MRG Effitas has recently continued their test series using single zero day / early life malware samples. This ongoing series helps to assess how security solutions react to new and unknown threats. The longer the test period, the more meaningful the result – so every update is quite interesting. A total of 20 security programs has been tested so far.

The latest tests were based on a fully updated Windows 7 32 bit Ultimate virtual machine, with each candidate of course being tested on a separate VM. Samples came directly from MRG honeypots and were then uploaded to a certain URL so that they could be downloaded to the VM by using Internet Explorer.

The result:

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Once again Emsisoft Anti-Malware was able to prove its great detection rate against brand new malware. It is also very interesting that well established programs like AVG Antivirus or Avira Antivir Premium show strong weaknesses in detecting current threats. You can find the full test results here.

MRG Effitas is a UK based, independent IT security research organisation which organizes an ongoing so called flash tests series. The purpose  is to assess how security applications react to zero day threats. This is very useful as new malware usually spreads the most within one week of its release.

Since June 29th, 18 different security programs had to compete with a total of 120 brand new samples. Only three of the probands were able to show a clean sheet with a detection rate of 100% – first of all Emsisoft Anti-Malware with the strong combination of a dual-engine signature scan and behavior analysis.

The complete test can be found here: Average detection rate in MRG Effitas Flash Test Project 201.