Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 Available Now

Kaspersky have released new 2013 versions of their highly rated security suites – Kaspersky Anti-virus (KAV) 2013 and Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 2013.

The 2013 suites are already available in the US, Canada, India, Germany and China – they will become available in other countries soon (e.g. in the UK from 28th August).

KAV 2013 does not include Safe Money, Firewall, Application control, Parental control or Anti-spam filters – all included in KIS 2013.

That’s like locking your house doors – but leaving all the windows open… For this reason I’ll review the new features of the Internet Security suite – Kaspersky are currently offering both suites for the same price anyway so there really is little reason to skimp on the level of security.

Tip: see my review for how to get KIS 2013 cheap – two thirds off.

Safe Money – this is the major new feature in 2013 which adds stronger security for online banking and shopping.

Safe Money checks the website address and security certificate, checks for vulnerabilities in your operating system and automatically suggests opening the site in Safe Money mode – for added security against the theft of personal and financial data.

In July this new Safe Money technology was evaluated against 15 real-world attack styles used by malware to steal your online payments information. Independent research lab Matousec tested 14 security products in total. Half of the tested products (including McAfee, MSE and Norton) did not prevent a single test from stealing the credentials.

Only two of the tested products blocked all 15 banking attacks – Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 and Trusteer Rapport (a specific banking industry program, not a general purpose antivirus product).

safe money

Automatic Exploit Prevention – even if your PC and the applications running on it haven’t been updated with the latest fixes, this feature can prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities.

Secure Keyboard – when you open a bank or payment website (or enter a password within any web page) Secure Keyboard automatically opens to keep your data safe from keyloggers.

Reduced Battery Drain – if running on battery power, KIS automatically reduces its usage of resources to help increase the time the laptop can run.

Improvements in Kaspersky Internet Security 2013

  • Parental Control – new Parental Control engine includes new and improved protection with more reliable filtering of websites that contain inappropriate content
  • New anti-spam module – more reliable filtering of unwanted messages and also includes enhanced reporting about detected spam
  • Better anti-phishing protection – new anti-phishing engine improves defense against fraudsters’ attempts to gain access to your personal information
  • Minimal impact on performance – optimized so that it does not have a significant impact on performance. Gamer Mode ensures an uninterrupted game experience – while still keeping you secure.
  • Optimized antivirus databases – antivirus information provided from the cloud, significantly reduced the size of the antivirus databases stored on your PC – helps to improve performance and reduce the time taken for installation and updates
  • Optimized user interface and fast access to the Virtual Keyboard from web browsers

Conclusion

The user interface may look familiar to users of KIS 2012 but there are significant new features and improvements in Kaspersky Internet Security 2013. In particular, Safe Money is a major boost to security – most of us use online banking or shopping websites and malicious attacks against online payments are on the rise.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 was already our favorite security product – it was one of the top performers in our last review of antivirus test results.

The new 2013 version looks set to cement Kaspersky’s position for another year. Even better, canny shoppers can effectively get it for $20 (£12) by following my guide to get KIS 2013 cheap.

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