Lab

Security suites

Back at the beginning of the decade, a stream of high-profile attacks, including Melissa, ILoveYou, SirCam, Nimda, Klez, Slammer, SoBig, MyDoom, Blaster and Sasser, each took a turn at wreaking absolute havoc across the world's PCs.

Nowadays, however, such huge, high-profile outbreaks seem to be a thing of the past. Windows systems are far more robust than they used to be and, after the mayhem of a few years ago, third-party security software and hardware is a lot more widespread. As a result, creating successful malware is far harder than it used to be.

But while the glory-seeking exploits of lone hackers have fallen away, a much more sinister threat has taken their place - a shadowy class of cybercriminals whose goal isn't to attract attention, but just to quietly take control of your PC.

With this achieved, they can use your computer for distributing spam, make it part of an illegal cracking network, or pluck your bank details from right under your nose without you ever knowing it.

While many of the online hazards of the past could be avoided with a little common sense, today's bad guys are becoming increasingly canny, hacking into legitimate websites with the goal of feeding you malware from apparently trustworthy sources. There's no telling what deception they'll come up with next.

The latest versions of the major security suites all claim to protect against the latest types of attack, but it's a crowded market and you can't afford to pick a package that will let you down. So we've put their claims to the test, pitting 12 security packages against a battery of current, real-life attacks. Read on to find out which suites were successfully able to hold the fort, and which fell in the battle.