Avast Internet Security 2015

By Neil J. Rubenking

I occasionally get email from readers promoting the concept of selecting best-of-breed standalone antivirus, firewall, spam filter, and so on, for the best protection in every area and assembling a DIY security suite. Those enthusiasts are rare, though; for most users the convenience of an integrated suite is irresistible. Avast Internet Security 2015 ($49.99 per year; $69.99 for three licenses) includes almost all the expected suite features, but it's just not up to the quality of the very best suites.

You can fine-tune Avast's user interface to associate the four security components you use most with four big buttons that dominate the main window. A button menu down the left side offers access to every feature, not just the ones you use most. And a large banner across the top reflects security status; green means good. When the banner turns yellow or red to reflect a problem, it also offers a link to fix that problem.

Shared Antivirus This suite is built around the anitivirus protection found in Avast Pro Antivirus 2015. I'll summarize my findings here; read the antivirus review for full details.

Avast's lab test scores range from best to worst. It received AAA-level certification from Dennis Technology Labs and rated Advanced+ in two tests by AV-Comparatives. However, "crazy many" false positives caused it to fail the file detection test from that same lab. Bitdefender and Kaspersky generally take top scores across the board.

See How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests

In my own hands-on malware blocking test, Avast earned 9.0 of 10 possible point, better than most products tested using this same malware collection. Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus (2015) earned a perfect 10 in this test.

My malicious URL blocking test uses newly-discovered malware-hosting URLs, typically no more than four hours old. When I challenged Avast with about 100 of these, it blocked all access to 29 percent at the URL level and eliminated another 43 percent during download, for a total block rate of 72 percent. That's quite good, though McAfee Internet Security 2015 managed to block 85 percent.

See original here:
Avast Internet Security 2015