Malware in the wild must change and evolve, always developing new ways to evade security products. In a similar fashion, those testing security solutions can't just keep doing the exact same thing. With its latest report on consumer and business antivirus solutions, German lab AV-Test has introduced a few changes.

For the past several years, AV-Test has rated antivirus products on three criteria: Protection, Repair, and Usability. The Protection score relates to how well the product handles both widespread malware and zero-day attacks. Repair refers to the product's ability to wipe out active malware and remove all traces from the test system. The degree of impact on system performance feeds into the Usability score, as does the number of false detections.

A New Plan
Starting with the current report, AV-Test has pulled the Repair criterion. They'll now be reporting on repair of existing malware infestations in separate, dedicated tests. According to the report, these special tests "will be performed over a longer period of time and also focus on stand-alone cleaning utilities and rescue media." Austrian lab AV-Comparatives has recently introduced a similar test specifically looking at how well antivirus products clean up known malware.

In the new AV-Test scheme, Performance is a separate category, not part of Usability. Products can still earn up to 18 points, six apiece for Protection, Performance, and Usability. For certification, a product must earn more than 10 points.