Use-case-specific metrics for comparative testing of endpoint security products

Abstract

A battery of protection and resource performance tests were conducted using commercial internet security suites designed for general purpose usage with a Windows 8 personal computer (PC). Six classes of PC users were identified: Internet addict; network businessman; socializer; basic user; gamer; self-presenter; infrequent user. Recognizing that practical Internet security is different for each of these user groups, the importance of each component protection and resource performance test was assessed independently for each PC user group. By weighting component results to match relative importance for each user group, separate overall comparative assessments of the tested internet security suite products were obtained separately for each user group. From this, a more effective assessment of the value of commercial anti-malware protection is obtained specific to a customer's PC usage. When third party commercial anti-malware products were compared to the protection application provided by Microsoft, the average improvement ranged from 5% to 10% when measured separately for each PC user group.