AV-TEST
Allow us a moment to boast about some good news: Kaspersky Lab has just received a trove of new awards for one of its business products, Kaspersky Small Office Security.
Top accuracy
The first new trophy is an AAA certificate from Dennis Technology Labs. In its tests, Kaspersky Small Office Security achieved the maximum possible score and was awarded appropriately.
During testing, experts not only looked at each product’s response to harmless or malicious programs and websites, but also calculated a total accuracy rating. This rating is formed of two components. The first one is a protection rating, which is based on the way in which each solution handles threats: neutralizes them, completely mitigates the consequences of infections, or prevents them altogether.
The second – a legitimate software rating – depends on which harmless objects are identified as threats: if a solution blocks a popular program, the penalty is higher than if a rarely used legitimate application is blocked. Kaspersky Small Office Security produced no false positives, while blocking all infection attempts.
In fact, KSOS was the only solution to achieve the highest possible Total Accuracy Rating.
Top performance
Another meaningful award comes from AV-Test. In the last week of July this testing lab published a report where it gave the “Approved Corporate Endpoint Protection” certificate to Kaspersky Small Office Security, claiming that it is one of only two products achieving an 18 out 18 score.
The testing methodology used by AV-Test evaluates security products on three criteria: usability, performance, and protection. In testing carried out by AV-Test, usability traditionally means the absence of false positives.
Kaspersky Small Office Security produced no false positives, while having no significant effect on the overall testing system performance, thus achieving top performance and usability scores.
100% detection
Virus Bulletin has also awarded Kaspersky Small Office Security with a top award: VB100 certificate.
The tests were carried out in April; Kaspersky Small Office Security successfully detected 100% of modern threats both in on-demand and in on-access tests. The solution produced no false positives and achieved the top mark “solid” for stability, meaning that no problems were identified during testing.
Later, in early July, Virus Bulletin released a separate review of Kaspersky Small Office Security. It includes a detailed analysis of the functions included in the latest version of the solution (which happened to be released in April), and researchers particularly emphasized the convenience and ease of managing the product via a cloud-based console.
Smaller businesses matter
Smaller businesses are a cornerstone of the modern economy in developed markets. In 2013, IDC estimated there were about 80 million businesses with fewer than 10 people on their staff, and a few million more companies run by 10-20 people.
Starting a company is, of course, a huge challenge and not without risks. Company owners understandably look to save on anything secondary, and often see cybersecurity as such a thing. They often tend to think they are safer than the larger entities, since “they have nothing to steal”.
But in 2013, Verizon estimated that more than 30% of data breaches occurred at companies with 100 or fewer employees. Cybercriminals don’t care about size or the “default” value of the targeted company’s data: They just look for weak points to enter and to get access to bank accounts.
As soon as businesses begin processing credit card payments, storing customer information, or even creating plans for new products, they possess information that is valuable to cybercriminals.
In fact, some attackers may prefer these “soft targets” that are known to have poor IT protection. The resulting payoff for each victim attacked is smaller, but it can require less effort for the cybercriminal to successfully attack numerous VSBs instead of a single larger business. So the potential profit looks good enough.
Last year’s survey by Kaspersky Lab showed that smaller businesses are well aware of cyberthreats, but their priorities lie elsewhere from IT security, even though a single incident is often enough to put the company out of business. This most likely means that such low prioritization of IT security in VSBs is caused by budgets: They just don’t have enough funds to adopt more advanced IT and IT Security measures.
That’s why Kaspersy Small Office Security was created. Built to include business-grade technologies in a form that doesn’t require IT expertise to operate, it is also very affordable.
It employs the industry’s leading anti-malware engine, along with a software vulnerability scanner. Kaspersky Small Office Security also includes both malware protection and anti-theft features for mobile devices, which VSBs are rapidly adopting, along with data encryption tools to ensure customer data is protected from theft or accidental deletion. As shown above, the leading test laboratories meet this suite with high acclaim. Perhaps, it is time to give it a try?
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