The L0T3K Magazine

Product Review: Kaspersky Internet Security

Kaspersky is well known as an excellent anti-virus program and now you can get the best overall security in a suite of programs designed to protect your computer including firewall, anti-malware and anti-spam along with its award winning anti-virus.

Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25
Look & Feel: 24/25
Features 25/25
How much I enjoy 25/25

Total: 98/100

I received another full internet suite of computer protection programs in the Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 program that protects your PC from viruses, malware and other threats. Like my review of Trend Micro's Security suite I will not be testing the program on its detection and removal of known viruses and malware like professional testing companies.

Unlike those companies and sites that test and use viruses and threats to rate and certify the program I will see how easy the program is to use and install like your average user. While I will add comments about the certification and other testing results to show if the program works well at virus, malware and other threat detection and removal I will also see how user friendly the program is.

Run the installation and you will have everything you need for complete internet security including anti-spam and firewall protection that includes parental control and most importantly that award winning antivirus. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 is a full suite of computer protection programs including anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-banner and identity theft protection.

The program really does make use of a full suite to protect all your activity including things you might not realize but find a comfort when you do find out about it. I had heard of a virtual keyboard and when I saw the feature when looking at the Kaspersky Internet Security suite it makes perfect sense to include it.

A virtual keyboard protects you from yourself as you type by blocking key stroke recorders from recording your passwords, personal information like social security numbers and more. This is just one protection as the program has plenty more to help keep your identity safe and your computer secure and it really works well.

I was taking screenshots of the program for the review and started the virtual keyboard to take a picture of that and could not take any screenshots. With the virtual keyboard activated the screenshot program does not copy pictures of my desktop at all which just adds to my confidence in the security features of Kaspersky's programs.

Installation is simple and pretty much a one step process unless you want to install it to another location other than the main drive. The computer does not require a reboot after installation which is a nice surprise and you should perform a full scan once you have it installed.

Kaspersky does things a little different in how it runs not only its spyware and attack detection but its general behavior for detecting access from programs and how it detects these. Kaspersky uses heuristic analysis to detect attacks instead of already known threats which preempts threats, blocking them before the Kaspersky company even knows about these attacks.

If you look for already known threats you are always behind the attacks and playing catch up, only looking for known viruses and other threats while heuristic analysis looks at problems before they are well known. Kaspersky programs detect the problems and risks then weighs whether they are a threat before alerting you while their white list of known programs helps you as well.

A white list of programs that Kaspersky records and uses through updates tells the security program what programs you have that are not threats and allows them access without you having to do anything. When you allow a program it tells the Kaspersky company that it is a safe one and they further investigate the program to see if adding it to their white list would be beneficial for other users.

You not only get protection from the Kaspersky program but help them in evaluating other threats and safe programs for continued protection and security. The program does not have many popup warnings that ask if a program should be allowed like other security suites I have recently used such as Trend Micro's.

Once you have Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 running it will integrate itself into your email program like Outlook Express, Outlook 2007 or Thunderbird. The program adds an anti-spam toolbar which you can easily tell by the red and green flags you use to mark emails as spam or not spam.

If you have an email you've received and it goes to a spam folder or your junk folder simply tell Kaspersky that it is or is not spam using the flags. All you have to do is highlight the email in your folder and click on the appropriate flag and the program will not only mark it appropriately but continue to use that designation for the same types of mail and from the same address if you keep getting more.

The program learns as you use the flags and will not bother you as much by marking emails with the flags as you mark them yourself. When I first started using the program a lot of my emails were marked as spam but after only a few days the number of false marks dropped significantly.

The same can be said for many of the functions like the pop-ups when you use a program or access the internet through a program and Kaspersky questions the access or use. Once Kaspersky Internet Security figures out your habits and routines as well as the programs you use it will learn from this and hassle you less and better monitor your system.

The program works well for spam, anti-virus and general protection both from outside attacks and from your own actions like visiting bad websites. The program has won several awards recently for antivirus and anti-malware so the program is not without its accolades from others as well.

Checking some of the professional anti-virus and security testing that is available the Kaspersky programs are well liked and among the top performers. West Coast Labs and ICSA Labs are both independent testing labs for anti-virus and certify the Kaspersky anti-virus program.

West Coast also adds checkmarks to say the program does well with detecting Trojans and malware as well as the program receiving the highest rating for malware removal and detection of threats from AV-Comparatives.com. I also found the program did well at detecting and removing malware as well as viruses but do not have the knowledge or programs to test these features myself like the professionals.

I wanted to review the program and test it out for general use as my average reader would and use it just like any person to see how easy it is in regular everyday use. I found the Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 works very well and is easy to use, a bit easier than other security programs like Trend Micro's.

On the bad side of the program I did find it slowed down my system just a bit when using but not enough to be a hindrance or even a downgrade in rating. I am so used to previous versions of anti-virus programs on lower systems like the AMD Athlon 62 X4 5000+ that would make the system almost unusable when scanning for viruses.

Using the current tri and quad core systems with Windows 7 or Windows Vista would make the system much faster and being able to still perform image editing or website editing while performing scans is great. I now run scans and updates of my antivirus while doing web surfing and other work like image editing using Photoshop and even watch television on my PC.

Before changing to the better AM2+/AM3 processors I would not be able to run scans and do work but now with the better processors I can do both. Kaspersky virus and malware scans do not hinder the system enough to make a computer unusable but it does make it slightly noticeable when doing other CPU intensive work like image editing.

While watching television using a TV tuner card it does not slow down the system but for CPU intensive things like the image editing you notice a slight hesitation and just know something else is running. Using Windows Task Manager you can see that the scan uses about the same memory but varies at CPU usage for at least one of the cores.

I saw from mid 20's to mid 50's percentage of CPU usage while running the virus scan that amounts to some slow down of my system but not enough to make it unusable. Other than this I did not notice any problems with Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, I actually like the program better than Trend Micro's similar security suite.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 makes for an easy to use and simple to install all around suite of protection that it does rate high with me as well. Using the program is simple for the easy stuff but is also simple to use for things like allowing programs access through the firewall.

The program has main menu pages that are very easy to understand and even includes a few extras like a privacy eraser and rescue recovery disc creator. The rescue disk allows you to create a backup of the security suite so that if you get a virus or other threat and the system becomes unusable the recovery disc can be used to repair and remove the threat and return your system to normal.

The disc will boot your system into a Linux recovery mode that will update the virus scanner, scan and remove any viruses and then restart into your usable operating system. This procedure is a bit confusing if you have never done anything like it before but is easily spelled out in both the disc creation process and the use of it when you do have problems.

Running the disc creation is simple and should be done as soon as you install the security suite, it is straightforward while the use of the disc is just as easy but does take a little time. The program when you are having a problem will boot as a simple black screen with steps on what to do and you simply follow the steps to a final reboot then, hopefully Windows will boot normally.

If you do have problems with the RescueCD creation or any other part of the program you can use the help section or ask Kaspersky themselves through their support. I found the website and help sections easy to use to find answers and their support is also easy to get the help you need.

Kaspersky has a knowledge base and forum to ask questions of both the company and users to get answers and help as well as a chat and telephone support. You can contact them 24 hours a day seven days a week as well as chat from 9 AM to 9 PM any day of the week except on holidays.

Kaspersky is a great and highly respected company in anti-virus and internet security and the latest 2010 release is another highly regarded product. I highly recommend Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 so much that it earns my Blue Ribbon for Excellence.