Kaspersky Internet Security (2015)

The exact components that go into a security suite vary, but most include antivirus, firewall, spam filtering, and parental control. To those core components, Kaspersky Internet Security (2015) ($79.95 for three licenses) adds accurate phishing detection, a hardened browser for financial transactions, useful tuneup tools, and more. It's a solid suite.

Like Kaspersky's stand-alone antivirus, this suite's main window is divided into four large panels. In the suite, these panels let you launch an antivirus scan, check for updates, configure the Safe Money hardened browser, or dig into parental control settings.

Clicking the link for "Additional tools" brings up the same collection of bonus tools found in the antivirus. The suite adds real-time reporting from the firewall's application- and network-control modules, as well as a summary of recent protective activity. Overall, the user interface is coherent and easy to navigate.

Shared Antivirus
The antivirus component in this suite is precisely what you get from Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015). Do read that review for full details. I'll summarize here.

Kaspersky Internet Security (2015) Lab Tests Chart

The independent testing labs absolutely adore Kaspersky's antivirus technology. It earned the highest possible ratings in tough, real-world tests from AV-Test Institute, AV-Comparatives, and Dennis Technology Labs in particular.

See How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests

Kaspersky also excelled at detecting fraudulent (phishing) websites, both blacklisting known phishing sites and using heuristic analysis to detect brand-new ones. Norton Internet Security (2014) is a consistent antiphishing champion, beating 90 percent of the competition, but Kapsersky eked out a detection rate 1 percent better than Norton.

Kaspersky Internet Security (2015) Antiphishing Chart

Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus (2014) and Bitdefender Internet Security 2015 also beat Norton, by 2 and 5 percentage points respectively.

See How We Test Antiphishing

In my own hands-on testing, Kaspersky didn't earn the same stellar scores it got from the independent labs. Its Web protection prevented access to 10 percent of the 100 very new malicious URLs I used to test it. That's quite a bit below the current average of 33 percent.

Kaspersky Internet Security (2015) Malware Blocking Chart

When I challenged it with a collection of malware samples that I had previously analyzed, it wiped out the majority on sight and eliminated several of those remaining when I tried to launch them. Its overall score of 7.9 points doesn't compare well with the best products tested using my previous malware collection, but then, that was a different collection. Bitdefender, the only other product tested using my current collection, managed 8.4 points. In any case, I give quite a bit more weight to the independent labs, and they've proclaimed Kaspersky to be top-notch.

See How We Test Malware Blocking

Other Shared Tools
Kaspersky's standalone antivirus comes with a number of useful bonus tools; naturally these also appear in the suite. An attractive semi-transparent virtual keyboard both foils keyloggers and prevents screen-scraping attacks. You can have Kaspersky find and fix vulnerabilities in the operating system and in applications. Several tune-up scanners eliminate junk from your system and wipe out traces of your computer and browsing history.

You'll want to create a Rescue Disk as soon as you've installed the product. That way if ransomware or other vicious malware manages to get past Kaspersky's protection, you can boot from the Rescue Disk (CD, DVD, or USB) and clean things up.

View the original article here

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015)

Pros Top ratings in tests by six independent labs. Excellent antiphishing scores. Simple settings. Quick, easy install. Virtual keyboard for secure data entry. Can roll back malware actions. Useful system cleanup and optimization tools.

Cons Less impressive scores in hands-on malware blocking test and malicious URL blocking test. Bottom Line Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) made a clean sweep, earning top marks from all of the independent antivirus test labs. It's a new Editors' Choice for antivirus protection.

By Neil J. Rubenking

How often do you find an antivirus product that's still managed by its eponymous creator? Peter Norton and Symantec's Norton product line went their separate ways ages ago. John McAfee is still making news, but not in connection with McAfee the company. Then there's Eugene Kaspersky, still at the helm of Kaspersky Lab. Maybe continuity pays off; Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) is an impressive and highly capable antivirus program. It's affordable, too: You can purchase a single one-year subscription for $39.95, or get a three-pack for $20 more.

The product's clean main window displays current security status, with a link to dig in for details, good or bad. Four big panels let you quickly launch a scan, check for updates, view activity reports, and activate a virtual keyboard.

The virtual keyboard deserves a little extra attention. Many products offer a similar feature, to let you enter passwords without using the vulnerable physical keyboard. Kaspersky's floating semi-transparent keyboard isn't just better-looking than the competition. It also includes technology that keeps spyware from capturing your personal data by scraping the screen.

Simple Settings
You can install Kaspersky and use it out of the box without ever changing any settings. By default, it automatically chooses the best action when detecting malware; it doesn't make you decide. This is similar to the default Autopilot mode in Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2015.

From the Settings screen, you can toggle security components on and off, or dig in for more detail. The one item you might want to examine is System Watcher. This feature tracks system activity and, when possible, completely rolls back activity by detected malware. You'll also find the special key combination to break away from screen-locking malware—Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F4 by default.

Kaspersky works hard to avoid impacting system performance. On the settings tab for performance, you can see that by default it postpones any scheduled scans that would occur while you're on battery power. It will refrain from interrupting when you're playing a full-screen game, and it defaults to limiting resources used during startup, so your boot time isn't slowed. You don't need to change these settings, but it's good to know what's going on in the background.

Loved by the Labs
All the antivirus testing labs that I follow include Kaspersky's products in their testing, and Kaspersky earns universally high marks. ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs certify Kaspersky for malware detection and cleaning; West Coast Labs adds "Platinum Checkmark" certification. Kaspersky participated in all 12 of the most recent tests by Virus Bulletin and earned VB100 certification in 10 of them.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) Lab Tests Chart

AV-Test Institute rates products in three categories: protection, performance, and usability. Kaspersky earned six of six possible points in all three, a rare perfect store. In all of the static and dynamic tests by AV-Comparatives, Kaspersky rated Advanced+, the highest possible rating. Dennis Technology Labs certified Kaspersky at the AAA level, again the highest possible level.

Few security vendors reach such stratospheric levels with the independent labs. Bitdefender is one of the few that comes close.

See How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Hands-On Malware Blocking
Those independent labs can devote far more resources to testing than I can, but I still like to do some hands-on testing, exposing each antivirus product to a collection of various malware samples. Kaspersky and Bitdefender are the first products I've tested since converting all of my virtual machines to Windows 8.1 and swapping in a new collection of samples.

As soon as I opened the folder containing my samples, Kaspersky got to work, quickly wiping out 69 percent of them. I proceeded to launch those that survived this massacre, noting just how Kaspersky handled them. In all, it detected 83 percent of the samples. Its overall score of 7.9 points reflects the fact that a few of the samples managed to place executable files on the test system despite being detected by the antivirus.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) Malware Blocking Chart

Bitdefender did a little better than Kaspersky, with 86 percent detection and an overall score of 8.4. You can see that some products tested with my previous collection managed higher scores. However, there's a possibility that those tested most recently gained an advantage due to the increasing age of the older samples. And when the independent labs put a product at the top, I give less weight to my own hands-on tests.

View the original article here

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015)

Pros Top ratings in tests by six independent labs. Excellent antiphishing scores. Simple settings. Quick, easy install. Virtual keyboard for secure data entry. Can roll back malware actions. Useful system cleanup and optimization tools.

Cons Less impressive scores in hands-on malware blocking test and malicious URL blocking test. Bottom Line Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) made a clean sweep, earning top marks from all of the independent antivirus test labs. It's a new Editors' Choice for antivirus protection.

By Neil J. Rubenking

How often do you find an antivirus product that's still managed by its eponymous creator? Peter Norton and Symantec's Norton product line went their separate ways ages ago. John McAfee is still making news, but not in connection with McAfee the company. Then there's Eugene Kaspersky, still at the helm of Kaspersky Lab. Maybe continuity pays off; Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) is an impressive and highly capable antivirus program. It's affordable, too: You can purchase a single one-year subscription for $39.95, or get a three-pack for $20 more.

The product's clean main window displays current security status, with a link to dig in for details, good or bad. Four big panels let you quickly launch a scan, check for updates, view activity reports, and activate a virtual keyboard.

The virtual keyboard deserves a little extra attention. Many products offer a similar feature, to let you enter passwords without using the vulnerable physical keyboard. Kaspersky's floating semi-transparent keyboard isn't just better-looking than the competition. It also includes technology that keeps spyware from capturing your personal data by scraping the screen.

Simple Settings
You can install Kaspersky and use it out of the box without ever changing any settings. By default, it automatically chooses the best action when detecting malware; it doesn't make you decide. This is similar to the default Autopilot mode in Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2015.

From the Settings screen, you can toggle security components on and off, or dig in for more detail. The one item you might want to examine is System Watcher. This feature tracks system activity and, when possible, completely rolls back activity by detected malware. You'll also find the special key combination to break away from screen-locking malware—Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F4 by default.

Kaspersky works hard to avoid impacting system performance. On the settings tab for performance, you can see that by default it postpones any scheduled scans that would occur while you're on battery power. It will refrain from interrupting when you're playing a full-screen game, and it defaults to limiting resources used during startup, so your boot time isn't slowed. You don't need to change these settings, but it's good to know what's going on in the background.

Loved by the Labs
All the antivirus testing labs that I follow include Kaspersky's products in their testing, and Kaspersky earns universally high marks. ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs certify Kaspersky for malware detection and cleaning; West Coast Labs adds "Platinum Checkmark" certification. Kaspersky participated in all 12 of the most recent tests by Virus Bulletin and earned VB100 certification in 10 of them.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) Lab Tests Chart

AV-Test Institute rates products in three categories: protection, performance, and usability. Kaspersky earned six of six possible points in all three, a rare perfect store. In all of the static and dynamic tests by AV-Comparatives, Kaspersky rated Advanced+, the highest possible rating. Dennis Technology Labs certified Kaspersky at the AAA level, again the highest possible level.

Few security vendors reach such stratospheric levels with the independent labs. Bitdefender is one of the few that comes close.

See How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Hands-On Malware Blocking
Those independent labs can devote far more resources to testing than I can, but I still like to do some hands-on testing, exposing each antivirus product to a collection of various malware samples. Kaspersky and Bitdefender are the first products I've tested since converting all of my virtual machines to Windows 8.1 and swapping in a new collection of samples.

As soon as I opened the folder containing my samples, Kaspersky got to work, quickly wiping out 69 percent of them. I proceeded to launch those that survived this massacre, noting just how Kaspersky handled them. In all, it detected 83 percent of the samples. Its overall score of 7.9 points reflects the fact that a few of the samples managed to place executable files on the test system despite being detected by the antivirus.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2015) Malware Blocking Chart

Bitdefender did a little better than Kaspersky, with 86 percent detection and an overall score of 8.4. You can see that some products tested with my previous collection managed higher scores. However, there's a possibility that those tested most recently gained an advantage due to the increasing age of the older samples. And when the independent labs put a product at the top, I give less weight to my own hands-on tests.

View the original article here