We are happy to introduce a new calculation method for our package Efficacy Report. The storage and processing of the data logs have been optimized and the formulas revised to be faster and more accurate.

We calculate a daily list of the top 10,000 most searched for infected hashes which have been detected by at least 3 of our engines. Then we average over the past 30 days and compute a new top list of hashes. The first 100 hashes can be seen in the package efficacy report.

We have also expanded our malware sources. Establishing more partnerships in the malware community has gained us access to hundreds of thousands of additional infected files on a weekly basis, which means more analyzed samples and a better comparison of engines and engine packages. Potentially malicious file types now include a wide range of MS Office files, graphics and multimedia, as well as various scripting languages and web formats.

You may have noticed some changes in detection rates. For example, our lowest core package (MetaDefender Core 4) has a detection rate of around 42% meaning that it detected 42% of the top 10,000 threats. In comparison, our Metadefender Core 20+ package detected around 98% of the top 10,000 threats. This clearly demonstrates the importance of Multi-Scanning and shows how much you can increase the security of your organization by adding more engines to a file scan.

We will continue to improve the Report - next up is a UX/UI redesign to make the report easier to read and understand. We will also be adding more data points, so stay tuned!