Panda Internet Security 2009 Security Software

Panda Internet Security 2009 boasts an extensive feature set and an easy-to-use interface, both of which helped it attain a third-place finish in "Paying for Protection," our 2009 roundup of security suites, after Norton Internet Security 2009 and BitDefender Internet Security 2009. But its ability to block malicious software didn't rank as well, and the suite had some genuine difficulty dealing with some especially nasty malware, despite its new Internet-based scanning feature.

At $50 for one license (price as of 12/23/08), Panda's suite carries a roughly average cost. It successfully detected about 95 percent of the Trojan horses, bots, password stealers, and other malware in AV-Test.org's library. While that score isn't horrible, Panda ranked seventh out of the group of nine evaluated suites (for which detection rates ranged from approximately 69 percent to over 99 percent). It received the same disappointing rank for its 45.3 percent detection rate in heuristic tests that use two-week-old signature files to simulate how well security programs can catch new, unknown malware.

Panda's suite also had problems with spyware designed to steal passwords and financial information, stopping just 69 percent of those particularly harmful varieties. It performed better in behavioral detection, catching 8 out of 15 malware samples based on how that malware acted on a test PC, but that put it only in a fourth-place tie for that category.

A new Internet-based addition to the 2009 version called Collective Intelligence sends a hash, or signature, of a to-be-scanned file, along with information about its behavior, to Panda servers. By comparing the signature against a large online database of signatures, Collective Intelligence attempts to bolster the scanning abilities of the program on your PC and speed the suite's ability to detect new malware.

Had its malware detection proved more effective, Panda's package would have been a real contender. It clocked in with the best on-access scanning speed, which tests how long it takes to scan files as your PC opens or accesses them (though it proved the slowest suite for scans kicked off manually or according to a schedule).

It covers all the bases for expected features and adds a few extras, with parental controls, backups, antispam, and antiphishing. The suite also includes a useful vulnerability scanner that can check for patches missing from your PC. Though some of the extra features could use more polish, Panda's application was the only suite we tested that offered all of them. The vulnerability scanner, for one, is a welcome extra, since practicing good PC safety means making sure your computer is up-to-date with patches. But you'll need to launch the scan manually (you can't schedule it), and the overall security-status report won't change even if you're missing a critical patch.

To use its parental-control feature, you'll need to create a log-in and password for each person using the computer. Each log-in has its own profile that defines site restrictions. Then, when anyone starts up a Web browser, the user is prompted to select a parental-control log-in and enter a password--distinct from any that might be necessary for the Windows account--in a pop-up.

Panda's backup feature can back up by file type (such as photos, Office documents, or Internet favorites) or by selected folders or drives. It's relatively easy to set up, but you can schedule a daily backup only to another hard drive or to a CD or DVD. Its antispam option adds a toolbar and spam folder to Outlook and Outlook Express.

Panda's offering has a good interface and provides the fastest on-access scan speed of the suites we tested in this roundup, but its decent-though-unspectacular malware detection prevents it from being a top pick. If Panda could improve its suite's overall malware detection, the package could be a fine choice. Until then, other suites will more ably fill your security needs.