Seven popular security suites tested

We tested seven popular Internet security suites for their features and have come up with a comparison to help you choose the one best suited for your needs

The moment you connect your system to the Internet, you are exposed to the innumerable viruses, worms and Trojan attacks. Not to mention the amount of spam each one of us gets these days. To address these security threats, a lot of companies are coming out with security suites.

Earlier, when security suites weren't around, desktop users usually installed an anti-virus software, a third party spyware application, a pop-up blocker, tools for Spam and privacy protection and a firewall. Imagine buying all these applications separately and the time and resources involved in frequently updating them. With threats for desktops on a rise, the scenario for securing desktops has also changed with more and more security suites coming up. Here, the various protection tools are included in one software package . This simplifies things for the user, who can get updates at once, without paying separately for each application.

We tested some of the security suites on WinXP SP 2, with the Windows Security Center and the Automatic Updates features turned off. In anti-virus testing, we tested their ability to detect viruses in real time by planting the viruses dynamically on the system while the security suite was still running. For testing the anti-spam capability, we downloaded spam from our hefty spam collection using Outlook Express. Now, as the anti-spam feature acts as a layer between the mail server and client, the anti-spam tool of the security suite should be able to detect the spam in real time. To test the firewalls of the security suites, we stressed each of them with the Auditor suite.

PC-Cillin Internet Security 2006
www.trendmicro.com

PC-Cillin did well in detecting viruses and its variants. One good point, the suite scans the system for viruses before installing onto it. Its real time virus protection is impressive too as it detected viruses just as they were being planted into the system.

This suite has the maximum features of the entire lot. Its anti-spam protection is impressive and it successfully detected most of the spam. Other than Outlook, its anti-spam feature also supports e-mail clients such as Mozilla, Thunderbird and Eudora.

It has four types of firewall profiles available: direct connection, home network , office network and wireless network. This suite can be configured to automatically switch amongst them.

The firewall blocked all attacks and created their logs in real time. Its vulnerability Assessment feature was able to detect a substantial number of Windows vulnerabilities. This suite also has Wi-Fi protection, parental control and an Anti-Fraud feature to provide protection against phishing and pharming attacks. An anti-fraud toolbar displays URL risk levels in real time. It also has content protection , which can block access to inappropriate sites. It has the privacy protection feature, which blocks specified private information such as name, address and credit card number from being sent over the Web, via e-mail or through instant messaging . Considering its features, performance and ease of use, this security suite is pretty good and worth a buy.

ZoneAlarm Security Suite
www.zonelabs.com

Zone Alarm has always been very popular for its firewall. Its triple defense firewall works at three layers: network layer, program layer and operating system layer.

It detected all our attacks in real time, displayed alerts, and created a log of everything. Its Automatic Network Detection feature identifies new networks, wired or wireless, allowing you to adjust protection to suit your location, be it home, office or cafe. It has a lot of options and can be customized according to user requirements.

Its anti-spam feature gave an awesome performance by detecting 93 % of the spam from our spam collection. 

When Zone Alarm suite installation starts for the first time, it checks whether there is any other anti-virus software installed in  the system. When no anti-virus is found, it provides user with the choice to enable Zone Alarm's anti-virus tool. Zone Alarm also provides parental control and Instant Messaging (IM) protection. The IM control encrypts conversations for AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger as long as both ends are using Zone Alarm.

IM Secure feature blocks IM spam and defends against IM based worms and system exploits. Its privacy control provides features such as ad blocking, cookie control and cache cleaner. An Intrusion detection lock is also provided. Then there is a secure area called myVAULT, where the user can store personal information that needs to be protected. Overall, it is a pretty good security suite given its performance and features.   

Norton Internet Security 2006
http://www.symantec.com

In spam protection, Norton gave an average performance. Its spam auto-block feature didn't detect much spam.  By default its anti-spam feature wasn't able to detect much spam but after tweaking its autolearn feature the performance improved.

Moreover, even though its firewall was able to block all attacks successfully, it neither showed any real-time alerts nor was there any event logged in its firewall logs. The product also has a privacy control which has useful features like Cookie blocking, browsing privacy etc.

Its parental control categorizes websites by topic, newsgroups by text string, and Internet programs by type. Another feature available is Security Inspector that scans the system for settings that can compromise your computer's security and components that are common targets of Internet attacks. These include Windows passwords, browser settings, instant messaging and IP addresses.      

Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security
http://www.pandasoftware.com

Panda Platinum is the cheapest of all the security suites. Its ability to discover vulnerabilities is impressive too. After installation, it automatically scans the system for vulnerabilities and is able to detect high priority vulnerabilities.

On anti-virus front, Panda did quite well. Its unique TruPrevent Technology helps block attacks caused by new unknown viruses by analyzing the behavior of the programs running on the system.

However, Panda did poorly in detecting spam and was not able to detect much of it from our collection. It also has a Web access filter feature. It comes loaded with default filters such as employee filter, teen filter and kids filter that prevent computer users from accessing inappropriate material on the Internet. 

Panda's firewall gave ordinary performance logging to some of our attacks but it was able to block all the attacks successfully. On the spyware front, it has an anti-spyware tool though it doesn't have a pop-up blocker.  

McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006
www.mcafee.com

McAfee Suite's firewall was able to successfully block our attacks on its firewall, but didn't show any real time alerts. An option for locking down the system has also been provided.    

An in-built feature for self-testing the firewall is also provided. Its anti-spam feature adds your entire Outlook contact list to its protected list of contacts automatically. It can also recognize web-based MSN and Hotmail accounts. In our spamming tests, though, its anti-spam wasn't very impressive on first use.

As far as anti-virus protection is concerned, it gave a commendable performance. This suite has parental control and easy-to-use filtering options to protect against offensive content. It also has an ad-blocker and a pop-up blocker. The company has given a new anti-phishing plug-in for Internet Explorer which blocks access to phishing sites. Plus, the privacy service feature lets the user monitor all activities going on the system while it's connected to the Net. 

EScan Internet Security Suite
www.mwti.net

This security suite doesn't come with a firewall. But it has a feature called TCP connection, which examines TCP/IP activity on Windows-based systems. It lists all TCP and UDP endpoints on your PC, including the remote address and state of TCP connections. 

Here, its worth mentioning that eScan checks the system for viruses during installation. It has an eScan content administrator feature to monitor and administer Internet traffic flowing into or out of the system. This can be configured to block e-mail attachments of specific types. It also has a pop-up filter.

Coming to the anti-spam feature, its performance was poor when used in default mode. The performance, however, improved upon customizing its settings. This security suite doesn't come with a firewall. But it has a feature called TCP connection, which examines TCP/IP activity on Windows-based systems. It lists all TCP and UDP endpoints on your PC, including the remote address and state of TCP connections. 

eScan checks the system for viruses during installation. It has an eScan content administrator feature to monitor and administer Internet traffic flowing into or out of the system. This can be configured to block e-mail attachments of specific types.  It also has a pop-up filter. Its anti-spam feature's performance was poor when used in default mode. The performance, however, improved upon customizing its settings. 

Privacyware PC Security Suite
www.privacyware.com/

This suite performed pretty well in our firewall tests and was found to provide plenty of options to the users. It lets you block IP addresses and has a Port Tracking report feature, which protects all system ports against any unauthorized entry. It was able to display information regarding our attacks in real time.

It has an Email Anomaly feature that tracks outbound e-mail delivery behavior and provides alerts if there is unusual outbound email activity.  The Email Anomaly Detection Engine is based on the specific behavior of each computer's email activity over a period of time called the 'Training Period'.   It doesn't have any pop-up blocker or parental control though it does ship with an anti-spyware protection tool.

Norton Personal Firewall

This firewall comes integrated with Norton Protection Center, which monitors security tools such as antivirus , antispyware, etc installed on your PC. The rules for the firewall can be created through a wizard for computers, protocols and ports. In addition to blocking or allowing Internet traffic, rules can also be created for monitoring connections.

For blocking pop-ups and ads, the software integrates itself with IE as a toolbar. It can also be customized to allow such information from desired sites. Its Privacy Control feature lets you secure personal data . So, if one attempts to send protected information by an email or through IM, the firewall will either warn about security risks or block the connection. The firewall provides real time alerts of attacks and the traffic it blocks. It also creates different types of logs for content blocking, privacy, firewall, etc.

We tested the firewall with DoS attacks and found it successful in detecting, blocking and reporting them in real time. Then we conducted a port scan attack using Nessus, which it again passed successfully. However, in the ad blocking capability test, it failed as unwanted ads found their way through to the browser. Also, when you switch between networks, the Firewall repeatedly  prompts for the profile to be used, which is a bit annoying.

Bottom Line: This product is nicely balanced between price and performance. Hence, worth a buy for PC users.

Source: PCQuest (link to: http://www.pcquest.com)