Internet Security 2013, Antivirus 2013 – The Competitive Upgrade Swap

Internet Security Suite 2013 and Antivirus 2013 products have been rolling out for the last several weeks, keeping publications such as CNET, PC Magazine, PC World, and PC Pro busy testing and writing reviews.  It’ll be awhile before the major test organizations will be testing and publishing their test results.

Nonetheless, you may be unhappy with your Internet Security 2012 or Antivirus 2012 solution.  Your  laptop may have caught a virus.  You may have read a review of another vendor’s product and said, “I must have that, but I’ve paid for ‘fill in the blank” Internet Security 2012 already.”  Three words - free competitive upgrade.  

Look at ads from your local Frys, Staples, or Office Depot, for example.  You may also want to look at online ads from these stores.  Below is what Frys is offering (week of September 23) after competitive upgrade forms are mailed in (watch for the deadlines!).  Note that the rebates are often in the form of pre-paid debit cards. 

• BitDefender AntiVirus Plus 2013 – Free  
• GFI Vipre Internet Security 2013 - Free
• Kaspersky Pure Total Security - Free  
• Trend Micro Titanium Premium Security 2013 – Free  
• McAfee Internet Security 2013- $4.99 
• Norton Antivirus 2013 - $4.99 
• AVG Internet Security 2013 - $14.99
• ESET Smart Security 5 - $29.99 

Below are links to some Internet Security 2013 suite and Antivirus 2013 review results from CNET and PC Magazine.

 http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/09/best-internet-security-suites-2013-best.html

 

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/09/best-antivirus-2013.html

 

August - Internet Security Suite 2013 Season Begins - Nortin/Symantec, AVG Technologies, Kaspersky, TrustPort, BitDefender

September 5 - AVG Internet Security 2013 appears to be out the door.

 http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Internet-Security-2013/3000-2239_4-10710160.html

 September 5 - Symantec/Norton  consumer Internet Security products appear to be out the door

http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=20120905_01

August 22 update - Kaspersky has now come out with  their 2013 set of solutions.

http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/internet-security

A new offering found in Kaspersky Internet Security is Safe Money. This is designed to protect your  money when shopping and banking online. Among its functionality.

1. Automatically activates when visiting most common payment services (PayPal, etc.), banking websites, and your own bank or shopping websites to the list.
2. Isolate   payment operations in a special web browser to ensure   transactions aren’t monitored.

Original posting:

Yes, it’s only July, but internet security providers have already begun releasing their   Antivirus 2013 and Internet Security Suite 2013 solutions.  On June 26, TrustPort   announced the availability of the latest editions  2013 to their  product portfolio.  Lighter!  Faster!  More intuitive!  And now based on dynamic whitelisting!

http://www.trustport.com/en/products/trustport-internet-security#comparison

TrustPort   scores extremely well on Virus Bulletin’s RAP Test (Reactive and Proactive).  They had a whoops on the most recent VB100 test.  They weren’t part of AV-test.org certification testing earlier this year.  They weren’t part av-comparatives.org testing in March.    PC Magazine’s Neil Rubenking gave TrustPort Antivirus 2012 3.5 stars when it was released.  TrustPort is another Czech based firm, in Brno.  Practically next door to AVG Technologies.   

Don’t look for a posting with every release of an Internet Security Suite  2013 or Antivirus 2013 solution.  There will probably be a blog providing links to where people can get information about internet security providers that are in beta with their 2013 offerings

TrustPort provides their  Portunes product as freeware.  It’s a standalone solution for the protection of sensitive data information on   user’s credit cards, bank accounts, user names and passwords, for example. Data  is encrypted  (military-grade 256-bit AES algorithm) and protected by a password against hackers and malware. The Portunes application is tailored for users owning either an iPhone, iPad  or devices running under Windows platform (Windows 8, 7, Vista, etc).

BitDefender also has their Antivirus 2013, Internet Security 2013 and Total Security 2013 solutions released. Go to  http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/antivirus-comparison.html Security that's second to none! Makes privacy a priority!

PC Magazine's Neil Rubenking has given BitDefender Total Security 2013 4 stars out of 5 and BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2013 4.5 stars out of 5. He also gave this product his Editor's Choice selection.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407239,00.asp  

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406906,00.asp
 

BitDefender Internet Security 2012 scored 17 points out of 18 (6 each for Protection, Repair, and Usability)  in www.AV-test.org  March/April testing on the Windows 7 platform. Their 2012 product also ranked high  on Virus Bulletin's RAP Test (Oct 2011 - April 2012). They're 11 and 1 in the last dozen VB100 testings  with  Virus Bulletin  (www.virustbtn.com ). The were tied for first in the  May  www.av-comparatives.org  Whole Product Dynamic Real World Testing.  In the March   av-comparatives.org  On-demand Detection of Malicious Software Test, BitDefender  Antivirus 2012 received 3 stars  (out of 3) and finished  7^th out of twenty, overall.    

Note that all the above are on 2012 solutions. Go to the websites above to see if there has been more recent testing performed.