Rating for kaspersky internet security 2012

It can now optionally mark dangerous links on pages other than search result and can display the categories assigned by KSN to each link. Phishing protection is present in both products, but despite some improvement Kaspersky still didn't identify very recent phishing URLs as accurately as Internet Explorer alone.

Its detection rate was 32 percentage points below that of IE and 56 points below Norton. Kaspersky Internet Security antiphishing chart. Both will fix insecure settings in Windows and Internet Explorer, and also clean up traces of browsing and computer use. And both include a virtual keyboard that lets you enter sensitive passwords in a way that even a hardware keylogger can't capture.

Once again, refer to my review of the antivirus for details on these shared features. Distinctive Firewall Kaspersky's firewall takes a unique and effective approach to program control. It uses information from the KSN to assign a trust level to every program. The lower the trust level, the more restrictions it applies. As a result of this automatic classification it almost never pops up user queries.

When I tested it against a series of leak tests it handled most of them silently. It did ask for guidance about one sample, explaining in detail why it found that sample suspicious.

My Kaspersky contacts explained the designers had "turned their focus from stealthing all ports to preventing actual attacks. Kaspersky's firewall is tough. Every attempt I made to disable it in ways a malicious process could was turned aside with "access denied. That's good, but in the past Kaspersky has identified all or almost all of the exploits. I very much appreciate a firewall that uses its own intelligence rather than relying on the dubious security expertise of the user for decisions.

Norton uses a similar system, though it has no direct equivalent of Kaspersky's trust levels. I do wish Kaspersky's developers would make it stealth all ports, as it used to. It offers a real-time graph of incoming and outgoing traffic and also charts traffic distribution by each application. Its list of open ports and the processes that have them open updates in real time. And if the firewall blocks access by a specific IP address in error, this is the place to unblock it.

Unless you're a total network expert, there's no reason to touch this feature except perhaps to gaze at the hypnotic moving graph of network traffic. Applications Activity As noted earlier, Kaspersky automatically assigns trust levels to applications based on its KSN database.

If necessary you can fine-tune this feature by opening the Applications Activity page and setting it to list all programs that have been rated. The list shows each program's trust level, popularity, and the date of last execution. You can change any application's trust level or even set a custom trust level. This last task should probably be performed only under instruction from tech support. A custom level lets you specify in great detail what kinds of file and Registry access are allowed, as well as what level of network access is permitted.

You can also individually configure Kaspersky to allow, block, or prompt on dozens of specific events. Programs with a low level of trust are forbidden to access what Kaspersky calls "identity data.

Rather, it refers to a long list of important files and settings. This, too, is something you shouldn't touch except under direction from tech support. Those using some other email client can define a rule to divert marked spam into a spam folder. Downloading over 10, messages from a spam-infested real-world account didn't take measurably longer with Kaspersky installed.

However, when I went to check the results I found that it hadn't filed any messages as spam. Checking message headers revealed that it hadn't processed them at all.

It turns out that I'd made a mistake in configuration, a mistake that seems almost inevitable. I checked a box titled "Use Microsoft Outlook rule" because it seemed logical.

As it turns out, if you don't also go through a multi-step process to install this rule, checking that box disables spam filtering. With help from tech support I got the rule working correctly and instructed Outlook to run it on the already-downloaded messages. Processing the messages took an amazingly long time, more than five hours.

When the spam filter finished I analyzed the results. Kaspersky didn't throw away any valid personal mail and discarded less one percent of valid bulk mail; the latter problem could have been solved by whitelisting one sender. That's good. The last thing you want is for your antispam to discard important messages.

However, fully 44 percent of undeniable spam slipped past the filter and landed in the Inbox. That's not good at all. You'd be better off disabling the spam filter and relying on Cloudmark DesktopOne Basic 1. Once the package was installed, we navigated its screens fairly easily.

Some parts still could use a redesign, though. For example, a few panels open in the main window, while others spawn new windows, which can be a little disorienting. Pros Strong protection against malicious software Low impact on PC performance. For the enterprise, we continue to prefer a network-based approach to filtering out spam and malicious email. Kaspersky does provide a few other features that we love in Internet Security , including a straightforward Network Monitor with nifty, real-time graphical information about threats suppressed during a given day or week.

Kaspersky provides dedicated channel support and sells through to commercial and enterprise accounts solely through partners. Review: Kaspersky Internet Security Kaspersky Internet Security keeps up with threats, and gets a boost from the cloud in the process.