Kaspersky Internet Security 2010

Other Features

A sensible number of user interaction and information popups are presented, allowing you to choose the course of action manually for each new application you run on your PC. You are able to select a non-verbose mode during setup if you want Kaspersky to take its best guess on how trusted certain software is. A combination of heuristics and a central database is used to place each application in to a Trusted, Low Restricted, High Restricted or Untrusted category – limiting resources based on risk.


It was pleasing to see that Kaspersky have continued to bundle a powerful vulnerability scanner with KIS, as this allows users to perform some pro-active security hardening on a regular basis. The importance of this tool should not be underestimated, as it will detect applications with un-patched security problems and provide information on how to fix each one. General system vulnerabilities are also listed, which make sensible suggestions for the security conscious.


Anti-spam detection has improved somewhat in this version and it would be suitable enough for most home users. Once trained, the KIS spam filter works well in Outlook and Thunderbird – the most common e-mail clients. The parental controls are still rudimentary, but work acceptably well for an all-in-one package. Combined, these extra components provide a very useful array of utilities.

Conclusion

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 is another solid all-in-one home security package, performing very well in its anti-virus and firewall duties. The other components varied in terms of effectiveness and customising the application can be confusing, but this shouldn’t detract from a product that offers very good protection and value for money (a 3 user license costs as little as £25 at Amazon at the time of publishing). Everything you need for a powerful security suite is included, and the resource usage on a standard home PC was reasonably low when compared to similar software.