Kaspersky PURE 2.0 Total Security

Antivirus and firewall protection together form the bare minimum for a security suite, and some products stay close to this minimum. Kaspersky PURE 2.0 Total Security ($89.95 direct for three licenses) lies at the opposite end of the suite spectrum. In addition to antivirus, firewall, antispam, antiphishing, parental control, and all the expected components it adds backup, system tuneup, file shredding, encrypted storage, password management, and much, much more.

Since its initial release last year, Kaspersky PURE has undergone a bit of fine-tuning. Its user interface now appears strictly in muted greens and grays, eliminating the previous edition's multi-colored icons. Some features are more easily accessible, others have had their configuration settings revamped. Kaspersky PURE now uses exactly the same antivirus engine as Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars), and it can check file reputation using the massive Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) database. You can even right-click any file to see what KSN knows about it.

Excellent Lab Results
Kaspersky routinely attains top honors in independent lab tests. In both on-demand and retrospective tests by AV-Comparatives.org, Kaspersky's technology received a rating of ADVANCED+, the highest rating. It also took ADVANCED+ in this lab's dynamic whole-product test. In fact, AV-Comparatives named Kaspersky product of the year for 2011.

In the latest certification test for Windows 7 antivirus by AV-Test.org, Kaspersky took 17 of 18 possible points, more than any other product. Its score of 16.5 in the parallel test under Windows XP was beaten only by Bitdefender.

Both ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs certify Kaspersky for virus detection and removal. West Coast gave Kaspersky a number of other checkmark certifications and named it a "Checkmark Platinum Product." About the only test Kaspersky didn't ace was Virus Bulletin's VB100. A single false positive can cost a product certification in this static test, so passing in just 8 of the last 10 VB100 tests isn't a big worry. For more about the labs and how I interpret their tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Reality Check
Kaspersky PURE 2.0 is the very first product I've tested with my new malware collection, so I didn't really know what to expect. On over half of the infested test systems the product installed without issue and launched an unusually lengthy initial update; I timed the installation at five minutes and the update at 15. On a few of these systems Kaspersky requested a reboot right away, to handle active malware.

Malware interfered with the installation on several systems. Kaspersky tech support supplied a cleanup tool that solved most of these. However, two test systems required days and days of going back and forth with Kaspersky tech support.

Kaspersky's script-based repair system did impress me. Under instruction from tech support I ran several diagnostic tools and sent them the logs. The next day they sent back a script to fix the problems revealed by the logs. Malware bluescreened one system during scans, disabled connectivity on another, and reconfigured Windows to make launching programs from icons or menus impossible; this is nasty stuff! Script-based cleanup eventually solved almost every problem, though one entrenched threat simply couldn't be removed.

Tech support did yeoman work to get Kaspersky installed and running on these infested systems, but I'd be happier with a product that just did the job, without needing any help. As I test more antivirus tools under this new malware collection I'll find out just how close they can come to that ideal.

Decent Malware Cleanup
Kaspersky detected 76 percent of the new malware collection and scored 5.3 points overall. That's not so great. Norton 360 Version 6.0 ($79.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) detected 88 percent of the previous collection and scored 7.4 points. Comodo Internet Security Pro 2012 ($4.99/year direct, 4 stars) detected more, 97 percent, but less effective cleanup earned it second place with 7.3 points.

Once again, Norton and Comodo earned these scores against a different malware collection. On the other hand, Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars) detected 76 percent of that collection and scored 5.7, so the current product's results may be right in line.

Rootkits are especially troublesome because they interfere with Windows to hide their traces. Looking at the subset of samples that use rootkit technology, Kaspersky detected just 60 percent. It did a good job removing what it detected, so it scored 5.6 points for rootkit removal. Most products tested under the previous malware collection detected 100 percent of the rootkits; Norton won that test with 8.9 points.

I was impressed with Kaspersky's post-scan Windows troubleshooting tool. This tool looks for and repairs security changes and other configuration changes left behind by malware. In testing it re-enabled a disabled REGEDIT and repaired settings that limited my use of Windows Explorer. You can launch this scan manually if desired. Kaspersky can also scan and fix insecure Internet Explorer settings and check your system and applications for unpatched vulnerabilities.

Because it scores so well in the independent lab tests I'm giving Kaspersky 3.5 stars for malware removal. Based solely on my own tests it would've received a lower rating. For an explanation of my testing methodology, see How We Test Malware Removal.

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