Security - Reviews

Trend Micro Antivirus + Antispyware 2010

Trend Micro Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 is good looking software weighed down by comparatively poor malware detection, slow scan speed, and a seriously misguided habit of hiding what it does from the user.

Panda Antivirus Pro 2010

Panda Antivirus Pro 2010 ($69.95 for a one-year, three-PC licence) offers strong traditional malware detection, but is dragged down by negatives like poor behavioural scans.

PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2010

Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2010 (SDAV) blends PC Tools' previous well-known anti-spyware tool PC Tools Spyware Doctor with the anti-virus capabilities of a PC Tools AntiVirus engine.

BitDefender Antivirus 2010

BitDefender Antivirus ($44.92 for a one-year, three-PC licence) holds its own at dealing with malware, but its interface isn't especially user-friendly. Overall the program earned fourth place in our roundup of stand-alone antivirus programs.

Avira AntiVir Premium

Avira's AntiVir Premium Edition lacks an advanced malware detection feature used by top programs, and it could use a smoother interface. The program earned a seventh-place ranking in our current stand-alone antivirus roundup.

Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 2010

Kaspersky's pairs competent proactive protection with below-average signature detection, and a strong feature set with an at-times annoying user experience.

G Data AntiVirus 2010

Most security programs use a single antivirus engine, but the German-made G Data (US$25 for a one-year, single-PC license) uses two separate engines: BitDefender and Avast. That double coverage may have helped it rack up an impressive 99.95 percent b...

Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2010

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus ($60 for a one-year, single-PC license) offers some terrific extra features and a polished user interface. But subpar performance in one detection category prevented it from capturing the top spot in our chart of stand-alo...

McAfee Application Control 5.0

McAfee's whitelisting protection for Windows, Linux, and Solaris is a software tool that allows network admins to restrict users' ability to mess up their own PCs - McAfee Application Control 5.0.

Western Digital My Book Elite (2TB) external hard drive

Western Digital's refreshed My Book Elite 2TB external hard drive offers intuitive backup options, 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and an e-ink capacity indicator. However, there are faster USB 2.0-based external hard drives that have passed through...

IronKey S200 1GB USB drive

It has been more than a year-and-a-half since I last reviewed an IronKey secure USB flash drive, so when the company sent one my way with a few new features I jumped at the chance to see if there had been any major improvements over the last version ...

WatchGuard Firebox Peak X5500e firewall

WatchGuard's Firebox Peak X5500e is a strong, manageable firewall and the fastest in our test, but complexity and weak attack protection hold it back

Lavasoft Ad-Aware Pro

The Ad-Aware series of products have long been known primarily for Ad-Aware Free, a famous and free piece of anti-spyware software.

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE (1TB) external hard drive

Western Digital's My Passport Essential SE is currently the only portable external hard drive to boast a whopping 1TB of storage space. Despite this, it is one of the smallest hard drives around and it is quite speedy, too.

Symantec Norton Internet Security 2010 (beta)

Take a quick glance at the just-released Norton Internet Security 2010, and you won't notice much of a difference from previous incarnations — the interface and feature set are so similar that it appears that only very minimal changes have been...