Product Review: KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY 2009

       PROMOTIONAL


You may not be familiar with the Kaspersky name as it has only recently been heavily marketed in the United States, but it is recognized as an industry leader in Internet security software throughout Europe and Asia. In fact, their anti-spyware and anti-virus technology is so good that it is licensed into the products of over 120 other software companies including software giant Microsoft.

Kapersky's strength is their industry leading anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. Their virus and spyware/adware definitions are automatically updated to your computer hourly which means they can effectively detect even the newest threats to your Internet security and computer's health. Kaspersky also offers a very unique feature called 'Roll Back'. When a threat to your computer is identified you can choose to roll back your system to before the virus or spyware infection occurred. This feature was tested by downloading some known spyware onto a computer with Kapersky installed. The software immediately identified the threat and the process of 'rolling back' was simple and painless.

Kaspersky's spam and phishing detection are not as extensive as some of the other services we have reviewed. That being said, Kaspersky does offer a unique image spam analysis engine that can evaluate the risk of images sent in email. Many other spam filters have difficulty distinguishing between spam images and innocuous image files, leaving photos from friends and family up caught in the spam filter.

While Kaspersky Internet Security doesn't include any explicit identity theft protection it does include some features that certainly would make it more difficult for criminals to steal your identity. For example, they do provide additional layers of security on sites where you may be entering sensitive personal information and account details. The new 2009 release also includes an on-screen keyboard that can be used when entering passwords or other personal information, in order to thwart keyloggers.

At $59.99, Kaspersky is on the more expensive end of the spectrum versus other Internet security software providers. However, this price does include up to three licenses and their industry leading virus and spyware protection. Kaspersky Internet Security is probably best suited for consumers that are looking for world class virus and spyware protection but do not require extensive spam protection because they already have a spam filtering solution in place.

System Requirements: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista

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