. Pros Outstanding scores in independent antivirus lab tests and our web protection tests. Multilayered ransomware protection.
Included VPN. Full-featured parental control. File encryption. Webcam security. No performance impact. Many bonus features. Cons Unlimited VPN access requires separate subscription.
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With antivirus disabled, ransomware-specific features missed one uncommon sample in testing. Parental control for iOS not fully functional.
Bottom Line Bitdefender Internet Security gets the VPN protection and all the other new security features from Bitdefender's excellent antivirus, and adds webcam security, effective parental control, and more. It's an Editors' Choice security suite. When you decide you need more protection than a simple antivirus offers, you can always upgrade to a full-blown. Typical suite add-ons include firewall protection, spam filtering, and parental control. Bitdefender Internet Security adds these, and more, to the already rich complement of features found in Bitdefender Antivirus Plus.
This entry-level suite has so many layers that it rivals the second-tier mega-suites of some competitors. Furthermore, its components are, on the whole, excellent.
It's an Editors' Choice security suite. Shared Antivirus Features Like, the suite got a full user interface makeover with this latest edition. The slate gray that used to form the background now appears only in the left-rail menu. Autopilot has graduated from just making security decisions in the background to actively offering recommendations for using the program. You can place your five favorite Quick Actions right on the main dashboard, or dig into the Protection and Privacy pages for full access to all features. The big difference with the suite is that the Firewall, Antispam, File Encryption, Webcam Protection, and Parental Control components are enabled. In the antivirus, they're visible but not functional.
All four of the independent testing labs that I follow include Bitdefender in their regular reports, and all give it excellent marks. Even named it Product of the Year for 2017. Normalizing and averaging the scores to a 10-point scale, Bitdefender gets 9.8 points, beaten only by Kaspersky with 9.9. In my test, Bitdefender scored very well, though not at the top. It set a new record in my test using very recent malware-hosting URLs, managing 99 percent protection, a new record.
Norton, the previous record-holder, scored 98 percent. Bitdefender's protection against web-based threats also soared to the top in my phishing protection test. Here, too, it foiled 99 percent of the fraudulent sites, handily outscoring the protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
And ZoneAlarm came close, with 98 percent. A new Network Threat Protection component supplements existing web protection by watching for signs of attempts to exploit system and application vulnerabilities. When challenged with a collection of about 30 exploit attacks generated by the penetration tool, it detected and blocked about 44 percent. The fully patched test system was not in any actual danger from these attacks. Owns this test, with 100 percent detection. Every antivirus should protect against ransomware, just as with any other type of malware, but a slip-up that lets a zero-day ransomware attack succeed can have a huge impact. Bitdefender shores up its basic antivirus with many layers of ransomware-related protection.
Safe Files stops any unauthorized program from making changes to your sensitive files. Advanced Threat Defense identifies malware, including ransomware, by its behavior. The new Ransomware Remediation tool backs up your important files at the first hint of ransomware activity, restoring them when the threat is past. In testing with the regular antivirus component disabled, Bitdefender foiled all the file-encrypting ransomware samples, though it missed one uncommon full-disk-encrypting attack (which would have been caught by the main antivirus component).
Other Shared Features. Bitdefender's antivirus includes a ton of features that many companies would reserve for a full security suite. Bitdefender Wallet is a complete, if basic, password manager. It captures and replays your passwords, syncs across devices, and even fills web forms with your personal data.
When you visit a bank website or other financial site, Bitdefender offers to open the site in Safepay. Safepay is a separate desktop, isolated from other processes, that includes a hardened browser. Wallet works with Safepay, and you can enable Flash if you must, but it accepts no other add-ons. New with this edition, Bitdefender Antivirus includes a full scale. You'll definitely need to peruse the antivirus review for results of the deep dive into this component by PCMag's VPN expert, Max Eddy. Briefly, it's based on AnchorFree Hotspot Shield and uses that company's infrastructure, but with additional privacy layers.
Out of the box, it gives you 200MB of bandwidth per device per day, using a program-selected server. To lift the bandwidth cap and gain access to all servers, you need a separate subscription, which lists for $49.99 per year (currently on sale for $39.99). The list of advanced features just goes on and on.
A Vulnerability scanner identifies missing security patches for Windows and popular programs, as well as weak Windows account passwords. You can use the File Shredder to permanently delete sensitive files, so that not even a forensic technician can recover them.
If pernicious malware resists Bitdefender, cut the legs out from under it by rebooting in Rescue Mode. In this Linux-based operating system, Windows malware can't run, and hence can't defend itself. Unobtrusive Firewall Bitdefender's correctly blocked the web-based port scan tests I hit it with. It put all the system's ports in stealth mode, and reported when it detected and blocked a port scan.
To be fair, if you have a home network, the devices connect to it already enjoy the protection of network address translation, or NAT. Their IP addresses are local to the network, not visible from the internet, and hence not subject to port scan attacks.
My test system needs a special configuration to avoid protection by NAT. My contacts at the company tell me the latest edition offers a few small enhancements for the firewall. Specifically, it allows rule exceptions for local network addresses, to allow connection to printers and other computers on the network. In truth, I assumed it already had this ability, given the prevalence of network-accessible printers. The flip side of firewall protection involves controlling how programs on your system make use of your internet and network connection. In Autopilot mode, Bitdefender's firewall configures access permissions for known programs and monitors unknowns for any signs of network chicanery. Norton works in much the same way, and the levels-of-trust system in is also similar.
For those who want notification every time an unknown program attempts access, Bitdefender used to offer Paranoid Mode. That option still appears, but they've softened the name to Alert Mode. How would you react on being asked whether rtpog.exe should be allowed an outbound connection to 34.197.42.244 using port 8088?
Most users should leave Alert Mode alone. Protection against network-based attacks that try to exploit security vulnerabilities on your system is a feature often associated with a firewall component. With Bitdefender, that Network Threat Protection now shows up right in the antivirus. It fended off 44 percent of the exploit attacks I generated; note, though, that none of them could have harmed the fully patched test system. Still, Norton's 100 percent protection is noticeably better.
Firewall protection isn't worth much if a brand-new malware program can reach in and turn it off. I found no way for a program to simply flip a switch in the Registry to turn off protection (no big surprise; that's an old trick that hardly ever works anymore). I found that I could kill off some less-central components like the parental control updater and system tray interface, but the core components resisted attack, and revived the ones that I managed to kill off.
Loading up a view of Windows services, I found five running Bitdefender services. I couldn't stop them; the Stop link didn't even appear. And my other trick, setting the startup status to Disabled, just got a disdainful 'Access denied.'
Bitdefender remains thoroughly hardened against direct attack. Spam Filter Spam filtering becomes less and less significant as more people get mail through a web-based service like Gmail or Yahoo, a service that filters it out. But if you use another provider, perhaps a local ISP that doesn't filter spam, you need a local spam filter to protect your inbox. As long as your account uses the basic POP3 and SMTP protocols, Bitdefender can help. If you do use the toolbar to mark a missed spam message, Bitdefender asks for permission to send that message in for analysis in the cloud, thereby improving the filter. I suggest tweaking the settings so it always sends missed spam messages for analysis.
It also asks for permission to send valid messages that were mismarked as spam, but that seems like a bad idea. Do you really want Bitdefender sending your personal email for analysis? ZoneAlarm's spam filter features many pages of configuration choices. With Bitdefender, there are next to no settings. You might consider setting it to block emails using Cyrillic or Asian character sets, assuming you never get legitimate mail using those character sets. Parental Control Previously, Bitdefender offered a feature called Parental Advisor.
The current edition renames this component to Parental Control, adding a few features not previously available. As with most modern, you manage profiles for each child (no limit on how many) from the online console. And it works on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. You don't get full control on iOS, but where the previous edition offered only location tracking, the product now lets parents control the availability of specific apps. Setting Up Devices. To start with parental control, you log into Bitdefender Central and create a profile for your child. The profile includes name, birthdate, and an optional photo.
Next, you identify the child's devices. It's important to do this before working on settings, because some of the settings rely on information gathered from those devices. On Windows device with Bitdefender installed, it's a snap. Select Devices from the child's profile, choose the active device, select a user profile, and click Save.
On a device without a Bitdefender installation, the system walks you through getting the main suite in place. Installed on a macOS device, Bitdefender controls the whole device, not just one user account. From the device itself, log into Bitdefender Central, select the child's profile, choose devices from the three-dot menu, and click Add Device. The system leads you through installing a trial of. It's a bit odd, but when the trial expires, your parental control protection remains active for as long as your Bitdefender Internet Security subscription does.
When you associate the device with the profile, Bitdefender installs additional security. I had trouble at this point, because I didn't respond in time to a prompt telling me to allow Bitdefender in security settings. This resulted in an installation that looked OK but did not actually work. To install on Android, you download the parental component from the app store and log in to your account to associate it with a child profile. During installation, you must give it several high-end permissions: Accessibility, Device Administrator, and Usage Access.
Take care during this process, as it needs these (as well as more mundane permissions) to function correctly. Installation on an iOS device is similar; download the app, associate it with a profile, and give it all requested permissions.
After installation, the app offers instruction on how to install Bitdefender's MDM profile for full functionality. Note that anyone who has the passcode for the device can remove this profile. Setting Limits for Your Kids Back in the online console, click a child profile and click Websites.
Bitdefender can block access to sites in 42 categories, some clearly inappropriate, some more innocuous. Based on the birthdate you entered for the child, it sets an initial selection of categories for blocking. For my imaginary ten-year-old the blocked categories included Pornography, but not Mature Content or Web Proxy; I turned on blocking of those two. On the Activity page for each child you get an overview of what's going on. It shows recent location check-ins, apps used on each device, most-visited websites, blocked website categories, and time spent on each device.
Click Screen Time to set limits on the child's use of devices. This page has a big Pause button at top; according to the floating help tip it blocks use of the child's Windows, macOS, and Android devices when active. According to my contacts at the company, it also severely limits available apps on iOS devices, leaving the child free to call parents but not much more. Screen time limits aren't enabled by default. If you just turn on this feature, it limits device usage during Bedtime (by default, 9 p.m. To 9 a.m.) every day of the week.
You can tweak those times or add additional restrictions. There's also an option to impose a daily limit. Bitdefender calculates the limit based on Windows and Android use but, according to the instructions, puts Windows, Android, and iOS devices on pause when time's up. There's no mention of macOS. Interestingly, between the previous edition of this product and the one before that, Bitdefender went from a single, simple Bedtime restriction to a full-week schedule.
That must have proven confusing to some, because the product backed off to using Bedtime and adding the option for other no-access time spans. At its simplest, Child Location lets you locate your child's mobile devices on a map. The also lets the child actively check in on arriving at a location. You can also define Safe and Restricted areas. You name the area, click the center on a map, and set a radius from 100m to 200m. For Safe areas, you can request that the child check in on arrival.
If the child enters a Restricted area, parents get a notification. When you open the Applications page, you see a list of the child's devices, along with the applications Bitdefender detected on the selected device, and the amount of time spend on those applications. You can also choose to block specific apps. This feature is a bit different for iOS devices, as Bitdefender can't gather usage information.
In addition, blocking on iOS applies to built-in apps such as Safari, Camera, and Facetime individually, but to block any third-party app you must block all of them. The Phone Contacts page works only on mobile devices. You can review the child's contact list and block access by any unwanted contact. There's also an option to block calls from private numbers that don't reveal their caller ID. On Android, you can choose to monitor text messages by replacing the default app for SMS.
Parental Control in Action I had a lot of trouble with the initial setup. I had to reinstall the macOS version twice to catch the request for security access. It didn't seem to work initially on the Android device. But eventually I got it working.
To test the content filter, I tried opening a variety of inappropriate websites. On the Windows test system, it worked fine, blocking all the test sites, and replacing the page with a very simple notification. Because I turned on Web Proxy blocking, it prevented access to HTTPS-protected anonymizers, too; don't forget to enable that category. Previously I found find that I could do an end-run around the content filter by using a totally non-standard browser and a secure anonymizing proxy.
This time the proxy loaded, but Bitdefender still blocked naughty sites accessed via secure proxy. That's impressive.
Content filtering replaced blocked sites with a notification page on the Android device as well, in my testing. On the Mac, it works a bit differently. The browser simply displayed an error message, with a slide-in notification from Bitdefender saying it blocked the site.
Location tracking worked just fine in my tests. I took Android and iOS devices to another location and found that Bitdefender immediately located them on the map. I couldn't test the control of Phone Contacts because my mobile testbeds aren't provisioned for calling, but I assume it works. The time restriction setting proved effective. Working on testing before 9 a.m., I found that it blocked my access to apps on Windows, macOS, and Android. When I lifted the restriction, I thought at first that it didn't work, because my browsers still reported themselves unable to contact Google. As it turns out, Search Engines blocking is one of the defaults; I changed it.
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The Pause setting also worked fine in Windows, macOS, and Android. It didn't 'block the child'sdevices' the way the help tip says, but it did block use of apps.
Pause had no effect on the iOS device I used for testing. I gave it an hour, in case it needed time to notice the setting change, with no result.
I also tried disabling specific apps from the console, also with no result. My Bitdefender contacts confirmed a problem with the MDM servers, one they say should be corrected soon.
Just as Good While I couldn't make the Pause button or app control work on my iOS testbed, the previous edition didn't include that feature at all, so there's no real loss. Bitdefender's parental control system remains among the best supplied as part of a security suite, with content filtering, time scheduling, all-device Pause feature, geofencing, and more. Norton and Kaspersky are among the few that outdo Bitdefender, feature-wise. Licenses the well-known Net Nanny. All too many suites include parental control that's limited, porous, or both. Easy File Encryption Do you have any documents on your computer that you wouldn't like anyone else to see? Yeah, you do!
A data-stealing Trojan that somehow got past Bitdefender's defenses could slurp up those files and transmit them to its master. If you step away from the computer without locking the desktop, a nosy cousin or co-worker could view your secrets with impunity.
To keep out the snoops, protect your sensitive data using. As with, AVG, and others, Bitdefender's encryption system works by creating encrypted storage volumes. These volumes, called vaults, look like any other disk drive once opened with a password. You can freely move files into and out of the vault, create new files, edit files, anything you could do in a physical drive. Once you lock the vault, however, its contents become completely inaccessible. You can create as many vaults as you think you'll need. For each vault, you define a name, accept or change the location for the file representing the vault, and set the vault's size (at least 100MB).
You can assign the vault a specific drive letter or just let Bitdefender pick a letter, starting at Z: and working down. Don't lose the password; without it your files become so secret that not even you can access them. The File Shredder component becomes more useful in this suite than in the antivirus.
Hiding your secret files in encrypted storage is pointless if you leave the unsecured originals out in the open. And deleting those files, even if you bypass the Recycle Bin, still allows the possibility of forensic recovery. For maximum security, then, you should copy sensitive files into a vault and then shred the originals. Kaspersky's similar feature makes shredding the originals part of the process. Note, though, that this feature doesn't appear in Kaspersky's entry-level suite, only in.
Webcam Protection The idea that some internet creeper could connect to your webcam and spy on you is enough to give anyone the shivers. In a nod to the need for, Bitdefender now includes a webcam protection component. Like the similar feature in Kaspersky, it limits webcam access to trusted programs, either programs like Skype that are already on its list or ones that you've approved.
When a new program attempts webcam access, you choose whether to allow that access or not. New in this edition, Webcam Protection can manage Windows Store apps. Bitdefender's Mac antivirus doesn't offer this feature, which makes sense—neither does the Windows antivirus. Webcam protection exists in, but it's a simple on-off switch, without the system of trusted applications found in the Windows product. No Performance Hit If a security product causes a noticeable system slowdown, users are just going to turn it off.
Thus, poor performance equals poor security. The companies that make these products know this, and they work hard to minimize any system impact. Bitdefender aced all three of my performance tests. Loading up a big security suite at Windows startup could leave you waiting around to use the computer. To measure boot time, I run a script that checks CPU usage every second, calling the system ready when it tracks 10 seconds with CPU usage under five percent.
Subtracting the start of the boot process (reported by Windows) yields a measure of boot time. I run multiple tests on a clean, physical computer, then install the suite and run another set of tests. Comparing the two averages yields a measure of impact on the boot process. Bitdefender had no impact I could measure. My file move and copy test attempts to measure a security suite's effect on day-to-day file manipulation activities. A script times how long it takes to move and copy a large collection of varied files between drives. As before, comparing the average time with and without the suite yields an impact measure.
Another script measures the time required to repeatedly zip and unzip that same file collection. Surprisingly, these two tests both ran measurably faster after I installed the suite.
I ran the test a second time to confirm. I quizzed my Bitdefender contacts about this apparent anomaly. They replied that the product includes a caching mechanism that does indeed speed up common file activities, and pointed out an independent lab award for performance. Bitdefender joins Norton, adaware, and in the elite crew of security suites that didn't slow any of my performance tests. A Sweet Suite Just as Bitdefender Antivirus Plus sports features that typically only show up in a suite, Bitdefender Internet Security goes beyond the feature set usually found in an entry-level suite. It has the expected firewall and spam filter, and an unusually thorough parental control system.
In addition, it offers webcam protection and a file encryption system, which are less common.