testers of AV-TEST expose each product to a collection of the newest zero-day malware attacks and to a collection of malware samples that were widely prevalent during the previous four weeks. To measure performance, the researchers time various ordinary activities before and after installing antivirus protection. For a product to earn a good usability score, it must avoid identifying legitimate programs or websites as malicious.

In order to receive AV-TEST’s certification, a product must earn a total of 10 points with no zero score in any category.