Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 review

The big new feature in this year’s Kaspersky is Safe Money, which double-checks the authenticity and security credentials of the page you’re visiting, then optionally switches your session to a special sandboxed browser to ensure browser-hijacking malware can’t interfere with your transaction.

For added protection, you can use the onscreen Secure Keyboard to enter sensitive information in a way that isn’t as vulnerable to keyloggers. We suspect this will appeal mostly to those using touchscreens, however: typing with a mouse is hardly convenient.

There’s little else new here, but Kaspersky was already a well- equipped package, with both local and cloud-based features designed to watch over your files, emails, web pages, IMs, applications, network connections and more.

These features are all customisable, too, making Kaspersky Internet Security particularly appealing to hands-on techies.

Accessing the various settings is a bit of a pain, however. A confusing set of arrows, links and buttons make navigating the 2013 interface for the first time an irritating exercise in trial and error.

Historically, when it comes to malware tests, Kaspersky software tends to place near the top of the table, and this latest iteration is no exception.

AV-Test saw Kaspersky achieve a strong malware protection score of 99% across both established malware and brand-new exploits, and in 96% of cases it was able to fully clean up an infected system. We found Kaspersky fast, too, intercepting a dodgy download in a fraction of a second, and completing a quick system scan in half a minute.

Kaspersky’s suite added only 11 seconds to the startup time of our test PC, but it occupied a lumbering 303MB of system memory, which could have a noticeable impact on an older PC. There’s a literal price to pay, too: on a one-year, three-PC basis, Kaspersky is the most expensive security suite here.

If you’re not someone who yearns for maximum features and configurability, this isn’t an irresistible deal, especially since there’s no beginner-friendly set-and-forget mode, as found in Bitdefender and BullGuard. However, for the more technically engaged, Kaspersky’s suite remains an excellent choice.