Kaspersky Internet Security 7: A review

I thought that, as part of this blog, I’d try to post reviews of things to help clear up any confusion people may have when shopping around for stuff. I’m going to start these reviews with Kaspersky Internet Security 7 (KIS7), because there are so many choices when shopping around for internet security suites that it would be nice if there could be a bit more information on them.
Who the heck are these Kaperskee…Kopski…Kasperky…Kasky…people anyways?

This is a question that I get asked a lot at the store that shall remain nameless. Kaspersky, or more accurately, Kaspersky Lab, is a Russian company headed by a husband-wife team (well, divorced now, but they still are partners in the company). While extraordinarily well-known in Europe, Kaspersky Lab has not, until recently, made a major push to gain market share in the US. Some high-profile clients that use Kaspersky’s client are the Italian Foreign Ministry and Airbus. Kaspersky, just like almost every other company in the industry, offers anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware, firewall, anti-phising, etc.

Of course, I would encourage you to get over the “but it isn’t Norton/Symantec” thing that I get a lot. Look, Norton is a good product, but it is neither the only such product nor is it the best product you can buy. Simply because you have not heard of the company does not mean that they are not legit (this same issue is raised when talking about products made by Webroot, or PC Tools, or Panda).

How KIS7 fared in my test

First, I want to make clear that what I am calling a “test” is actually a real customer’s computer that I put the trial of KIS7 on to see how it would remove viruses. So, it is a little bit more real than what you find in most magazine/lab reviews because they had paid me money to clean out their PC. In any event, this PC was just a mess. It was infested with a plethora of trojans, worms, viruses, spyware, rootkits, and some rogue anti-spyware programs. In total, I had to remove a little over 9,210 infected files and 5 malicious processes in order to clean the customer’s PC.

Luckily none of the malware prevented KIS7 from being installed, and I was able to install it without booting into safe mode. That being sad, had I needed to boot into safe mode KIS7 will install without problem, though beware that it will not be able to download definition updates unless you selected “safe mode with networking.” Also, the trial of KIS7 is exactly like the “real” program in every way except that the trial license lasts for 30 days, but buying the program gets you a license that’s good for one year.

Immediately upon completion of the installation KIS7 begins doing two things simultaneously (provided you have internet access): downloading the latest definitions file and scanning your computer. Whenever KIS7 detects an infected file a window will pop-up from the lower right-hand corner of your screen asking you what you would like to do with the file. Your options will vary depending on what the file is, but normally you can choose between disinfect, delete, or skip. I was disappointed with the disinfect option, because in none of the cases where I selected “disinfect” was it actually possible to disinfect the file– I just had to delete it.

One curious aspect of KIS7 that, at least in this scenario, got incredibly annoying is the sound that it makes whenever it detects an infected file: it is what I imagine a pig would do if it were being tortured with hot irons. It does get your attention, but when you are removing thousands of infected files it just becomes really, really obnoxious. Luckily, you can turn the sound off or alternatively, turn your speakers off.

If constantly selecting what you want KIS7 to do with each infected file isn’t your cup of tea (or, like me, you just don’t want to click “delete” thousands of times), you can check “apply to all” and KIS7 will attempt to apply whatever command you tell it to every subsequent file. It will only alert you if it is not possible for it to execute your chosen solution on a given file.

What I found truly odd about KIS7 is that when you perform an on-demand scan the auto-scan feature continues to scan your computer, effectively creating a scenario where the same program is running two different scans. The program ends up bombarding you with alerts of infected files because each scan is scanning a different part of your system, despite the fact that one scan will eventually get to those same files anyway. KIS7’s scanners are very streamlined– barely reducing system performance– so it is odd that this kind of redundancy (that ultimately serves no purpose) would exist in a program that clearly was coded to use system resources very efficiently.

KIS7’s on-demand scanner is sort of an all-in-one scanner and searches for all types of malware in the same scan. You can choose what areas of your computer it will scan, like your local disk, mail databases, documents, optical drives, and any attached flash memory. Whatever areas you choose, KIS7 will scan those thoroughly. It is the only program that I have encountered to date that actually scans and removes malware located in the system restore partition. This thorough scanning combined with hourly updates and a near-continuous auto-scan of your computer means that KIS7 is well-prepared to clean out any nasties and keep your computer malware free.

The Results

In what I am positing as the test scenario I ultimately removed 9,210 files and an additional 5 malicious processes and registry keys. KIS7 accounted for 7,700 of the total 9,215 files that needed cleaned out, meaning that it scored a 83.56%, which I think would be a C if we assigned letter grades. I required the services of PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor to remove an additional 1,500 files, and Hijack This to remove 5 processes/registry keys. The piece of malware that gave KIS7 the biggest headache was a rogue anti-spyware program called Ultimate Defender. KIS7 did not even detect this program, so even after all scans came back clean Ultimate Defender remained unharmed. To be fair, although Spyware Doctor detected the files Ultimate Defender wrote under C:Program Files it couldn’t detect the malicious .dll file that ultimately was the source of the problem: C:Windowssystem32wowfx.dll. Hijack This did detect this file and successfully removed it, and once that happened Spyware Doctor was able to clean the rest of the infection out.

Conclusion

Ultimately I give KIS7 a 7 out of 10. Its hourly updates, resource-efficient scans, thoroughness, and the fact that it successfully deleted everything it detected are all great features that a quality internet security suite should have. On the other hand, KIS 7 missed 1,505 files and failed to even detect Ultimate Defender– leaving the PC still pretty infested with malware. Also, KIS7 is expensive, and a 1 year license will run you anywhere from $74 to $80. The fact that it will install on 3 PCs mitigates that cost a little, but some other programs (not to be mentioned in this review, maybe in a later review) do as good of a job or better and cost less.

For your investment you do get a high-quality internet security program that generally provides solid protection and, in most cases, can eliminate threats it detects. I recommend KIS7 to a lot of people, and it is certainly well above-average in the internet security world.

Final score: 7 out of 10 (Good)

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