Just what is a security suite? Some vendors take a plain antivirus, glue on a firewall and another feature or two, and call it a suite. Bitdefender Total Security 2013 ($69.95 direct, $79.95 for three licenses) takes the opposite approach, including just about every imaginable security component in one big package.
All that protection might be overwhelming, but the Bitdefender Total Security's default Autopilot mode keeps user interaction to an absolute minimum. Rather than ask the user to make security decisions, Bitdefender makes its own choices. And rather than bombard the user with popups about all the great work it's doing, it modestly takes care of business in the background.
At first glance, the main window looks almost exactly like Bitdefender's standalone antivirus, with four big panels representing four major security components. However, by clicking left/right arrows or moving a slider control you can bring six other panels into view. You can rearrange the panels so the four that are most important to you come first.
Like the antivirus, Bitdefender Total Security comes with an optional desktop widget that's compatible with Windows 7, Vista, or XP. The widget reflects overall security status, lets the user know if there are any pending notification events, and graphically reflects firewall and antivirus activity.
Impressive Antivirus
The malware-fighting and malware-blocking components of Bitdefender's suite are the same as what you'll find in Bitdefender's antivirus product. I'll summarize those results here; for full details, see my review of Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 ($39.95 direct, 4.5 stars).
Bitdefender scores better overall with the independent test labs than almost any other company. It earned the top rating in all tests by AV-Comparatives and outscored all others in real-world tests by AV-Test. Scores from other labs were likewise exemplary. For details about the independent labs and their tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
Bitdefender took quite a while to clean up my malware-infested test systems. Its preinstall scan found threats on every system and, in some cases, requested a Rescue Mode scan. That's an alternate operating system scan much like using a Rescue CD, but without the pain of burning a CD. While cleanup on several systems caused collateral damage like an unresponsive keyboard or no connectivity, Bitdefender tech support quickly solved those problems.
Bitdefender's detection rate (87 percent) and overall malware cleanup score (6.4 points) beat out all other products tested using my current malware collection. Some products scored better under the previous malware collection; we'll see how they do when their new versions get tested. For details on my malware removal test and scoring system, see How We Test Malware Removal.
When I tried to re-download my current malware collection, Bitdefender's URL filter prevented download of over 90 percent, better than any other product tested with those same samples. Its score of 8.9 points for blocking installation of already-downloaded samples wasn't the highest, but still better than many. For an explanation of my malware blocking test, please read see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Other Shared Features
Bitdefender's antivirus has "plus" in its name, and it really does offer more than just antivirus protection. To start, its detection and blocking of phishing sites is among the best. It scored just one percentage point behind Norton, and beat Internet Explorer's SmartScreen Filter by 52 percentage points. Considering that nearly three quarters of current products don't even match IE's accuracy, Bitdefender made an impressive showing. For an explanation of my antiphishing test metholodology see the article How We Test Antiphishing.
The antivirus includes a vulnerability scan whose report includes action items to fix found problems. You can set up encrypted instant messaging with other Bitdefender users. When you navigate to a financial site, it automatically offers to open that site in the Safepay secure browser. The Safego app checks for malicious links and security problems in your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Naturally Bitdefender's suite also offers all these features.
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