MRG Effitas Assessment: Malwarebytes Outperforms Competitors

For organizations concerned that their Endpoint Protection (EP) isn’t the most effective choice, independent IT assessments can help confirm their best (or worst) suspicions.

To meet today’s most pressing threats, EP solutions need to prevent zero-day exploits, ransomware, malicious downloads, and more—and do so with speedy performance and low false positives.

MRG Effitas, a world leader in independent IT research, published antivirus efficacy assessment results for Q3 2022. Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection achieved the highest possible score (100%) for the fifth consecutive quarter and received certifications for Level 1, Exploit, Online Banking, and Ransomware.

Check out the full report Q3 2022 here: https://www.mrg-effitas.com/test/360-assessment-certification-q3-2022/

Tested and published in a separate report, our mobile product also achieved the MRG Android 360 degree certification.

Let’s dive in and take a closer look at some key wins.

Stopping ransomware from getting a stranglehold on your organization

In 2021, 37 percent of all businesses and organizations were hit by ransomware, attacks costing breached businesses an average of $1.85 million. Needless to say, EP needs to effectively block out ransomware to combat this costly threat.

MRG Effitas tested security products for 92 ransomware samples. In addition, they tested four ransomware simulator samples created in-house, ensuring the security product could only rely on its behavior scanning modules. To test for false positives, a device running Malwarebytes EP ran three benign programs designed to mimic ransomware behavior.

Malwarebytes blocked 100 percent of ransomware threats in the MRG Effitas assessment and did so with no false positives, allowing the three benign programs to run.

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Blocking initial in-the wild financial malware infections

Financial malware tries to obtain access to confidential information stored or processed through online banking systems—and it’s not just consumers who are targeted. In 2021, 37% of banking malware attacks targeted corporate users.

MRG Effitas simulated the Magecart credit card-skimming attack on a device running Malwarebytes EP. Magecart is a cybercriminal group who steal personal and/or credit card data by using small JavaScript codes on eCommerce checkout pages.

Malwarebytes EP autoblocked 100% of the 13 financial malware samples.

Robust anti-exploit and anti-post-exploit features

Due to lack of proper updating and patch management, outdated software (including browsers and applications) are widespread in enterprise environments. In fact, 60% of breaches could have occurred because a patch was available for a known vulnerability but not applied.

Exploits in general are not the malware payload, but a means to an end—their goal being to get the payload on the target system. To that end, MRG Effitas used exploits in vulnerable applications to try and deliver a malicious payload on a device running Malwarebytes EP. It tested products to see if they could interrupt payload delivery before an attacker could begin performing malicious actions.

Malwarebytes autoblocked 100% of Exploit/Fileless attacks, entirely protecting the system from infection.

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Zero-day threats? No problem

A zero-day threat is one that hasn’t been seen before—and detecting them is challenging since they don’t match any known malware signatures. And considering that zero-day exploitation continues to reach all-time highs, it’s especially crucial that today’s EP products are able to detect zero-day threats.

MRG Effitas tested EP products to see if they could detect in-the-wild (ITW) threats—threats spreading among real world computers—including zero-day malware delivered by URLs, posing a significant challenge to the participant products.

Malwarebytes EP outperformed all but one competitor, autoblocking 99.72% of all ITW and zero-day threats, as well as behavior-blocking .28% of them.

Comprehensive protection built for speed—and validated by third-party testing

When it comes to low false-positive blocking of ransomware, banking malware, exploit attacks, zero-day threats, and much more, Malwarebytes EP is in a league of its own over competitors in the latest MRG Effitas assessment.

But that’s not all.

Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection delivered one of best performance ratings of all tested vendors, doing so with zero false positives, providing further evidence that the Malwarebytes EP delivers the right combination of powerful detection without affecting overall operating system performance.

For organizations that are concerned their current solution may not be up-to-par, the MRG Effitas assessment demonstrates that Malwarebytes EP has what it takes to keep your business safe from today’s most pressing cyberthreats.

Learn more about what customers have to say about Malwarebytes EP: https://www.malwarebytes.com/resources/casestudies