AV-Comparatives Survey: Emsisoft #8 most common antivirus in Europe!

Independent antivirus testing organization AV-Comparatives released its annual IT Security Survey today. A total of 6,422 users from around the world anonymously answered questions about computers and security, yielding some interesting findings. A few key results:

Four most important aspects of security protection: Respondents indicated that the four most important aspects of security protection are:

1.  low impact on system resources
2.  good detection rate without using the cloud
3.  good proactive protection without using the cloud
4.  good malware removal and cleaning abilities

The number of free security software users has declined: The number of users who rely on free desktop security software has fallen this year to 35.9%. Around 5% do not use any security program, meaning that almost 60% of respondents pay for protection.

Internet security suites are believed to offer more protection than single antivirus products: Nearly two thirds (64.6%) of respondents indicated that they believe an internet security suite offers more security than the same vendor antivirus-only product. Most users prefer an upgraded version of a standard antivirus program, such as an extra firewall.

A majority of users have mobile phones: A majority of respondents (90.1%) indicated that they have a mobile phone. Most users prefer the following mobile operating systems:

1. Android OS – 72.4%
2. Apple iOS – 13.3%
3. Windows Mobile – 7.7%

Many users do not use any form of security on their mobile phones: A significant part of respondents overall (25.7%) do not use any mobile security on their mobile phones. Around 31% of North Americans and 17% of the rest of the world do not use mobile security. The most popular mobile security application across all four continents is Avast.

Users choose security products primarily based on good scores in independent tests/reviews: Nearly two thirds (70%) of users choose a security product based on “Good scores in independent tests/reviews.” Recommendations from online forums (10%) and friends and family members (7%) accounted for the remainder.

The last time your PC was infected and your security product failed you: A minor number of respondents (4.4%) stated their security product failed to protect their system over the course of a week. A majority (76%) of respondents stated that the last time their security product failed to protect their system was over six months ago or not at all.

The top most common anti-malware manufacturers and security products: The fifteen most common anti-malware product manufacturers for Windows are (in this order):

1. Kaspersky Lab
2. ESET
3. Bitdefender
4. Avast
5. Avira
6. Symantec Norton
7. Qihoo 360
8. Panda
9. Microsoft
10. Emsisoft
11. AVG
12. F-Secure
13. McAfee
14. Trend Micro

The top most used anti-malware products per continent: The top most primarily used anti-malware products used across Europe, North America, Asia, and South/Central America are:

• Kaspersky Lab
• Eset
• Bitdefender
• Avira
• Avast

Emsisoft is proud to be in the running among other top security products. Emsisoft achieved favorable rankings among the other most commonly used security products attaining the following positions across various continents: #8 in Europe, #10 in Asia, and #12 in South/Central America.

You can find the full report here.