Local Based Cybersecurity Firm Awarded AAA Award for Endpoint Protection

SE Labs, a leading independent cybersecurity testing company that seeks to improve information technology security by assessing products and services designed to detect attacks and protect against intrusions has awarded ESET and its subsidiary ESET East Africa the AAA award, for its Endpoint Security solution that detects and protects against threats, handling of non-malicious objects such as web addresses (URLs) and applications in real time.

The 2021 Enterprise Endpoint Protection test that was run from January and March 2021 reviewed nine (9) endpoint security solutions such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security, McAfee Endpoint Security, Sophos Intercept X and MacAfee Endpoint Security amongst others. The test evaluated product efficacy at detecting and protecting against threats in real time by looking at the number of detections, blocks, neutralizations and complete remediation of threats. Through these, the ESET Endpoint Security received a total accuracy rating of 1,116 giving it a 99% detection rate of the tested solutions and the triple AAA award for the third time.

Speaking on behalf of SE Labs, Chief Executive Officer Simon Edwards stated that not all protections, or detections for that matter, are equal as a product might completely block a URL, which stops the threat before it can even start its intended series of malicious events. Alternatively, a product might allow a web-based exploit to execute but prevent it from downloading any further code to the target. In another case malware might run on the target for a short while before its behavior is detected and its code is deleted or moved to a safe ‘quarantine’ area for future analysis”.

He added that “we take these outcomes into account when attributing points that form final ratings where a product that completely blocks a threat is rated more highly than one that allows a threat to run for a while before eventually evicting it. Products that allow all malware infections, or that block popular legitimate applications, are penalized heavily”.

ESET East Africa Channel Manager Ken Kimani stated that “with the uptake of work and study from home for a large number of the Kenya’s digital population, cybersecurity has become a top priority and solutions such as the ESET Endpoint Security is designed to protect businesses and individuals with a combination of robust antivirus and network security software”.

He added that “the tested solutions were exposed to a mixture of targeted attacks and real-world public web-based threats and the results demonstrate that ESET Endpoint Security is consistently effective at blocking malicious URLs, handling exploits, and correctly classifying legitimate applications and websites. To receive this award three times in a row reflects our commitment to providing our customers with the absolute best in antivirus and cybersecurity solutions that are reliable with the ever changing threat landscape”.