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Internet Security Tools

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Mastufa
New Update

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. But now as the threats for desktops are on the 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. 

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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.

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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

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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.   

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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.  

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Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security





http://www.pandasoftware.com

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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 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

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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 you 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.

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. 

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.     

Suite name Features* Price(single licence) % Spam Detected Firewall Attacks Logged**
PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 Spyware Protection, Parental Control,Pop-up Blocker, Vulnerability Assessment, Wireless Protection Rs 2500 90% good
ZoneAlarm Security Suite Spyware Protection, Parental Control,Pop-up Blocker, IM Protection , Wireless Protection USD 59.95 93% thorough
Norton Internet Security 2006 Spyware Protection, Parental Control,Pop-up Blocker, IM Protection , Privacy Control, Rs 2899 48% good
Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security Spyware Protection, Parental Control,Pop-up Blocker, Wireless Protection, Vulnerability Assessment USD 24.99 37% good
McAfee Security Suite 2006 Spyware Protection, Parental Control,Wireless Protection , Pop-up Blocker Rs 2500 45% good
eScan internet security suite Spyware Protection, Pop up Blocker, Parental Control USD 58.95 42% -
Privacyware PC Security Suite Spyware Protection, Port Tracking, Email Anomaly Detection USD 49.95 - thorough
* All suites had anti virus, all except eScan had a personal firewall, all except Privacyware had spam filtering 



** Not the same as attacks detected

Swapnil Arora

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