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Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 Review |
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| Compelling interface and URL blocker; 10%-off coupon: KIS10% | |
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[Editor's note: Kaspersky is offering NextAdvisor visitors a 10%-off coupon, bringing the price down to $71.95. Just use the coupon code: KIS10%]
Kaspersky has been an industry leader in virus protection in Europe and Asia, only recently making itself known in the US market. It has now released the 2010 version of its award-winning Internet security software. Kaspersky offers 'real-time' protection from Internet threats by updating its software with the newest virus, phishing, and spam definitions throughout the day. Kaspersky's interface is very nice to use, and allows you to easily manage all the program's components and tells you how they're used. In addition to anti-virus and anti-phishing, Kaspersky includes anti-spam components, parental controls, a two-way firewall, a virtual keyboard for secure data entry, and ad-blocking. Setup was painless, though don't be surprised if as soon as you load up the program its color-coded security status tells you your computer is at risk; it needs to update the virus definitions. This happens quickly and without fuss. Next, you'll probably want to follow up with a virus scan. Our quick scan was done in under two minutes, and full computer scan in less than an hour. Kaspersky's 2010 iteration of the product adds a couple of brand new features. Kaspersky Safe Run claims to set up an isolated area on your PC to run potentially risky software. By default, it puts Microsoft Internet Explorer there, but you can add anything you want in the preferences; you can also right-click on any program and choose to run it in Safe Run. Additionally, it creates a Safe Run folder that you can choose as your download folder. While it's hard to say exactly how effective it is, it's a good feature in theory, and definitely gives peace of mind. A second new feature is the Kaspersky URL Advisor, which is installed on Internet Explorer and Firefox. When you try to reach a page that Kaspersky identifies as unsafe, it sets up an interstitial warning page, effectively keeping you from loading the page. Many times it worked, though it did allow us to get to a few Trojan-bearing websites (although subsequent virus updates eventually blocked some of them). It is fair to say that it blocked more urls than McAfee did, but McAfee's Site Advisor, with its vast catalog of expert-tested and user-reviewed sites, is able to give more warnings of greater depth. Kaspersky did a fairly good job against viruses and malware when we put it up against a number of recently reported threats. In our tests it blocked a number of serious trojans we threw at it, but did not do well with phony virus sites that could have downloaded fake anti-virus trojans. While we never saw the effects of these trojans, Kaspersky also didn't tell us about them. It also missed, along with McAfee, a few image and PDF-based trojans. Overall, we think Kaspersky 2010 adds some compelling new features. The URL Advisor is very well implemented. Over a few days of using it, we saw initially unblocked sites added to the block list. A one-year subscription to Kasperksy comes in at $79.95 with a license for three PCs, but a 10% discount brings the price to $71.95. This is a bit pricey compared to the competition, particularly given the false negatives we found. System Requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 |
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| Price: | $71.95 for three PCs (after 10% coupon: KIS10%) |
| Virus Protection: | Hourly updates provide real-time virus protection |
| Adware and Spyware Protection: | Best spyware/adware protection available |
| Identity Theft Protection: | Protection against password and personal information theft over the Internet |
| Spam and Phishing Protection: | Phishing site alerts; Spam protection including image spam analysis |
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