Kaspersky Internet Security Premium
Effective and well-priced anti-malware that you might not be allowed to use if you’re working from home
PRICE (10 devices) First year, £17 (£21 inc VAT), renewal £46 (£55 inc VAT)
from kaspersky.co.uk
Kaspersky Internet Security is an entirely effective anti-malware solution and a politically difficult one, given that the Russianmade suite’s use is restricted in many workplaces, which you may have to consider if you’re a remote worker.
There’s also the question of whether you wish to support a Russian firm. The National Cyber Security Centre’s March 2022 guidance ( pcpro.link/ 343ncsc) states: “Nearly all individuals in the UK (and many enterprises) are not going to be targeted by Russian cyber attack, regardless of whether they use Russian products and services. If your personal laptop uses Kaspersky AV... it’s highly unlikely to be directly targeted (and) it’s safe to turn on and use at the moment.”
If Kaspersky works for you, or you have an ongoing subscription, there’s no pressing security need to replace for Russia-specific reasons. It’s still among the better performers in the tests, too. It detected all malware in AV-Test’s real-world and reference tests and in SE Labs’ real-world tests, with no false positives in either. It slipped a little in AV Comparatives’ recent test, in which it detected 99.7% of malware with one false positive. It’s clearly excellent protection against malware, but Avast, G Data and McAfee all performed better.
Kaspersky’s product lines have recently been refined into Basic, Plus and Premium versions. A free version is no longer available. Basic is pure antivirus software, plus a firewall and system optimisation tools. Plus adds a hard disk monitor, password manager, VPN and network monitoring. We reviewed Kaspersky Premium, which also includes 24/7 support and a remote PC health check, a data breach monitoring service, secure storage for digital versions of your identity documents and a year’s subscription to the premium version of Kaspersky’s Safe Kids parental control and GPS tracking system.
Although this tier is marketed similarly to McAfee and Norton’s security suites, Kaspersky conspicuously does not include a support service to help guide you through recovering from identity theft or document loss.
However, it’s also a lot cheaper, with a 10-device subscription coming in at about half the price of its rivals’ top-tier equivalent.