Full Report
When put to the test, SES Complete proved robust prevention and response block 100% of threats
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Symantec SES Complete Achieves 100% Prevention Score in 2026 EPR Testing
## Summary
Symantec Endpoint Security (SES) Complete, a Broadcom company product, has been named a "Certified Leader" by AV-Comparatives in their 2026 Endpoint Prevention and Response (EPR) test. The solution demonstrated a 100% success rate in blocking sophisticated, multi-stage attacks before they could reach the critical "asset breach" phase.
## Key Details
- **Date:** September 22, 2026
- **Companies Involved:** Broadcom (Symantec), AV-Comparatives (Testing Authority)
- **Category:** Product Performance Validation / Independent Testing
## The Story
In a landscape where "Living-off-the-Land" (LOTL) attacks—which utilize legitimate system tools to evade detection—are becoming the norm, Symantec submitted its SES Complete platform to rigorous third-party validation. AV-Comparatives conducted an Endpoint Prevention and Response (EPR) evaluation that simulated the full attack lifecycle: compromise, internal propagation, and asset breach.
SES Complete successfully contained every attack scenario across various vectors, including scripts, installers, and USB-propagated payloads. The testing highlighted the efficacy of Symantec’s integrated approach, which combines traditional endpoint protection with AI-driven "Adaptive Protection." This feature allows the system to learn the unique behavioral "normal" of an organization, enabling it to block malicious uses of legitimate tools without disrupting business operations.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **Broadcom (Symantec):** Reinforces Symantec’s market position as a premier enterprise security provider following its acquisition by Broadcom. This "Certified Leader" status serves as a powerful marketing tool for customer retention and acquisition in a crowded EDR/XDR market.
### For Competitors
- **Competitive Pressure:** This result sets a high benchmark for rivals like CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Microsoft. Competitors will face increased pressure to demonstrate equivalent 100% prevention rates in independent, transparent testing environments.
### For Customers
- **Risk Reduction:** Organizations utilizing SES Complete receive validated assurance that the platform can halt complex lateral movement and credential access attempts, potentially lowering cyber insurance premiums and breach-related costs.
- **Operational Efficiency:** The "one agent, one console" architecture combined with AI-generated incident narratives reduces the time security analysts spend piecing together alerts.
### For the Market
- **Trend Toward Proactive AI:** The success of SES Complete’s "Incident Prediction" suggests a market shift away from reactive detection toward predictive modeling, where security tools forecast an attacker's next moves.
## Technical Implications
The platform’s success is attributed to its **Adaptive Protection** and **Incident Prediction** engines. Technically, this represents a move toward automated policy tuning. Rather than relying on static hardening rules, the system uses AI trained on over 500,000 real-world attack chains to identify when tools like PowerShell or WMI are being weaponized, providing analysts with a forecasted attack sequence 4-5 steps in advance.
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** Symantec is positioning itself as the "dependable" choice for large-scale enterprises that require high-fidelity protection across the entire attack surface.
- **Competitive Advantage:** The integration of predictive AI that claims up to 100% confidence in forecasting attacker moves provides a significant technological edge over signature-based or basic behavioral tools.
- **Challenges:** Maintaining a 100% block rate is difficult as threat actors evolve. The primary challenge will be ensuring these AI-driven protections do not increase "false positive" rates, which can lead to alert fatigue.
## Industry Reactions
- **AV-Comparatives:** CEO Andreas Clementi characterized the performance as "dependable, full-chain protection" that modern enterprises require.
- **Market Response:** This certification adds to a "long track of wins" for Symantec in 2026, including perfect scores from AV-TEST, signaling a resurgence in Symantec’s technical dominance.
## Future Outlook
- **Predictive Security:** Expect more vendors to integrate "Attack Chain Forecasting" into their EDR suites.
- **Consolidation:** The success of the "one agent" model will likely drive further consolidation in the security stack, as enterprises seek to reduce the complexity of managing multiple disparate security tools.
## For Security Professionals
Practitioners should note the high efficacy of **Adaptive Protection** in mitigating LOTL attacks. For SOC teams, the takeaway is the shift in the workflow: instead of manual forensic reconstruction, the focus is moving toward validating AI-generated incident summaries and intervening during the "internal propagation" phase rather than the "remediation" phase.