challenge.

Some anti-malware programs are too harsh when evaluating legitimate software

Most of the products would delegate some decisions to users when installing legitimate software.

Products from Trend Micro and McAfee were the most paranoid and onerous to use, while Kaspersky’s was unobtrusive, asking only one question and not blocking a single program. However, Microsoft’s solution was the least intrusive and so was the most effective in this part of the test, although Avast’s software followed closely.

Which was the best product?

The most accurate programs were Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 and ESET Smart Security 6, both of which won our AAA award in this test.

For more information visit: http://blog.anti-virus4u.com/2013/10/best-home-antivirus-...