Following a long series of rigorous independent tests conducted in 2023 by AV-TEST that compared top cybersecurity products, Bitdefender won the prestigious AV-TEST Award for Best Protection and for Best Performance for corporate users and three additional awards for home users.

Read on to learn about how we performed against a variety of threats, while keeping system impact and false-alarms to a minimum.

Setting a Benchmark for Quality

Bitdefender products were tested across several platforms and performed admirably across all scenarios. We earned six awards in total from the AV-Test evaluations: Best Protection for Windows Business Users (for Bitdefender Business Security & Business Security Enterprise and Internet Security), Best Performance for Corporate Users, Best Android Security, and Best MacOS Security for home users.

AV-Test is quoted as stating that “With its long list of awards, Bitdefender underlines its experience and its solid development work in the field of IT security .“ This achievement is a validation of our complete approach to cybersecurity, designed to protect users from digital threats intended to compromise the security of their most sensitive data, wherever it may reside.

Understanding the Evaluation Criteria

AV-Test.org's rigorous evaluation process is renowned for its comprehensive approach to assessing the effectiveness of cybersecurity solutions. AV-Test uses a series of criteria and award points to each vendor in each category, and compare the vendor scores to the industry average. Bitdefender’s award for Best Protection reflects the ability of our product to identify and thwart modern-day threats. Earning the Best Performance award indicates that our solution can achieve great protection without compromising the user experience.

Let’s explore the key criteria and how Bitdefender performed:

• Protection Against 0-day Attacks: Under the Best Protection category, each vendor is assessed in how well the solution can protect against zero-day attacks. A zero-day attack exploits an unknown vulnerability in software or hardware before the developer has identified and patched the issue, leaving systems unprotected against the exploit. This score measures is measured by percentage of how many of 210 samples the solution was able to identify and thwart. Bitdefender achieved 100% protection against zero-day attacks. Bitdefender accomplished this by using multi-layered security powered by machine-learning and AI.
• Detection of Widespread and Prevalent Malware: In this part of the evaluation, AV-Test analyzes how well each solution can protect against 11,862 samples discovered in the last 4 weeks. Once again, Bitdefender achieved a 100% protection score in this category. Combined with our excellent results in the zero-day test, we were able to earn the coveted “Best Protection” award.
• Performance Impact: To properly measure performance impact, AV-Test measures how much a solution slows down a system when performing various tasks including: launching a popular program, downloading frequently used applications, launching standard software, installing frequently-used applications, and copying files locally and across the network. They then compare each solution’s impact to the industry average. Here, once again Bitdefender excelled by scoring below the industry average in each task.
• Usability – Measuring False Alarm Propensity: The last category that each solution is tested against in in the accuracy of the security solution in distinguishing between legitimate and malicious software or websites. For this test, in some cases, millions of samples are used to determine the solution’s tendency to flag genuine software, processes, and websites as malicious. False alarms are an incredibly important aspect of a solution to measure, as they can no only lead to alert-fatigue for the user, but also “cry wolf syndrome” – where the user may ignore legitimate threats due to the flood of false alerts. Bitdefender once more achieved top results by only generating one false-positive among over a million samples, earning us the Best Performance award.

Figure 1: Of the thousands of threat samples tested, Bitdefender protected against each one.

Bitdefender’s achievements across these evaluations demonstrate not just the effectiveness of our solutions in real-world conditions but also their efficiency and reliability without compromising user experience.

Beyond these latest results, Bitdefender has had a legacy of excellence largely unequalled in the industry. For the past two years, Bitdefender is among only two vendors that has attained the highest possible score across all the tests performed by AV-Test.org.

Industry-Leading Results

Our success in the AV-Test.org evaluations set a new standard for the cybersecurity industry. They reflect our deep understanding of the cyber threat landscape and our innovative approach to developing solutions that do not just react to threats but proactively prevent them. By focusing on comprehensive protection, performance, and accuracy, Bitdefender ensures that our users—whether they're at home, in the office, or on the move—can trust their most precious information to remain secure from cyberattacks.

For our customers, these awards translate to the peace of mind that comes from knowing they're protected by award-winning cybersecurity solutions. Regardless of platform, whether you're a Windows, MacOS, or Android user, Bitdefender's technology is designed to provide seamless, efficient, and effective protection against the full spectrum of digital threats.

As we celebrate these achievements, we remain focused on the future. The digital threat landscape is constantly evolving, and so will Bitdefender. At Bitdefender we're always innovating, always improving, and always ensuring that our solutions set the standard for cybersecurity. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our users, whose trust drives us to exceed expectations, and to AV-Test.org for their rigorous evaluation process. These awards are a milestone, but they're also a reminder of the responsibility we carry—to continue protecting the digital world with the best cybersecurity solutions available.