Kaspersky's latest security package offers an attractive combination of features and protection

Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, a.k.a. version 8 of the venerable AV package, has benefited from a thorough overhaul, although at first glance things look much the same. The previous version from Kaspersky Lab was a somewhat patchy affair in areas such as keylogging protection and spam detection, and this version addresses these weaknesses.

The new version of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 offers a fairly standard range of features for a suite — malware protection, content filtering for e-mail and Web, IM protection, a two-way firewall, identity theft protection and parental controls. All these features are accessible via its modified UI and its logical, clear arrangement makes it pretty easy to use.

As is the norm these days, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 is available both for single and multiple PCs in a variety of subscription permutations. A trial version can be downloaded from the Web site.

Installation is swift although it took exception to the 'presence' of AVG 8, which we'd just uninstalled. Despite cleaning up the registry and hard disk for remnants of AVG it refused to install and so we switched to a different PC. We also had to reboot twice. During this, it builds a list of 'trusted apps' but these are confined to standard OS files — any other apps you've got are assessed the first time they're opened. This is the new Host-based Intrusions Prevention System at work. An application filter, HIPS controls your apps, intelligently deciding which ones are 'safe' to run.

The antivirus scans files on access, on demand, or on schedule. Scans are fast, the support is good, the detection rates are among the best in its class — as a result AV-Comparatives has awarded Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 an Advanced certification level. Most antivirus products that offer e-mail protection just scan the POP3 and SMTP email but KIS also scans IMAP email and Usenet (NNTP) traffic. Plug-ins are available for Outlook, Windows Live, Thunderbird and The Bat!

Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 now features a number of security analysers, essentially a set of wizards designed to improve general PC security. The main one makes good system suggestions such as disabling auto-run on drives. It can usefully check your browser security settings and tighten them for you. This worked for IE but Firefox 3.0 was ignored.

Previous releases of Kaspersky Internet Security didn't do so well on defeating key-loggers so it's nice to see the inclusion of another new feature, a virtual keyboard, which makes the entering of data worth stealing more secure.