Prague, Czech Republic, January 20, 2022 – Avast (LSE:AVST), a global leader in digital security and privacy, today announced that Avast Free Antivirus was awarded AV-Comparatives' 2021 Outstanding Product Award. AV-Comparatives is an independent, ISO certified test lab based in Austria that carries out regular and rigorous tests of security software products throughout the year and releases an annual Summary Report. 

The Outstanding Product award is based on Avast Free Antivirus’ performance in AV-Comparatives’ Public Consumer Main Test Series of 2021, where it demonstrated a continuously strong performance and received six Advanced+ and one Advanced Awards. In addition, Avast Free Antivirus also won Gold in the testing institution’s Advanced Threat Protection (Enhanced Real-World Test), which tests programs' abilities to protect against advanced targeted and fileless attacks. With these results, Avast Free Antivirus is rated ahead of paid products for the fourth consecutive year in a row.

“Avast Free Antivirus performed well across the board throughout the year, achieving outstanding results in our Malware Protection, Performance, Advanced Threat Protection, and Real-World Protection tests,” said Andreas Clementi, Founder and CEO of AV-Comparatives. “Additionally, it is easy to navigate, and the installation wizard offers a choice of a simple installation or a fully customizable installation, making it an ideal program for both non-experts and power users.” 

“People are spending more time online due to the pandemic, and research conducted for our Digital Citizenship Report shows that one-third of global respondents plan to continue to do more things online as it makes life easier in general. We are committed to protecting people’s digital freedom online and providing superior online protection on which people can depend,” commented Vita Santrucek, Chief Product Officer at Avast. 

Each year, AV-Comparatives tests Windows-compatible security products as part of its annual security report. All products were tested on: protection against real-world threats, protection against malware, protection against targeted threats, effect on device performance and number of false-positives flagged. 

The full report for 2021 can be found here: https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/summary-report-2021/