Verdict: A well-equipped all-rounder, but it doesn't excel in any particular area
Overall Rating
4/6
Full Review:
Kaspersky Pure is a new all-in-one package from the Russian anti-malware veterans, combining security with backup, parental control and tune-up modules. At first glance it looks like an attempt to hop on the Norton 360 bandwagon, but as the seemingly clean front-end opens up into a rabbit's warren of subpanes showing statistics and configuration options, you realise it's a more complex, less novice-friendly beast.
The practical emphasis is different too. While there's no online storage for the backup module, Pure expresses a greater concern for privacy. In addition to the expected password manager, there's a virtual keyboard designed to defeat keyloggers, a file shredder and a new 128-bit AES encryption client.
It's worth noting that Kaspersky's idea of "tune-up" isn't the usual registry-cleaning voodoo. Rather, it's a security and privacy audit, which suggests changes such as wiping system logs, setting Windows Explorer to show file extensions (to prevent file-type spoofing), and setting your browser to empty potentially confidential data from its cache when closed. It's a one-off diagnostic, really, but more worthwhile than the throwaway wizards bundled with 360.
Parental controls follow a familiar model. You can prevent specified users from accessing certain categories of website, and ban or time-restrict specific applications (or, indeed, the entire computer). In truth, there's very little here that Windows 7 can't do, with the free Windows Live Family Safety tool, but one nice touch is the ability to prevent users from downloading files of certain types.
The core of the package is still the malware detection and firewall modules. These look identical to those found in Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, and they bring with them some neat features, such as the "Safe Run" sandbox for trying out unknown applications, and the highly technical Digital Identity browser that lets you browse and clean up the huge amount of personalised data in your Registry.
However, although the company promises "enhanced detection technologies", Pure's performance in our malware detection test was very similar to that of KIS 2010 in our last Labs. That's to say, it failed to quite match the Nortons and Aviras of this world, but kept up a credible 90% detection rate. It's a result echoed by av-comparatives.org, whose February 2010 test gave Kaspersky Antivirus a detection rate of 97.1% — not dreadful, but a twelfth-place performance among the nineteen packages in that test.
Kaspersky Pure crams in a good range of functions, and it isn't a dreadful resource hog. Installing it on our test system added 12 seconds of post-boot CPU activity compared to a clean Windows installation, but its overall RAM footprint of 663MB was the lowest of this month's three packages. When it comes to security, though, it remains a silver-medallist, and while there are some useful features the price feels high, especially without an online backup service.
Source:www.pcpro.co.uk |
Kaspersky has invented a new security product that combines bits of its current consumer security suite with new capabilities such as encryption, backup, password management, and the ability to manage the product across a network.
Kaspersky Pure, as the company has named it, looks like an 'expert user' product that offers the simple convenience of a wide range of security-related tools in one integrated suite. The core of the product is identical in its antivirus and antispam capabilities to Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Internet Security products, but it is the added 'do everything' extras that mark it out as different.
Pure gets parental ‘Big brother' controls such as the ability to time-limit internet access, regulate access to specific programs, and put blocks on IM sessions containing certain terms or even telephone numbers, a set of features which would today probably require a separate product.
Next up is encryption, which allows users to store important data inside containers of varying size, preferably on an external disk. This ties in with the backup module which allows scheduled, incremental backups of specified file types and locations.
Accessing multiple websites using different logins and passwords is simplified by the included password manager. This stores passwords securely inside a database (which itself can be backed up), which, depending on how it is configured, can be automatically summoned when logging into a specific website. Mobile phones can also be used as tokens to unlock this database via Bluetooth when they come within range of the PC.
The product also addresses a common weakness of many security software products which assume a single user and a single PC. Pure extends this to allow many of the settings - for backup and parental controls for instance - to be set up on several PC across the network by anyone with admin permissions.
Now that it has become common for many users to store their digital assets in electronic format, a need has arisen for new types of comprehensive solutions that offer protection against all types of digital threats," said Kaspersky Lab CEO, Eugene Kaspersky.
As loaded with features as Pure appears, many of them can be found as standalone products for free. Basic encrypted data containers are offered with most encryption products, online password management is available from excellent products such as LastPass and RoboForm which cost nothing as long as the entries don't exceed quotas, and basic backup utilities can be found cheaply from a wide range of providers. Even antivirus is now turning into a free utility.
Pure's strength, then, rests on integrating a family of features under one product, and doing so without asking the user to assess different possibly unknown products.
Source: www.pcadvisor.co.uk |
Full Review:
Kaspersky has invented a new security product that combines bits of its current consumer security suite with new capabilities such as encryption, backup, password management, and the ability to manage the product across a network.
Kaspersky Pure, as the company has named it, looks like an 'expert user' product that offers the simple convenience of a wide range of security-related tools in one integrated suite. The core of the product is identical in its antivirus and antispam capabilities to Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Internet Security products, but it is the added 'do everything' extras that mark it out as different.
Pure gets parental ‘Big brother' controls such as the ability to time-limit internet access, regulate access to specific programs, and put blocks on IM sessions containing certain terms or even telephone numbers, a set of features which would today probably require a separate product.
Next up is encryption, which allows users to store important data inside containers of varying size, preferably on an external disk. This ties in with the backup module which allows scheduled, incremental backups of specified file types and locations.
Accessing multiple websites using different logins and passwords is simplified by the included password manager. This stores passwords securely inside a database (which itself can be backed up), which, depending on how it is configured, can be automatically summoned when logging into a specific website. Mobile phones can also be used as tokens to unlock this database via Bluetooth when they come within range of the PC.
The product also addresses a common weakness of many security software products which assume a single user and a single PC. Pure extends this to allow many of the settings - for backup and parental controls for instance - to be set up on several PC across the network by anyone with admin permissions.
"Now that it has become common for many users to store their digital assets in electronic format, a need has arisen for new types of comprehensive solutions that offer protection against all types of digital threats," said Kaspersky Lab CEO, Eugene Kaspersky.
As loaded with features as Pure appears, many of them can be found as standalone products for free. Basic encrypted data containers are offered with most encryption products, online password management is available from excellent products such as LastPass and RoboForm which cost nothing as long as the entries don't exceed quotas, and basic backup utilities can be found cheaply from a wide range of providers. Even antivirus is now turning into a free utility.
Pure's strength, then, rests on integrating a family of features under one product, and doing so without asking the user to assess different possibly unknown products.
Source: www.PCAUTHORITY.com.au |
