Benefits & Features

Protects Against

Viruses and spyware including hand-made variants
• Twenty-three rootkits and 27 hidden malware programs from AV-Test.org

Preventative Measures

• Blocks attempted identity theft (phishing)
• Scans web, e-mail & instant messaging traffic for identity information and malware
• Encrypts IM and other conversations
• New - File Vault secures personal information or sensitive files
• Automatically modifies firewall settings to secure any location
• Prevents unauthorized access to your Wi-Fi network
• Offers to scan USB drives, CDs, mapped network drives

Recovery

• installs onto badly compromised systems with no problems
• In the rare event of damage, BitDefender automatically repairs and updates itself

Filters

• Blocks access to inappropriate websites and e-mail
• Schedules and limits kids’ access to Internet and to applications

Usability

• Uses few system resources
• New Laptop mode prolongs battery life
• New Family network protection -- manage the security of your home network from a single location
• Schedule scans to run during off-hours
• Hourly updates
• Games mode: reduces system load and avoids requesting user interaction

User Comments 2008 edited

18 Aug - rating: 3.5 out of 5 pc magazine

Parental control is browser-independent but awkward. It blocks: girlscouts.org, americangirl.com and girlsinc.org. What a mess. Turn off this feature and get Net Nanny.

4 Feb - rating: 2 out of 5 betanews

The AV detected well but firewall, performance and update problems meant I had to stop using it. Each time an application needed to connect out the firewall put up an alert and the application would time out. Worse, the alerts have "A" and "B" as shortcuts so if you are typing when an alert appears, you can unknowingly allow a connection.

The anti-spam didn't work with Thunderbird and Thunderbird sometimes started up slowly and deleted messages slowly.

If you start a scan, then stop it, it thinks the scan is still running and, by default, won't update itself until relaunch or reboot.

4 Feb - rating: 3.5 out of 5 pc magazine

Installing a suite on heavily infected test systems is often difficult. Sometimes the malware fights back, and sometimes the installation destabilizes the system. BitDefender installed with no problems.

BitDefender support only took four hours to provide a removal program for a nasty kernel-mode threat that had resisted all removal attempts.

4 Feb - rating: 3.5 out of 5 pc magazine

Almost every test system wound up with one or more items that BitDefender couldn't fix. Three test rigs required Windows reactivation after cleaning.

BitDefender missed a couple of the threats and failed to remove a quarter of those it did detect. Two of the threats were still running despite BitDefender's efforts. The large number of threats wiped out on sight pumped up the suite's score to 8.7 out of 10. Eight other products scored 9 or higher. Kaspersky managed 9.6, and PC Tools' ThreatFire scored a perfect 10. I expected better from BitDefender.

On a separate test using commercial keyloggers BitDefender completely missed several and failed to remove others.