MAY 2021 • TECH ADVISOR 87WindowsDefender a high rating. In its
real-world protection test for July and
August, using 352 samples, Windows
Defender blocked 100 per cent of the
threats. That’s fantastic, but Windows
Defender also had the highest false
positives rate at 39.
AV-Comparatives’ malware protection
test from September 2019 was a mixed
bag. In that test of more than 10,000
samples, Windows Defender had a 29.7
per cent offline detection rate, which
is terrible and the second lowest. The
online detection rate was the absolute
lowest at 76.3 per cent, whereas most
security suites are hitting around 97 to
99 per cent. The online protection rate,
however, was very high at 99.96 per cent.
There were 13 false alarms, which is a
mid-range result.
Finally, we looked at SE Labs, which
gave Windows Defender a AAA rating.
SE Labs put Microsoft in the second tier
of AAA products along with ESET and
McAfee, all of which missed one public
threat, but stopped everything else
including targeted attacks.
From these results we can gather
that Windows Security is highly cloud
dependent for malware detection, and
probably isn’t up to the
job if your PC spends
a good amount of time
disconnected from the
internet. It also means
there are still far better
choices for protection
despite Windows
Defender’s top ranking.Verdict
Windows Security has
all the elements you
need in a solid security
suite, including antivirus
scans, ransomware
protection and parental
controls. It doesn’t have
A malicious file warning from Windows Security in Windows 10. a lot of the extras you’ll