Historically, Malwarebytes hasn’t always collaborated well with independent antivirus testing labs, but the company is now making an effort to work more closely with these labs. Malwarebytes currently holds perfect scores from Poland-based AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation and from MRG-Effitas.
My aggregate score algorithm maps test results from five labs onto a scale from 0 to 10. With two perfect scores, Malwarebytes naturally scores 10. AVG also has a 10-point aggregate score based on scores from two labs. Having more scores is even better, though. ESET’s 10-point aggregate score derives from four lab reports. Avast and Norton appear in the latest results from all five, both with an aggregate score of 9.6.
Challenged to protect against real-world malware, Malwarebytes detected and blocked all but one of my samples before it could even launch. With 99% detection and 9.9 of 10 possible points, it’s near the top, beaten only by McAfee and UltraAV, both of which scored a perfect 10 in this test.
My malicious URL blocking test uses hundreds of recently discovered malware-hosting URLs. I go down the list trying to launch the sample URLs, noting whether the antivirus blocked all access to the dangerous page, wiped out the malware download, or did nothing. Malwarebytes scored 83% in this test, not its best showing. Avira, Bitdefender, Guardio, and Sophos all managed 100% when subjected to this test.
The same browser protection that detects dangerous URLs also steers the browser away from phishing websites, which are fraudulent sites that mimic legitimate websites to steal login credentials. With a 96% detection rate, Malwarebytes performed significantly better in this test. But then, so did quite a few of its competitors. AVG, Avira, McAfee, and Webroot, among others, scored a perfect 100% in my antiphishing test.
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After installing a new antivirus, it is recommended to run a full scan. Most of the time, that scan will come up empty. In testing, the basic threat scan by Malwarebytes took from four to nine minutes, which is quite speedy. If that scan turned up problems, Malwarebytes offered a deep scan, which took closer to the current average of almost two hours.
(Credit: Malwarebytes/PCMag)
In a ransomware-specific test, with non-ransomware detection components disabled, Malwarebytes successfully handled a dozen file-encrypting ransomware attacks. Two did nothing, but it caught all the rest. In most cases, a few files got encrypted before the behavior-based detection kicked in; one sample managed to encrypt thousands. However, do remember that I couldn’t even perform this test without disabling numerous other protective components.
