Product Reviews

This latest version of Kaspersky Internet Security isn't too different from the previous one. There are some technical improvements, but the only obvious new feature is parental controls. Still, while it is not revolutionary, but it gets the job done. When tested against a range of real-world malware, including viruses, Trojans, keyloggers and spyware, it intercepted and neutralised 111 out of 114 threats. This is a stellar performance: most security suites score around 95 per cent in this type of test.

Next, we turned to web exploits, which are webpages that try to install

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malicious code on your system when you visit them. These are a risk even for careful surfers, as criminals can hack into web servers and plant booby traps on respectable sites. We visited 11 different websites hosting such code and Kaspersky Internet Security deflected every single attack.

The firewall is so discreet that, at first, we weren't sure it was switched on, as all our legitimate software ran perfectly without our needing to set any permissions or open any ports. But when we tried to break in, we found we were unable to even see the open ports, which was exactly the result we'd hoped for.

Additional features include a spam filter, instant messaging integration and various tools for cleaning up after an infection. Once we'd installed Kaspersky Internet Security on our test machine, we found we had 240MB less free memory at boot. That's a big chunk, and makes us wary of recommending Kaspersky for older PCs. As long as you have 1GB of RAM, though, you shouldn't see a discernible effect on the responsiveness of your system.

Kaspersky's excellent test results speak for themselves. If you want real security, this is the best we've seen.