Best Internet Security Suites 2011 – PC Magazine

The table below lists the Best Internet Security Suites of 2011 as reviewed by PC Magazine and Neil Rubenking. The ratings are from high to low and then reverse alphabetical order (just to be different). http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373529,00.asp

The last figure in each row reflects the number of stars awarded by www.av-comparatives.org in their February 2011 "On-demand Detection of Malicious Software". This figure has the following caveats; Antivirus products were used, not internet security suites; where there is a blank, that company’s antivirus product was not tested by AV Comparatives.

Best Internet Security Suites 2011 – PC Magazine

4.5 - Norton Internet Security Suite 2011 2
4.5 - Norton 360 Version 5.0 2
4.0 - Webroot Internet Security Suite 2011 Tested
4.0 - Kaspersky PURE Total Security 3
4.0 - Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 3
4.0 - Astaro Security Gateway
3.5 - Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 1
3.5 - McAfee Total Protection 2011 3
3.5 - BitDefender Total Security 3
3.5 - Avast! Internet Security 6.0 2
3.5 - Ad-Aware Total Security
3.0 - PC Tools Internet Security 2011 1
3.0 - Outpost Security Suite Free 7.0
3.0 - G Data TotalSecurity 2011 2
3.0 - F-Secure Internet Security 2011 3
2.5 - Trustport Internet Security Suite 2011 3
2.5 - Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.0
2.5 - Bullguard Internet Security 2011
2.5 - AVG Internet Security 2011 1
2.0 - eScan Internet Security Suite 2011 3


PC Magazine reviews each of the products in the table in detail. People looking for a solution should look at these individual reviews. They contain detailed (and extremely knowledgeable) qualitative data about the products as well as results of malware tests that were done by PC Magazine. Many of the companies also offer more than one internet security suite. Another reason to visit their web sites.

Individuals interested in only an antivirus solution can go to “Best Antivirus Software of 2011 – PC Magazine” at http://kensek.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-antivirus-software-for-2011-pc.html for a ranking of these solutions.

Individuals interested in a table showing internet security suite rankings that combine PC World, PC Magazine and about.com rankings can go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/pc-world-pc-magazine-and-aboutcom.html

To see an evolving compilation of Best Antivirus 2012 reviews, go to http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html

People should also review (it's also free to download) the AV Comparatives document. It contains a great deal of content about the testing, detection rates, missed samples, false positives, and scanning speeds (and more). People may also want to go to www.av-test.org and www.virusbtn.org to look at additional tests. To learn about test standards, you may wish to visit the Ant-Malware Testing Standards site at www.amtso.org .

Internet security suites vary greatly in what features they provide. They could include, for example, identity protection, backup and restore, free online storage, PC tuneup, free email, chat, and phone support, parental controls, password managers, data encryption, file shredding, remotely lock files, extend protection to smart phones, and authenticate hotspots. These examples are from Norton, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro. http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/titanium-internet-security/ , http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/pure

There is more to a product review than just counting the "likes" on a Fan Page ;) . Sometimes the wisdom of experts is better than the collective wisdom of crowds, with all due respect to James Surwiecki.

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which is providing independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. For more information, go to www.av-comparatives.org

2011 SC Magazine Awards Europe - Winners Announced

The 2011 SC Magazine Awards Europe winners were announced Tuesday evening, April 19. The awards gala took place at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Sophos and McAfee were both double winners on Tuesday evening. McAfee was also a double winner in the SC Awards US 2011 event held in San Francisco in February during (but not part of) the RSA security show. It remains to be seen whether representatives of the winning organizations will be given invitations to the upcoming royal wedding.

Best anti-malware solution

Sophos - Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition

Best content security

Websense - Triton

Best network security

McAfee - Network Security Platform

Best integrated security solution

ArcSight - Logger 5

Best DLP solution

Safend - Data Protection Suite

Best encryption solution

PGP by Symantec - Remote Disable and Destroy (RDD)

Best IAM solution

CA Technologies - Identity Manager

Best remote access

Becrypt - Trusted Client

Best security management

McAfee - ePolicy Orchestrator

Best SME security solution

Qualys - QualysGuard Express

Best security solution, financial services

Actiance - Vantage

Best enterprise security solution

Good Technology - Good for Enterprise

Best secure transaction solution

Thales - payShield 9000

Best secure virtualization solution

Check Point - Check Point Security Gateway Virtual Edition

Innovation award

ActiveBase - ActiveBase Security

Information security consultancy of the year

KPMG

IT security value added reseller of the year

Brookcourt Solutions

MSSP of the year

Dell SecureWorks

Information security product of the year

Actiance - Unified Security Gateway

Information security project of the year

British Gas - Keep Mum

Information security team of the year

Barclaycard - Barclaycard Payment Security team

Rising star award

Ross Leaning, executive advisor, KPMG

CEO of the year

Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO, Qualys

Information security person of the year

Mark Brown, chief information security officer, SABMiller

Information security vendor of the year

Sophos


The short list for SC Awards Europe 2011 finalists is at http://www.scmagazineuk.com/awards-shortlist/section/348/

Judging

The judges for the Technology and Industry Awards are drawn from the senior ranks of the information security profession. The Professional Awards are judged by a separate panel drawn from the SC editorial team

What the SC Magazine Awards Europe 2011 Mean for the Vendors

• Third party validation by a leading dedicated security publication
• Third party validation by peers
• Marketing/promotional rights for a year, subject to licensing
• A number of potential marketing/branding/lead generation opportunities for the recipients

Symantec was a winner in four categories for the awards in the US. McAfee was nominated in fourteen categories and won in two of these.

A listing of the SC Awards 2011 US winners is at

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/sc-awards-2011-us-announced.html

April 2011 - Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, October 2010 through April 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing October 2010 through April 2011 data.

Achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Bkts, AVG, Symantec, Kaspersky, Avast, F-Secure, MicroSafe, eScan, ESET, ZeoBit, UnThreat, G-Data, Avira (Pro and Free), Check Point, TrustPort, Coranti, Lavasoft Total, and Kaspersky Pure. Avira Free had the top Reactive Detection. Coranti and LavaSoft Total had the highest Proactive Detection. The order of these is from (approximately) left to upper right.

On the previous test, those achieving greater than 90% for Reactive Detection and greater than 70% for Proactive Detection on the RAP Averages Quadrant were Kaspersky AV, AVG Technologies, Kaspersky IS, Avast, eScan, ESET Bkis BKAV Home Plus, G-DATA, TrustPort, Zeobit, Check Point, Avira Free, and Coranti. Coranti received the highest score for Proactive Detection and TrustPort for Reactive Detection at about 98% and 91% respectively. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/virus-bulletin-rap-averages-quadrant.html

This test measures products' detection rates across four distinct sets of malware samples. The first three test sets comprise malware first seen in each of the three weeks prior to product submission. These measure how quickly product developers and labs react to the steady flood of new malware emerging every day across the world. A fourth test set consists of malware samples first seen in the week after product submission.

This test set is used to gauge products' ability to detect new and unknown samples proactively, using heuristic and generic techniques. A detailed description can be viewed at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/vb200902-RAP-tests

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant (October 2010 through April 2011) chart at http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

UK based Virus Bulletin www.virusbtn.com started in 1989. The organization provides PC users with a regular source of intelligence about computer viruses, their prevention, detection and removal, and how to recover programs and data following an attack. VB’s website is at www.virusbtn.com . The site is a great source of information on malware and spam. They are a member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, www.AMTSO.org.

AV-Comparatives on Demand Detection of Malicious Software – April 2011 (Latest Revision)

AV-Comparatives has released an updated to their latest On Demand Detection of Malicious Software report – April 2011. Twenty vendors are included in the report. Advanced Plus (3 star ratings) were achieved by seven vendors. In order, they were TrustPort, F-Secure, BitDefender, Avira, eScan, Kaspersky, and McAfee.

G-DATA, TrustPort, and Avast ranked one, two, and three, respectively, with the percentage of least samples missed. All were under two percent.

Of the vendors best known for free antivirus protection, Avira received Advanced Plus certification (3 stars) Avast received Advanced Certification (two stars) and AVG Technologies, Standard Certification (one star). According to the report, by request of the respective vendors, these vendors’ free versions of software were used, avast Free Antivirus, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, and Avira AntiVir Personal.

AV-Comparatives consulted with vendors with respect to what settings to use for the test. For the complete report, go to the AV-Comparatives web site. There you will find details on samples used, testing methodology, scanning speed results, and more.

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public. www.av-comparatives.org

Note that there are other testing organizations as well. Individuals and companies evaluating AV and Internet Security SW should also look at the others, at reviews, round-ups, and group tests performed by reputable testing organizations, and technology publications. For information on testing best practices, people can go to the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization website (AMTSO), www.amtso.org