Internet Security Suites Test

Compare the best premium security suites with side-by-side comparisons. Read in-depth reviews and articles regarding premium antivirus, anit spam, antimalware and.

Best internet security software 2014 UK Best internet security software 2014 UK We ve exhaustively tested every major internet security suite. Here we present the.

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Illustration by Thomas FuchsHave security suites reached the point where they all work.

From afar, it seems that way: All of them attempt to protect you from viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, and other malware. And for the most part, each of the suites we tried did a good job of detection. However, other factors are important as well--some suites are easier to work with than others, and some make more efficient use of your PC s resources. We put 14 suites to the test to see which ones you should consider, and in the end G-Data Internet Security 2012 came away the winner.

2012 Suites: Faster, Slimmer, More Effective

This year s suites emphasize being lightweight and speedy, as well as showing a friendlier face. Bitdefender and Eset revamped their packages to make them easier to use. Webroot scrapped its entire line, starting fresh in 2012 with its SecureAnywhere products and building a suite that s both friendly and fast.

Packages are also shifting toward using cloud computing to help detect new malware. Such efforts may be paying off: The suites did notably better in our real-world detection tests this year versus last year. See Security in the Cloud for more information.

Once again, we partnered with AV-Test, a trusted security software testing company based in Germany. AV-Test puts security products through a veritable torture test to determine not only which package is the best at detecting threats, but also which one cleans up the mess most effectively. On top of that, AV-Test performs a battery of speed tests to discover which suites will slow a PC to a crawl--and which ones won t. For additional details, see How We Test Antivirus Software and Security Suites.

This year s roundup was perhaps our most competitive one ever; all of the suites in our Top 10 did an excellent all-around job on malware detection, and even the remaining suites performed fairly well. As a result, we put more weight than before on how easy the suites are to use, and on whether they eat up system resources.

Best Overall: G Data InternetSecurity 2012

The interface isn t wonderful, but G Data s software is our top pick on the strength of its excellent malware detection and removal capabilities, plus the minimal impact it has on PC performance.

Best Protection: Bitdefender Internet Security 2012

This product outdid the G Data software in detecting and removing baddies. That effectiveness comes at a cost, however: This suite was the slowest of the packages we tested this year.

Best Speed: Webroot SecureAnywhere Essentials

Although it didn t quite do well enough overall to crack our Top 10, Webroot s revamped suite adds very little drag to common tasks.

Best Interface: Bitdefender Internet Security 2012

Bitdefender overhauled its entire product line this year. The company s updated suite is friendly and approachable for regular users yet maintains plenty of power for advanced users.

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Jan 30, 2012  Illustration by Thomas Fuchs Have security suites reached the point where they all work. From afar, it seems that way: All of them attempt to protect you.

21 Internet security suites put to the test under Windows 8.1

The market offers many good Internet security suites – some even for free. But do the freeware guardians perform as well as those costing money. AV-TEST tested 22 applications and comes to the conclusion: the freeware solutions are good, and for the best solutions, users only have to invest a small amount of money.

Internet security suites for Windows 8.1:

AV-TEST examines 22 system watchdogs and can recommend many of them AV-TEST, last amended in August 2015.

Most products demonstrate excellent recognition rates in the test against malware threats AV-TEST, last amended in August 2015.

Top scores in protection, performance, and usability.

This suite once again achieved top results.

Bitdefender Internet Security:

As already in previous tests in 2015, this suite once again earned the maximum point score.

The number of threats to Windows PCs increases by roughly 4 malware specimens per second. For the year 2015 alone, the AV-TEST institute has already stored over 100 million viruses and more in its database. That is why an Internet security suite for Windows is absolutely essential. Anyone surfing without protection runs the risk of malware infection in no time flat. Even casually cruising a website is already sufficient. Via drive-by download, trojans quickly infect a Windows system.

The lab experts at AV-TEST have tested 21 Internet security suites for their protection, performance, and usability. Four of the 21 solutions are even available as freeware. Included in the test were products from AhnLab, Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, BullGuard, Check Point, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, K7 Computing, Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, Microworld, Norman, Panda Security, Quick Heal, Symantec, ThreatTrack and Trend Micro. For comparison, Windows Defender, the protection provided by the Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system, was also tested as the 22nd product.

Avira, Bitdefender Kaspersky achieve perfect scores

The testers assign a maximum of six points in each of the three test categories of protection, performance, and usability. The perfect score is thus 18 points. In this test, only the commercial solutions from Avira, Bitdefender and Kaspersky achieved this target score. An additional 7 products earned between 17 and 17.5 points. These also included the freeware security suite from Panda.

In the particularly grueling test phase of protection performance, 11 products achieved the maximum of 6 points, and an additional 6 solutions still attained a strong 5.5 points. Overall, that is an excellent test result. After all, in terms of protection performance, the real-world test required the packages to recognize over 330 new, still unknown threats. In the second phase, the objective was to recognize and defend against just under 45,000 known malware threats from the AV-TEST reference sets.

One result of the test: The plain vanilla Windows Defender system protection is not to be recommended. The testers were able to award only 0.5 points for its scan rates of 87 and 92 percent in both test phases – too low for effective protection.

To measure the performance in terms of system load, web pages were launched, downloads performed, applications installed and data copied on a reference system. The time required for this was clocked. Afterwards, the entire procedure was repeated with an installed security solution, and the times were compared. While most products do in fact offer good protection performance, some only achieve this with a high system load. An example was G Data, whose security solution was awarded 6 points for protection, but only 4 for the performance. Similar results were observed with Ahnlab, Norman, Quickheal and ESET. For the last two in particular, the system load was so high that they only received 3 out of 6 points.

Also interesting is the performance of Windows Defender. It significantly slows down surfing, downloading and copying. That is why the testers were only able to award 3 out of 6 possible points.

From the user s perspective, a security suite is supposed to provide automatic protection and not ask any cryptic questions. In case of a false positive, the user is doubly annoyed and flustered: usually a file is blocked that the user still needs, and simultaneously the user has to make a decision as to what to do with the file.

In order to simulate everyday use on a PC, over 500 completely innocuous websites were visited with each security package, and dozens of legal applications were installed and launched. In addition, each system watchdog was required to scan 1.2 million malware-free files and programs.

The results speak for themselves: 15 solutions caused between 0 and 2 false alarms, which was worth 6 points. An additional 3 products received 5.5 points, and 4 guardians still received 5 points.

Lots of protection and little stress

Apart from Windows Defender, none of the products tested delivered abysmal results. 10 of the 21 tested solutions earned between 17 and 18 points. An additional 9 received between 14 and 16 points.

Top results with a maximum of 18 points were attained by Avira, Bitdefender and Kaspersky. With 17.5 points, the security solutions from McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro followed close behind.

The best freeware solution is offered by Panda. That security suite stood out, achieving a good 17 points in the test. The other freeware products from Avast and Comodo follow with 16 and 14.5 points. By comparison, Windows Defender, also provided for free, only reached a reference score of 9.5 points in the overall result.