2013 Antivirus Software Reviews

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Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 Overall Score: 92%

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 offers the same virus protection as Kaspersky Antivirus plus extra security.

With just a few sore spots, Kaspersky remains in our top 3 for the 7th year running.

The user interface is a bit clunky, they offer poor phishing and social media protection, and are clearly not committed to technical support.

Still, their virus protection and firewall are sincerely top-notch, as is the cloud-based part of their suite.

Certified by:

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

Kaspersky performs well in protection against viruses and malware. In our tests, it blocked and removed threats of all types, including some of the most difficult viruses.

Their cloud protection is superior and their firewall is widely touted.

Phishing protection was subpar, however. In fact, you might be better off with Internet Explorer's built-in feature.

Spam and social networking protection was also hit or miss. These can improve with time, but who has time?

Overall, though, it performed very well.
System usage during real-time protection was very low. CPU usage was only around 1%, except when malware was encountered. Then memory climbed quite a bit, though we were grateful for it.

If you prefer manual scans, this might not be your ideal choice. Resource usage was high — as much as 91%. Memory use was also quite high — 89% on average.
Kaspersky's interface appears quite simple and user-friendly.

However, wading in a bit uncovers somewhat confusing options and disconnected features. The overview page is nice and simple, but advanced options are only available on the settings pages. We'd like to see these options combined and ranked by importance.

Cloud Protection, for example, identifies your data as "safe" or "dangerous", which can be alarming to those new to this feature, implying your system might not be protected.
While tech support for Kaspersky is pretty good once you get it, it's not easy getting there.

The support link from the product offers three options: FastTrack, Knowledgebase, and User Forums.

FastTrack opens web browser opens and a pop up meant to guide you through the "FastTrack" help, but this feature didn't work for us no matter which browser we tried — Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Opera.

The knowledgebase is cumbersome, opening a slew of windows with an overload of information, and no final solution.

In addition, locating contact on their website was not easy and the chat function was offline

Overall, our frustrating experience yielded low ratings for Kaspersky.
Unfortunately, updates aren't automatically downloaded during the initial installation, not providing up-to-date protection until regular, automatic, hourly update process kicks in. This is really not optimal, in our opinion, as it leaves a window, though small, of non-protection for our system. This is also not made clear.

In addition, the manual update process did not work initially and took a long time, leaving us concerned that our system was not properly updated.
There are several notable extra features included with Kaspersky Internet Security 2013.

Kaspersky's Parental Controls are easy enough to use for most parents. However, for more detailed, full-control, we'd recommend a seperate parental control software suite.

A Virtual Keyboard allows you to outsmart keyloggers and protect passwords by using your mouse to click your keys instead of your keyboard.

Vulnerability Protection ensures security patches are current for Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Every antivirus software should have this feature.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 offers a strong product, very effective at virus protection and including excellent extra features.

It's a little confusing to use and actually scored poorly on phishing and social media protection. It's user interface was not ideal. And, we were very unimpressed with its update process and technical support offerings.

These are important areas, but Kaspersky still shines as an excellent protection software and is one we do strongly recommend.