Historically, Bitdefender has ranked as one of the best performing antivirus programs, and its Internet Security 2015 security suite ($60 for one year of protection on one PC) keeps it near the top of the heap. If you don't need the extra features--secure cloud storage or anti-theft protection for mobile devices--that are increasingly being offered as part of "total security" packages, then this suite will ably secure your PC with little to no input from you.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
20 Aug |
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Ashampoo's slogan is "We Make Software!"--and they mean it. The German software company is best known for its wealth of PC tune-up tools, which include a Windows optimizer, a registry cleaner, and an Internet accelerator. Now, Ashampoo also makes a security suite--sort of.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
02 Jul |
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Chances are, when you need a security suite you first look to the big players: Symantec, Kaspersky, McAfee, or Trend Micro. But Check Point's ZoneAlarm Extreme Security is a full suite that offers protection on a par with those brands: In independent tests, ZoneAlarm managed almost-perfect protection, excellent performance, and just one false positive.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
18 Apr |
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Small business owners often believe their companies are immune to cybercrime. After all, why would criminals bother with guppies when they can net a whale, right? Wrong. Hackers are increasingly targeting small businesses, because they typically lack the security monitoring and management capabilities of larger companies.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
19 Mar |
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Free programs will take you only so far in protecting against viruses, malware, ransomware, especially now that phones and tablets are as commonly targeted as PCs. Many suites promise to protect you, but only a few offer comprehensive security with minimal hassle.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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The best security suites are the ones you never notice, because they work silently in the background. But when you want to dig into the settings, you'll appreciate dealing with a well-designed user interface that even a novice can understand.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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Norton Internet Security 2014 ($80 for one year of protection on up to three PCs) looks great--and it offers excellent protection against all threats. Internet Security 2014 also provides mobile security, comprehensive parental controls, and system insights, so advanced users can track their PCs' performance. But Symantec's suite isn't perfect: Its menus, settings, and features are geared a little more toward advanced users than toward security newbies.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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McAfee Internet Security 2014 ($56 for one year of protection on up to three PCs) offers adequate protection and an intuitive interface. The installation process can be a chore, and finding specific settings can be difficult, but its main shortcoming is that it offers fewer features than some of McAfee's other products, despite its higher price.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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The name Vipre Internet Security 2014 sounds impressive. But this security suite ($50 for two years of protection on one PC) offers merely adequate protection, and its interface needs a makeover.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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AVG Internet Security 2014 ($55 for one year of protection on one computer) is a decent security suite that gives adequate protection and adds little weight to your system. In our real-world testing scenario, the suite protected against 98 percent of all unknown (zero-day) attacks. It did an even better job of protecting against known malware, repelling 99 percent of those attacks. Still, half of the ten security suites in our roundup blocked 100 percent of zero-day threats, and all but three blocked 100 percent of known malware attacks.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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Looking for ironclad protection? F-Secure Internet Security 2014 ($80 for the "lifetime" of your PC--up to seven years) is bulletproof, ranking among the best performers in AV-Test's protection assessments. But its interface is another story: If you don't think user-friendliness matters, wait until you see this suite.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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Avast is a company perhaps best known for its free antivirus software. But paying for Avast Internet Security 2014 ($40 for one year of protection on one PC) will get you such premium features as a robust firewall, online banking security, and phishing and scam email protection.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
30 Jan |
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Antivirus programs used to be simple: They protected your PC from malware, viruses, and suspicious Internet sites, and that was that. But now we're using multiple devices--often interchangeably--and we're trusting our data to the cloud. What's a security company to do?
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
15 Oct |
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Social networking and privacy do not go hand-in-hand. After all, the key to a good social networking experience is sharing, and the key to good sharing is...lack of discrimination.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
02 May |
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Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 ($60 for one year and three PCs, as of 12/19/12) is a solid antimalware suite that provides admirable protection and an excellent settings interface. This program looks a little different from the other suites we tested, mainly because of its teal-and-white colors, in contrast to the green-is-good/red-is-bad user interface that most other security packages use. But once you get past the fact that teal is sort of the same as green (trust us, this takes a moment), it's a good program that will keep you safe from most incoming attacks.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal |
28 Jan |
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