Emsisoft have high false positives?

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by nine9s, May 19, 2013.

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  1. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Emsisoft reviews - opinions

    I was thinking of trying Emsisoft, after seeing many positives comments here and seeing good test results, but AV-Comparatives latest false positive test gave my pause:

    http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php

    Note: you have to toggle pull down menus for False Positive and latest date.

    And AV-Test's latest that included Emsisoft (which was in 2011 - I cannot see any recent tests with Emsisoft there) showed Emsisoft to be higher, than the average of other's, in false positives.

    In that graph must program are under 15 false positives, but Emsisoft is the highest with a large outlier of 38.

    What are people's experiences with it's false positives?
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2013
  2. guest

    guest Guest

    People keep saying EAM is an FP overlord and I don't understand why? It never flagged anything legit on mine, not even when they were still using Ikarus. :doubt:

    Best advise I can give is to try it yourself. Don't forget to backup your image so if something goes wrong, you won't be too screwed.
     
  3. TheErzengel

    TheErzengel Registered Member

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    No false positive for now on my computer ; D
     
  4. Barthez

    Barthez Registered Member

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    I've got couple of FPs but those were mostly on Ikarus engine. Bitdefender one seems to produce less false alarms. Also, they are quick in fixing their mistakes (at least from my experience).

    You can always download Emsisoft Emergency Kit or install EAM in freeware mode and do system scan and see for yourself if there are any false detections :)
     
  5. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Thanks.

    I tried the emergency kit recently and it detected nothing.

    I play a lot of computer games and I am concerned about false positives during game installations, game updates or just playing online games.
     
  6. anon

    anon Registered Member

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    Not necessarily.
    Just read at the bottom of the webpage:

    Do you want to create a link to this chart with the selected data?
    Create link.
    >
    Please use the following link to directly access this chart with the selected data:

    http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart6&year=2013&month=3&sort=1

    ----------------------------------------
    Fabian Wosar [Development] - Emsisoft Team
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2013
  7. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Thanks. I used a windowed browser and never went to bottom of that page.
     
  8. THESAWISFAMILY2005

    THESAWISFAMILY2005 Registered Member

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    finds viruses and malware others miss including antivirus programs
     
  9. Noob

    Noob Registered Member

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    I have been using EAM since a long time ago but it has been my almost permanent AV since like 2010 and in all this time i have encountered 2 FP's.

    One of them was just flagging a legit .exe as malware, i submitted it and within a couple hours it was fixed.
    The other one was a more serious one, it was due to a bad/messed up update on Ikarus that screwed up some Windows files. It was pulled up pretty fast from their update servers but i downloaded it before that happened. :rolleyes:

    So 2 FP's in more than 5 years of using EAM. (Its been my permanent set up since 2010 but i used it long before that intermittently)
     
  10. THESAWISFAMILY2005

    THESAWISFAMILY2005 Registered Member

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    noob how many viruses has if found in that 5 yrs

    just wondering
     
  11. guest

    guest Guest

    Do note that EAM has a BB while EEK doesn't, that might give different results.
     
  12. Dundertaker

    Dundertaker Registered Member

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    I am using EAM (which I am taking for a spin just this week). Actually it's part of the Emsisoft IS Pack I have and I do not see any FP's as of the moment. I have some issues encountered already but on FP's none at the moment.

    I tried to exclude a certain file in Guard>Application Rules>Add new rule>Always allow this application. It still scans the item though I excluded it already. There's one also with Surf Protection blocking Gmail but it's not on topic here ;)
     
  13. Disney

    Disney Registered Member

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    False positive issues are long gone . You are thinking of the past like 4 years ago . And , if EAM detects something as a FP , it will add it back as soon as they see it is a false positive . It has as many or as few as anyone else today . And is a better choice than most .
     
  14. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    The reason I am concerned before I try ity is that AV-Comparatives showed it with the highest false positives of all tested programs recently, with almost 40, which is likely, based on the graph, probably more than double the average of all others.

    http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php?chart=chart6&year=2013&month=3&sort=0
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2013
  15. Noob

    Noob Registered Member

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    In my personal computers (Laptop/Desktop) NONE.

    Even though it still havent caught anything in my PC's, EAM have found a LOT of malware in other people thumb drives and laptops/desktops, so much that i lost count. It is in the hundreds. :D
     
  16. Fabian Wosar

    Fabian Wosar Developer

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    I think I already went over this with you in the AV Comparatives thread if I remember correctly. It boils down to this:

    The files AV Comparatives tests with were collected over a time period of almost a decade. Many of those files are no longer in circulation. As a result it is impossible for a vendor to find and fix those false positives without a testing company like AV Comparatives sharing the samples. That is why almost every product has an elevated amount of false positives in their first test.

    This fact is also recognized by AV Comparatives and the reason why you find the following note in the more detailed false positive report:

     
  17. gugarci

    gugarci Registered Member

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    I've been using it on our main family desktop and my laptop for about 1 1/2 years. To be honest I've only encounter a few FP's in that time. No more or less than Eset which was my main AV for about 4 years.
     
  18. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Thanks, that helps me very much in my review of Emsisoft. To avoid confusion like that, AV Comparatives, should write what you did with a straight forward asterisk, explaining it, next to newly tested programs, instead of letting readers guess as I did. I saw high number, and assumed it meant a higher number than other programs without knowing what you wrote above.
     
  19. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Question on Emsisoft. Mamutu is a stand alone program I guess. Is it also part of Emsisoft Anti-malware and Emsisoft Internet Security?

    Note, now that my initial question was answered, I want to expand to a general review of Emsisoft. I tried changing my initial post to different title but it did not stick (I guess you can not change the overall title of a thread.)
     
  20. Fabian Wosar

    Fabian Wosar Developer

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    Mamutu is essentially Emsisoft Anti-Malware without the signature based detection. So yes, the technology Mamutu is based on is integrated within EAM as well.
     
  21. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Oh so basically it is the proactive component and with the other two you get that and reactive components.

    Is the proactive aspects of Mamutu fully in the other two?
     
  22. Fabian Wosar

    Fabian Wosar Developer

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    It is.
     
  23. nine9s

    nine9s Registered Member

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    Now that my question is answered, and since I can not change the title of this thread, can this thread be deleted as I do not want people getting wrong impression of Emsisoft from the title?
     
  24. Noob

    Noob Registered Member

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    Just stop posting here so it gets buried. Ooops i just did that. :D
     
  25. stephentony

    stephentony Registered Member

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    The FP issue with EAM has existed for quite a while. It was so when Ikarus was the other AV engine Emsisoft used. Those were always blamed on Ikarus. The switch to Bitdefender was made and the FP's have continued. Since Bitdefender is not known for FP's you may draw your own conclusions. There is no product I would like to see do well as much as EAM. I still have a year left on a three year license and I have put up with all the FP's. This is not solely an old malware sample issue either as far as the testing goes. Let's see how things shake out over the rest of 2013. If they can truly knock the PF's down to a reasonable level then I will happily renew, but not otherwise. I'm tired of the excuses.
     
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