Another Award Win Points to a Bigger Story at Symantec

Good technology stops cyber attacks, not good marketing. And while many security products may look good on paper, it’s hard for an end-user to know what will truly work in the real world. That’s why there’s no substitute for independent third-party testing that conducts objective vetting. And it’s also why I’m especially proud to announce that Symantec has received the prestigious Best Protection Award from the AV-TEST Institute for the third straight year.

AV-TEST Institute functions as the equivalent of a consumer testing organization for the cyber security world. All of the products in this vetting were subjected to more than 1,000 live zero-day attacks delivered via infected websites and emails, and over 65,000 current and widespread threats. This is real-world testing, not laboratory mock-ups. That’s why it’s so important.

In real-world scenarios, customers regularly deal with entirely new threats they may have not previously encountered. Attackers change tactics frequently and they’re always trying to evade defensive measures that guard endpoints. All the more need, then, for an independent testing body like AV-TEST Institute to cut through the fluff and help organizations understand which solutions are detecting threats and which ones aren’t up to the job.

You can read the full announcement here but here is what you should know: Symantec was the only company that won the enterprise and consumer Best Protection Award across every platform tested, blocking each attempted attack, for three years straight. We ranked No. 1 for all four platforms tested – Norton Security, Symantec Endpoint Security, Symantec Endpoint Security Cloud, and Norton Mobile Security.

Getting There Before the Puck

Building great security technology is not easy. But Symantec can leverage its size and global reach to see what the attackers are doing and stay ahead of them. In hockey, this is called getting there before the puck. In cyber security, it’s called proactive technology.  

Because so many new threats appear each day, Symantec has made a priority of investing in proactive technologies that stop threats without needing to know anything ahead of time about the particular nature of the threats. Instead of getting caught up in cat and mouse games, we look for new, non-traditional ways to defeat entire classes of attacks and significantly reduce the attack surface.

For example, our reputation-based machine learning technology blocks suspicious and unknown files by default, without needing to understand what the file looks like, its format, the attack technique, or any other information.  

A more recent example of cutting off the means to attack is our new Proactive Exploit Protection. When we saw hackers increasingly finding new exploits, we invested in this new capability to generically block exploit attempts no matter which vulnerability they take advantage of. This means our products now have zero-day protection – they stop exploits of vulnerabilities that haven’t even been discovered yet.

It takes planning, time, and investment to build out the technologies and capabilities that keep us ahead of attackers. Deploying them quickly and safely is essential. But our efforts have come to fruition. Our protection is always where the puck is heading, not where it’s been. And that is how you win Best Protection three years in a row.

If you found this information useful, you may also enjoy:

Introducing Proactive Exploit Protection

https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/product-update-announcements/introducing-proactive-exploit-protection

Symantec Endpoint Protection

https://www.symantec.com/products/endpoint-protection

Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud

https://www.symantec.com/products/endpoint-protection-cloud