*NEW* CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 is more like a monster created out of laziness than the sleek antivirus and internet security it could have been. For starters, it's a tremendous drag on system resources.

Secondly, the antivirus, firewall, and privacy software are all cobbled together from other licensed or open-source applications; thus making for a non-integrated operation on the whole.

While CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 has a nice migration and backup feature, the over-all "total PC protection" suite idea fails miserably as an antivirus and firewall tool.



Editor's Overview

• Average antivirus
• Poor antispam
• High resource usage
• Poor firewall
• Separate antivirus and antispyware
• Difficult parental controls
• Poor privacy protection
• Over-priced

Is There Anything Good About CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009?

As mentioned above, the migration and backup functions are very handy and work quite well. You can schedule automatic backups at very detailed levels to include only certain files, folders, or file types.

The parental controls are actually quite useful, but the set-up requires a PHD to figure out the settings: something most non-computer savvy parents won't put up with when there are so many better parental control options available.

That's about it for the "good" list.

Features

• Anti-Virus
• Anti-Spyware
• Personal Firewall
• Anti-Spam
• Anti-Phishing
• Parental Controls
• CA Backup and Migration
• Protection For Up To 5 PCs
• WiFi Hot Spot Detection
• Gaming/Movie Mode

Now for the "Bad" Side of CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009

Independent testing showed that CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 only stopped about 35% of all viruses, trojans, and other malware. Poor by anyone's standards.

As mentioned before, the antivirus, firewall, and antispyware drag down resources far below acceptable levels making for a sluggish machine.

Having this antivirus, internet security suite patched together from various other products means several separate windows to control each section: essentially making CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 a bundle of individual applications rather than one single antivirus/firewall powerhouse.

Their privacy protection is essentially worthless. Testing miss-labeled several "safe" sites as "risky" sites time and again. Therefore, phishing sites geared to steal your information made easy work of CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 by getting past its defenses.

The antispam is average, but you can do much better with any of our top Internet security suites. Or better yet, a stand alone antispam software application.

Conclusion

CA did so many things wrong with this year's "Internet Security" it's hard to give this software any sort of recommendation. For the few "good" points it has, CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 has far more "bad" points to consider: average anti-virus, poor firewall, poor antispyware, and terrible overall integration.

Support

Tech support is basic and minimal. There are the standard sources: FAQ, knowledge base, and on-board help pages. But if you want to get real tech support from CA, you'll need to pay $19.95 per incident to get it. Not worth it.

$79.99