Security Data From the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph in Over 100 Countries Used to Produce More Relevant Test Results for Users

INNSBRUCK, Austria, May 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Today, AV-Comparatives in partnership with Microsoft released results from the most recent prevalence-weighted detection tests in a PDF report and also on the interactive impact heat map of AV-Comparatives website. 

Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160502/362137

While the traditional antimalware test score counts each file equally, prevalence-weighted testing provides a view of the malware affecting the largest number of consumers and enterprises. In the real world, people don't encounter malware at exactly the same rate. Some malware is widespread while other malware families are not as pervasive.  Likewise, some malware might focus on certain regional demographics or languages and not affect other parts of the world.  When it comes to real customer impact, not all malware has the same distribution or prevalence. Yet, they are treated as such in traditionally scored tests.

The antimalware industry is making significant progress towards a standardized prevalence model, through the Realtime Threat List (RTTL) under the AMTSO umbrella. The prevalence-weighted report published today is a step towards this standardization, providing a preview of the real-world customer impact of each antimalware solution. This information is based on data from the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph, including data from hundreds of millions of devices in over 100 different countries running Windows Defender.