SecureIT (2013)

Traditional antivirus comes as a yearly subscription, perhaps $30 per year. At $1.95 per month, the sales model for SecureIT (2013) seems more like what you'd expect for a mobile app. It's not all that different over the course of a full year, but you're free to choose it for a shorter period, if that's what you prefer.

Kaspersky and Norton recently dropped the use of a version or year number in their security products. SecureIT, too, comes without a number. The 2013 update displays improvement in a number of areas, notably antiphishing and malware cleanup.

SecureIT's installer offers a somewhat unusual choice. If you choose Fresh Start Installation, a SecureIT technician will use remote assistance to install the program, cleaning up simple problems and making sure there's no conflicting security programs. If you'd rather not spend $29.95 just to get the program installed, you'll want to choose Manual Installation.

Self-Help and Tech Support
SecureIT installed without incident on most of my malware-infested test systems. In a couple of cases, its main status indicator reported a problem. Clicking the handy Resolve Now button actually resolved those; nice! Another installation problem was solved by uninstalling and reinstalling the program.

SecureIT's malware cleanup caused a bit of collateral damage on two test systems. Removal of a keyboard-related driver disabled the keyboard on one test system. Using the built-in on-screen keyboard I managed a live chat session with tech support. The support agent took remote control of the system and solved the problem.

Removal of an important DLL wiped out connectivity on another test system, which meant I couldn't use live chat support directly. Working with a technician on a clean system I transferred diagnostic and repair tools to the afflicted system to restore connectivity. After that the tech fixed the problem remotely.

One test system simply can't boot normal Windows, because a ransomware program takes over. This system runs only in Safe Mode, and SecureIT won't install in Safe Mode. Other vendors whose product won't install in Safe Mode offer a no-install cleanup tool, a rescue CD, or some other solution. With SecureIT, the only solution is an extra-cost manual cleanup by the company's technicians.

I considered simply omitting this particular system from the test, not counting its resident malware one way or another. However, when I learned that the extra-cost cleanup costs $89.95 I decided to treat these three samples as missed by SecureIT. I can't picture anyone spending $89.95 to install a $1.95 product.

Improved Malware Cleanup
Even counting the three samples as missed, SecureIT fared better than when I tested the earlier version. Better, but still not good. It detected 66 percent of the samples, the same as Thirtyseven4 Antivirus 2013, but scored 4.9 points for removal where Thirtyseven4 got just 4.6 points.

Had I simply omitted the test system where SecureIT wouldn't install, it would have had 71 percent detection and 5.3 points. McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2013 also scored 5.3 points.

Looking specifically at malware samples that use rootkit technology to hide their nasty activities, SecureIT detected 80 percent and scored 6.0 points for rootkit removal. That's way better than the 3.2 points its previous version earned in this same test.

Even so, other products have scored much, much better. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus 2013 and Norton AntiVirus (2013) share the top score of 6.6 points. Quite a few current products detected 100 percent of the rootkits; Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2013) beat the rest with 9.4 points for rootkit removal. Clearly SecureIT still has room for improvement.

For a full explanation of my malware removal test, see How We Test Malware Removal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/w_4FYDQqjvI/0,2817,2414386,00.asp

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