2012 Antivirus Software Reviews

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012

Kaspersky continues to grow as a household name every year, and for good reason. Over the years, even though they're at the high end of the price spectrum, they've helped define what good antivirus software is.

The top testing labs around the world have given Kaspersky high awards and certifications:

• West Coast Labs
• Anti-Malware
• OPSWAT
• Virus Bulletin
• AV-Comparatives
• AV-Test

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 is just as strong as ever when it comes to antivirus and firewall protection, but

For one thing, the user interface still has a couple of issues that should've been easily fixed, but weren't.

Protection against zero-day threats, and emerging viruses remains one of the finest on the market, and the firewall (not available in the regular version of Kasperksy Anti-Virus) is really top-notch, as is the cloud-based part of the suite.

However, there are some areas we can't give stellar marks to, namely their antiphishing, social network protection, and tech support.

While we still like Kaspersky for its outstanding protection capabilities, its deficiencies, particularly in the way of ease of getting tech support, bring the overall score down.
When it comes to antivirus and malware protection, Kaspersky performed--as it always has--among the best software in our tests.

In terms of both manual scanning and real-time antivirus protection, Kaspersky was impressive, blocking and removing viruses of all types, including some of the nastiest like the so-called "bootkit" viruses.

It's strongest areas overall were its ability to block zero-day, real-time threats through their their antivirus engine and cloud protection.

Their firewall continues to be one of our favorites, but their antiphishing was subpar with some tests even showing Internet Explorer's built-in antiphishing performing better than Kaspersky's.

Some of the spam and social networking protection was hit or miss as well. Some issues can be fixed easily with updated settings and more time for the software to "learn," but most people just don't want to wait for software to "learn," they expect first-rate protection now.

Kaspersky has built its reputation on excellent overall security protection against both viruses and other external threats through good firewall protection. And with this version, while there are some issues, you still get great overall protection, so it's a product worth considering, especially if you're a fan of Kaspersky.
Kaspersky's resource usage during real-time protection was among the lowest we tested. CPU usage was typically just 1%, except during intense surfing to malware infested sites, where it and memory use both climbed, sometimes quite a bit, for short bursts of time.

During manual scans resource usage was higher than we'd like to see with CPU consumption averaging as high as 91% across our test PCs.

And since memory use also peaked quite high--89% on average--there wasn't much left for normal computer usage.

If you like to run full system scans while doing other things on the PC, you're going to notice their effect. On the other hand, if you're like most people and run these scans while you're away from your PC, this won't effect you much.
There are plenty of good tools within the Kaspersky user interface (UI). As always, Kaspersky isn't shy about giving you information, which we appreciate.

At first glance the UI, it's simple and user-friendly, As you drill down, you're presented with several options: many of which might be confusing to some users.

For instance, there's the prominent "Cloud Protection" button. Inside that window it tells you how much "safe data" and "dangerous data" is in the Kaspersky cloud.

For anyone who's unclear how cloud antivirus protection works, seeing the huge "dangerous data" number can be alarming. It's easy to misinterpret what that means and be worried about whether or not your PC is actually protected.

Another issue is the contrast between "simple" buttons on the overview page with "advanced" options in the Settings. We'd like to see some simple master list showing that the most important settings are enabled. Instead, it's easy to see how some people will walk away with the wrong impression about their PC's overall security.

Ultimately, even though we like it overall, the UI is a bit clunky and may have too much information at times for some users.
The support for Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 is pretty poor. Technically, the support itself is actually good, but the process of getting support is so poor, a lot of people will end up so frustrated with the experience--as we were--that you walk away with a bad impression of the whole experience.

While Kaspersky gives you several options for getting help, the methodology is confusing and in some cases just plain doesn't work.

For starters, the support link from the user interface takes you to a pop-up window which gives you several options: FastTrack, Knowledgebase, and User Forums.

Click the FastTrack option, a web browser opens, and another pop-up comes up which is meant to guide you through the "FastTrack" help.

The problem: it plain didn't work. And no matter what browser we tried, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, the results were the same, effectively rendering "FastTrack" unusable.

Next, the knowledgebase is cumbersome and hard to use. There's no easy flow like other knowledgebases. Each option opens more options, leading to mess of open windows, none of which have the desired effect of narrowing your search.

Finding a phone number, chat, or email to contact Kaspersky has the same issue: information overload. When we did find the US support information (there are options for email, chat, and phone), the chat function was offline altogether even though it was during its business hours.

Even though it was back online later, for anyone who needs help now, this would surely be upsetting. And, while there is an option for phone support, which we love, it's so hard to find, Kaspersky seems to be doing their best to keep you from using it.

What's ironic is that when we did get in touch with Kaspersky's techs, we had the opposite experience: they were sharp, really knowledgeable techs. Even still, the experience of getting to them was so poor, the overall experience can only be called, "poor".
There's one major concern with Kaspersky's update process: updates aren't automatically downloaded during the install. You need to run them manually for the first time.

Why Kaspersky doesn't do this automatically during installation is a mystery, since it'd be both easier and safer for the user.

Also, Kaspersky didn't make it completely clear that updates needed to be downloaded anyway. Instead of a red warning, there's a green checkmark. This checkmark is supposed to alert you that you need to do something, but since green checkmarks usually mean everything is ok, this is a weird choice.

On top of that, manual virus signature updates were hit or miss across our test systems. We often had to run it a second time to get it work. When it did work, that first download was large and took over 10 minutes to download.

Even though Kaspersky's updates are set to download and install automatically, these glitches concern us. It didn't leave us with confidence that our systems were properly updated and protected.
There are a couple of notable extra features within Kaspersky Internet Security 2012. One is the parental controls, which we found to be fairly good, particularly for ones built into an Internet Security Suite.

Another is the handy virtual keyboard. Most antivirus software and Internet security suites don't have this feature, making Kaspersky one of the companies with this unique feature. It's a nice tool to thwart the bad guys.

Finally, there's the incredible vulnerability checker.Kaspersky's Parental Controls are more robust than most we've seen, and they're easy to use. Clearly, Kaspersky is taking aim at full fledged parental controls and family filters with this version.

Set up your child's user account, choose which applications, websites, etc., you want your children to have access to (or block), then select time schedules for the child.

What's most interesting about it is that that some parts of Kaspersky's parental controls, like the time scheduling, are actually better than those built into some of the popular standalone parental control software.

The virtual keyboard is a clever way of out-smarting keyloggers that may be lurking on your PC and have been undetected by Kaspersky.

The virtual keyboard floats onscreen and lets you enter usernames and passwords by clicking your mouse instead of typing with your keyboard. Thus, effectively blocking many keyloggers or spyware that record what you type. And, interestingly, it's not just usable in Internet Explorer--it also works in Firefox and Chrome, which we're delighted to see.

Since viruses often attack via the software you've installed (rather than attacking Windows itself), third party like Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Word, Adobe Flash, or Adobe Acrobat/Reader is often how PCs get infected. Because of that, this feature is huge bonus to security, especially since few people are diligent about applying updates for third-party software.

This feature helps you stay atop patches to the other software you have installed and keep it updated. Sure, it's not perfect since it can't check for updates to all software, it does check the most common software, so it can make a real difference in increasing your PCs overall security. It's such a big deal, we wish every antivirus software offered this. Despite its drawbacks, Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 stacks up well against the competition this year.

When comparing Kaspersky head-to-head against some of the other Internet security suites, Kaspersky shows its strengths in two areas: overall protection and its useful extra features.

The problem areas center around its interface, updates, and technical support. Kaspersky's below average antisphishing score is concerning, as is their social network protection.

Testing showed zero-day threats are accurately identified, its scanning found and removed tough viruses and spyware, and its cloud protection and extra features like the vulnerability detector are significant bonuses.

Technical support continues to be an issue, as were the glitches we saw in getting updates. While you can't just ignore these flaws, on balance there's a lot more good than bad. Certainly, if you're considering Kaspersky, it's definitely a good choice.