A VPN company’s antivirus just collected two awards, and the company wrote the press release. That alone should make you read slowly. The numbers are decent, but they’re not the whole story.
IPVanish announced that its antivirus earned West Coast Labs’ AAA certification in October 2026, with a 99.7% malware detection rate across 1,748 tests. It also says the engine behind the product, VIPRE Advanced Security, got AV-Comparatives’ Advanced+ rating in September 2026, with 99.8% overall protection.
Two tests, two different things
Pay attention to what was tested. West Coast Labs evaluated IPVanish Antivirus itself on Windows 11. That covers detection, remediation, usability, purchasing, installation, support and removal. The certification threshold for detection was 95%, so 99.7% clears it comfortably.
The AV-Comparatives result is not for IPVanish Antivirus. It is for VIPRE, a sister brand whose engine powers the product. That’s a reasonable proxy, but it’s still a proxy. VIPRE was tested against 19 other products with more than 10,000 samples. It posted a 96.9% offline detection rate and six false positives.
What the tests don’t cover
Malware detection is one question. Privacy is another. Neither lab, as described, looked at what telemetry the software sends home, what file metadata or URLs it uploads for cloud analysis, or how long that data is kept. Antivirus tools sit with deep access to your files and browsing activity. That makes their data practices at least as important as their catch rate.
The post also leans on Windows 11 testing. If you run macOS, Linux or Android, these numbers tell you little. And a 99.7% detection rate across 1,748 tests is a vendor-friendly slice of a threat environment that changes daily.
Why a VPN company wants this badge
This fits a broader pattern. VPN providers are bundling antivirus, identity monitoring and other tools to become one-stop security subscriptions. That raises the stakes. One vendor now sees your network traffic and scans your local files. Concentrating that trust in a single company deserves scrutiny, not just applause.
To its credit, IPVanish points to independent no-logs audits, transparency reports and its Trust Center. Those are better signals than marketing copy. But the post doesn’t say whether the antivirus falls under those audits, and that’s the question that matters here.
What to do with this
Treat the awards as evidence that the detection engine works. Don’t treat them as proof the product respects your privacy. Before installing, check:
- The antivirus privacy policy, separate from the VPN’s
- Whether cloud scanning can be turned off
- What telemetry is collected and whether you can opt out
- Whether an independent audit covers the antivirus, not just the VPN
Good lab scores are a fair starting point. They’re not a reason to stop asking questions.