Bake-Off: Security Rivals Face Off

Desktop security, especially for stand-alone and mobile systems, has become one of the most critical applications for today's PCs. While everyone knows the need for security to protect systems is high, very few understand how far that protection needs to go to guard users. Systems today are susceptible to a broad array of threats and attacks that range far beyond the viruses and worms of yesteryear. The environment has evolved to include phishing attacks, spam, pharming, zombies, spyware, adware, trojans and much, much more.

VARs have turned to a variety of tools to protect their customers' systems, while system builders have begun to bundle in security software with their offerings. Today, you can purchase desktop security solutions piece by piece or go with the "suite" approach, an amalgamation of various tools in a unified security product.

Scorecard: Quick Click Comparisons of All 3 Security Suites

There are numerous suites on the market, so picking just a handful to look at was a challenge for CRN Test Center engineers, who decided to focus on the "up-and-comers" that have made recent investments to grow their channel presences while still being considered alternatives to the industry leaders. With those criteria in mind, engineers pared the field down to products from Grisoft, Kaspersky Lab and Panda Security.

All three products have been tested by independent antivirus laboratories and have the expected certifications, such as those from ICSA Labs among some others. Those organizations and certifications add credibility to a security product's capabilities and should be considered a good starting point when doing an evaluation.

That said, Test Center engineers measured the performance impact of each product on a test system. Each of the products was tested on a virtual machine with identical environments. PassMark was used to grade the performance of the virtual machine before each product was installed. After the installation of each product, using default settings, PassMark was used again to test if there was any impact on the virtual machine's performance by the security suite.

In addition, engineers evaluated the products based on features, ease of use, installation, profit potential and upgrade potential.

Next: Panda Internet Security 2008