SonicWall Earns Extraordinary Fifth Consecutive Perfect Score from ICSA Labs

SonicWall equals highest consecutive perfect scores ever in the history of the test with five straight ‘perfect’ scores, detecting 100% malicious threats with zero false positives

MILPITAS, Calif. — April 28, 2022 — SonicWall today announced the Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service, which includes patented Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection^TM (RTDMI) technology to catch the most advanced and unknown malware faster, earned its fifth consecutive perfect score in independent ICSA Labs Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) certification testing across the last five quarters. No other vendor currently participating has ever achieved two consecutive perfect scores.

“SonicWall has now received an amazing five consecutive perfect scores when tested against some of the most unknown and rigorous threats — an unprecedented achievement among tested vendors,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner. “These third-party, real-world tests validate SonicWall as a clear leader in the cybersecurity space and play a significant role in our efforts to deliver quality-driven security products.”

The ICSA Labs ATD test is unique in that it uses never-before-seen malware samples not found in any of the well-known, third-party malware reputation services. Additionally, some malware samples are custom-modified by ICSA Labs, thus making them completely unique to the ICSA ATD test environment.

The conditions essentially make it a certainty that for a malware detection solution to produce a high score on such tests, it would have to have a superior dynamic analysis capability that’s accurate at identifying malware while ignoring truly benign samples.

An Unmatched ‘Perfect’ Achievement

ICSA Labs is an independent third party that tested SonicWall's solutions using never-before-seen malware samples. During 160 total days of testing over the last five quarters, SonicWall detected 3,131 (100%) malicious samples of new and little-known threats, while not alerting on any of the 3,588 innocuous apps (0% false positive rate) — the only vendor in the security industry that can make that claim. This marks the ninth consecutive ICSA Labs ATD certification for SonicWall.

At A Glance: Five Quarters of Perfection

• Days of Total Testing: 160
• Perfect Test Results: 6,719/6,719 (100%)
• Malicious Samples Detected: 3,131/3,131 (100%)
• Innocuous Samples Properly Identified: 3,588 /3,588 (Zero false positives)

"In today's fast-moving and unpredictable threat landscape, it is really hard to earn consistent third-party validation," said SonicWall Vice President of Software Engineering & Threat Research Alex Dubrovsky. "Our five consecutive perfect scores is a confirmation of our vision and a significant milestone to the SonicWall team’s dedication to providing organizations with the very best threat intelligence technology."

As detailed in the 2022 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, ransomware attacks continue to surge, rising an exceptional 105% in 2021. Other forms of threats, such as cryptojacking and IoT malware attacks, also continue to climb. With cybercriminals growing in strength, number and sophistication, the real-world validation that comes with third-party certification is more important than ever.

Throughout 2021, SonicWall’s RTDMI technology identified 442,151 total (1,211 per day) never-before-seen malware variants — an increase of 65% compared to 2020. When RTDMI was added to SonicWall’s existing Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service, it began identifying a large number of never-before-seen malware variants almost immediately. RTDMI is capable of finding malware that relies on various anti-evasion techniques — frequently discovering variants of existing malware that have been obfuscated, repacked or recompiled in such a way as to evade all existing industry detections.

For more information on SonicWall’s perfect scores, please visit here.

About SonicWall

SonicWall delivers Boundless Cybersecurity for the hyper-distributed era in a work reality where everyone is remote, mobile and unsecure. SonicWall safeguards organizations mobilizing for their new business normal with seamless protection that stops the most evasive cyberattacks across boundless exposure points and increasingly remote, mobile and cloud-enabled workforces. By knowing the unknown, providing real-time visibility and enabling breakthrough economics, SonicWall closes the cybersecurity business gap for enterprises, governments and SMBs worldwide. For more information, visit www.sonicwall.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.