The Best Security Suites for 2010

The Best Security Suites for 2010
02.25.10

We've reviewed well over a dozen 2010 security suites—find out which will keep you safe and which to avoid.

by Neil J. Rubenking

The 2010 "model year" for security suites got an early start, with a couple of products already out in June of 2009. The February 2010 releases of McAfee Total Protection 2010 and Norton 360 Version 4.0 complete the collection, at least as far as major security vendors are concerned. We've reviewed sixteen security suites for 2010; read on to see which will keep you safe and which to avoid.

Of the early-birds Panda Internet Security 2010 made a decent showing, but eScan Internet Security Suite for Home Users Version 10 isn't ready to provide serious competition for any of the better-known contenders in the U.S. market. Much the same is true of K7 TotalSecurity Version 10.0: It's popular in Japan, but doesn't live up to the standards set by other major products here-at least it didn't bog down my test systems. Through the summer the suites kept rolling in, keeping me busy with all-out evaluations.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and BitDefender Total Security 2010 arrived almost simultaneously in August (although Kaspersky released its European version quite a bit earlier). Both offer powerful protection, but BitDefender has the edge in most areas, particularly antispam and parental control. But both suites did have a measurable impact on system performance in testing, possibly due to being crammed to the gills with bonus features that actually improve security.

F-Secure Internet Security 2010 and Trend Micro Internet Security Pro (version 3) also came through the gate together. F-Secure updated its interface, improved its detection, and added explicit exploit protection to its firewall. Trend Micro changed little from its previous incarnation. They can get away with standing still this time, but I hope for some innovation in the next Trend Micro suite.

The anti-malware scores for Norton Internet Security 2010 blew away the competition at the time, and it has shored up two notorious (if less important) traditional weak spots for Norton. Parental control now comes from the full-featured OnlineFamily.Norton, and the new spam filter component is quite accurate (a huge improvement). It remains our Editor's Choice, along with Norton 360 v 4.0 which offers the same level of security and adds PC Tuneup and a powerful and flexible backup system.

Last year ZoneAlarm combined their ZoneAlarm suite with ForceField virtualization technology and threw in backup, system tune-up and more to create a new product: ZoneAlarm Extreme Security. I was impressed enough to rate it Editor's Choice, shared with Norton's 2009 suite. I took a harder look at ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010 and found a few minor flaws. Nothing huge, and it offers some hot features like full disk encryption, but I'm not calling it Editor's Choice at this time.

I was excited to learn about FortiClient Endpoint Security Standard Edition 4.1, a totally free full security suite from Fortinet, better known for their Enterprise products. Unfortunately it's not truly free - you pay in reduced security. In particular its anti-malware scores were the lowest I've seen. And if you want direct tech support or anti-spam you pay extra.

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2010 got a total facelift, a brand new user interface, but under that pretty surface its security protection was unimpressive. AVG Internet Security 9.0, avast! Internet Security 5.0, and PC Tools Internet Security 2010, three suites from vendors better known for their standalone anti-malware products, all made a better showing. In particular, PC Tools scored even higher than Norton in the anti-malware category.

McAfee Total Protection 2010 appeared on McAfee's web site last fall, but the actual fully-updated suite didn't come out until months later. It was worth the wait-it's an impressive suite overall with an especially strong antispam module. The Editors Choice designation goes to the two Norton suites, but you won't go wrong choosing McAfee, ZoneAlarm, or BitDefender.

As always, click on the blurbs below to read the full reviews. Note that while this roundup covers the vast majority of important security suites available for 2010, it's not an exhaustive list; if we come across another suite that merits inclusion, it's always possible we'll add it.

"Not Quite right".

4hams wrote:Norton has had a bad name for years by many computer user worldwide. Personally I think this is due to the fact that they are so good that they are a huge resource pig on systems! Thus if you do not have a up to date powerful system it will suck the life out of your computer.

This just my theory from my crazy little mind not based on fact just experience.

http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php