Research Reports
Information security products are an important and costly investment,
and increasingly challenging to evaluate. IT professionals rely on NSS
Labs' unbiased research reports to guide
their security product decisions when purchasing or renewing information
security products. Get immediate access to comparative group reports,
individual product reports, and analysis briefs through our Research Subscriptions.
Report Benefits
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Obtain unparalleled visibility into security product risks
By identifying key issues for each product tested, organizations can make an informed purchase decision and take risk mitigation steps or work with the vendor in advance. NSS Labs research reports also allow IT professionals to benchmark their current information security product performance. -
Save time during the purchasing and renewal processes
With its basis in hard data, not opinion, NSS Labs research reports help organizations shorten the shortlist process through product guidance and at-a-glance charts and graphcs of key metrics. -
Gain control
The information provided in NSS Labs research reports promote educated conversations with security product vendors, allowing organizations and vendors to work together productively.
Report Components
Available exclusively to NSS Labs research subscribers, our Group Test Reports provide a wealth of detailed, unbiased, empirical data that can be used to make sure you make the best purchasing decisions for your organization.
Each report distills months of testing and gigabytes of data into a concise, accurate and independent evaluation of the relevant security products. As of 2012, our group test reports are broken into multiple sections to ensure the information reaches the most appropriate job roles within an organization:
Product Analysis Reports
Detailed individual product test reports are based on our standardized methodologies and offer an in-depth, stand-alone product analysis. These reports evaluate security effectiveness, performance, manageability, and stability at a deeper level than the typical group test report and are released in the weeks leading up to comparative group test report releases. Designed to aid in product selection, these reports cover key issues such as:
- Connection dynamics – will this device cause bottlenecks in my network leading to poor user experience?
- Security effectiveness – can this device protect me against current threats?
- Evasion – How robust are the protection mechanisms? One missed evasion class can open a corporate network to hundreds of simple exploits.
- Management – How easy is this device to use when deployed in its hundreds throughout my network?
Comparative Analysis Reports
The individual product analyses feed into the data used in our comparative analysis reports. The high-level analysis in these reports explains the impact of features, limitations and problems between different products and are used to shortlist products for further evaluation and proof-of concept testing. Four Comparative Analysis Report documents are created, each targeted at different job roles:
- Security Effectiveness: For the security team: Compare and understand the range of security effectiveness and evasion techniques.
- Performance: For the network team: Compare throughput and performance under real-world conditions.
- Management: For the operations team: Evaluate the ease of use and capabilities of the various enterprise management offerings.
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): For management: Discover the real TCO over three years, including support contracts, maintenance, management and upkeep time.
Security Value Map
The compiled data from the Comparative Analysis Reports and Product Analysis Reports is used to create the Security Value Map (SVM) and overall product guidance ratings. This critical document helps you determine the relative value of your security investment options by mapping security effectiveness and value (cost per protected Mbps) of tested product configurations. Unlike other quadrant-based marketing documents, the SVM is based on empirical data and the axes measure real values, not subjective opinion.
This unique graphical representation enables a holistic overview of the test field as well as quick and easy comparisons between products and specific configurations.
Want a quick overview of our detailed findings without having to delve into the reams of data that went into them? Start here, and then dig deeper into individual products and capabilities as required.
