Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Review Cnet
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- Pros
High scores from antivirus test labs. Powerful, intelligent firewall. Safe Run feature protects system from questionable programs and websites. New, simplified main window. File Advisor exposes program details from Kaspersky's database.
- Cons
So-so scores in PCMag's hands-on antivirus tests. Utterly failed to remove one particular threat. Antiphishing can't beat IE. Spam filter missed much spam. Configuration required for social network monitoring caused problems for all secure sites.
- Bottom Line
The independent labs love Kaspersky's antivirus protection, but it fared poorly in PCMag's hands-on tests. Its firewall is impressive, and the Safe Run sandboxing feature protects the system from questionable files and Web sites, but the antispam and antiphishing features failed to impress. Choose this suite if its strong points align with your needs.
If you're a long-time Kaspersky fan you may not recognize the company's 2012 products. Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses) has a brand new layout and style. Instead of the common tabs-at-left layout for selecting features, you now use a row of big icons across the bottom. Though this security suite looks quite different from last year's model, not much has changed in its protective capabilities.
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The new interface bears a certain resemblance to the updated look of Bitdefender Total Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars). Elias Moses. Bitdefender also displays four big icons at a time, and both products include a smartphone-style slider to scroll through the available icons. Bitdefender additionally lets you re-order the icons to put your favorites first.
Clicking the new Cloud Protection button displays current information about the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), a huge database that identifies known good and known bad programs. From any file's right-click menu you can bring up the File Advisor window, which summarizes what KSN knows about the file. This feature is quite similar to the File Insight feature found in Norton Internet Security 2011 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars), which has worked very well for Norton.
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Antivirus Ups and Downs
The Cloud Protection window and File Advisor are also found in Kaspersky's standalone antivirus. In fact, the suite's antivirus protection is exactly the same. For full details please read my review of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars). I'll summarize here.
Kaspersky installed on all twelve malware-infested test systems without difficulty. However, even with special scripts supplied by tech support over a period of days it never did manage to remove one particular threat. Overall Kaspersky detected 76 percent of the threats and scored 5.7 points for malware removal. For details on how I derive these scores see How We Test Malware Removal.
Kaspersky Security Reviews
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 malware removal chart
Kaspersky's Web-based protection blocked half the malicious URLs I used in testing. The real-time protection module wiped out some threats on sight and caught others during installation, detecting an impressive 91 percent overall. Kaspersky's malware blocking score of 8.2 points is lower than expected because some detected threats managed to install despite its protection. For details on how I derive malware blocking scores see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 malware blocking chart
After these so-so results I was pleasantly surprised to see Kaspersky's scores from the independent labs. Almost all of them rated Kaspersky at or near the top. The following chart summarizes lab test results. For details on how I derive the ratings see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 lab tests chart
It's hard to reconcile Kaspersky's average performance in my tests, its utter failure to remove one sample threat, and the absolutely glowing reports from the labs. Its scores for malware blocking and removal reflect these ups and downs.
Other Shared Features
The standalone antivirus comes with a number of features that are often reserved for suites. One of these, the URL Advisor browser plug-in, has some new features. It can now optionally mark dangerous links on pages other than search result and can display the categories assigned by KSN to each link.
Phishing protection is present in both products, but despite some improvement Kaspersky still didn't identify very recent phishing URLs as accurately as Internet Explorer alone. Its detection rate was 32 percentage points below that of IE and 56 points below Norton. For details on how I derive these scores see How We Test Antiphishing.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 antiphishing chart
Both products can create a bootable rescue CD or USB drive and automatically scan removable drives. Both will fix insecure settings in Windows and Internet Explorer, and also clean up traces of browsing and computer use. And both include a virtual keyboard that lets you enter sensitive passwords in a way that even a hardware keylogger can't capture. Once again, refer to my review of the antivirus for details on these shared features.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2012
Bottom Line: The independent labs love Kaspersky's antivirus protection, but it fared poorly in PCMag's hands-on tests. Its firewall is impressive, and the Safe Run sandboxing feature protects the system from questionable files and Web sites, but the antispam and antiphishing features failed to impress. Choose this suite if its strong points align with your needs.
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From the outset of internet security protection, I had been a dye in the wool fan of Norton Symantec protection products. As the computers became more advanced and with it the software and the our expectations of delivery and speedy delivery at that, I felt that all too often Norton were lagging behind, or should I say their packages were slowing the operation of my computer down so much that I was lagging behind.
I tried a lot of ‘free trail’ products and read and cross referenced many internet security reviews and it is fair to say that I was soon to understand that the Holy Grail of internet security is not out there, that is one product that does all things for all people and at a superfast response time AND without being in your face by sucking the life out of the other programmes you wished to run at the same time.
However, I eventually tried my first Kaspersky product and have never looked back. I do it must be said look forward – I look forward to using my PC and my laptop without being dictated to by a slow running piece of software.
This Kaspersky internet security package boasts an easy to use set up regime (that by the way) appears to get better and better with ever new edition. You can if you so wish just leave it running on its default settings and it will exactly what it says on the box, or for the more adventurous (advanced) you can tweak many aspects of the programme to best suit your individual outcome.
Not only that, you don’t have to go directly to Kaspersky and pay top dollar, you can buy single or multi computer packages from on line retailers and get a real bargain.