Outpost Security Suite Pro 8

Take an antivirus utility, add firewall protection, and you've got the bare bones of a security suite. Many suites add features like spam filtering and parental control, but Outpost Security Suite Pro 8 ($49.95 direct; $59.95 for three licenses) sticks to the basics. It costs less than most of the competition, but you'll be better off paying a bit more and getting more protection.

The standalone products Outpost Antivirus Pro 8 and Outpost Firewall Pro 8 have a number of features in common. Outpost Security Suite Pro 8 is a combination of these two products, nothing more and nothing less.

At first glance, the suite looks exactly like the standalone antivirus, with a prominent tab labeled "Malware Scan." In the standalone firewall, that's replaced by a Firewall tab that shows current network activity. The suite moves network activity reporting as an option under the Tools tab.

From the Settings tab you can turn security components on or off and make high-level configuration changes. For configuration changes at a deeper level you'll need to open the Advanced Settings dialog.

Same Antivirus Protection
Outpost Security Suite Pro offers exactly the same antivirus protection as the standalone antivirus. I'll summarize here.

While installing Outpost on my malware-infested test systems, I discovered that the product's HTML-based user interface is a weak spot. Once Outpost is running, it protects the HTML files and images that make up its interface, but the files are vulnerable during installation. On one system, a virus infected the HTML files. Outpost wiped out the infected files and thereby destroyed its own user interface. On several other systems, malware prevented a proper installation, but tech support managed to solve all of those, along with the interface problem.

In my malware cleanup test, Outpost detected 68 percent of the threats, the same as McAfee Total Protection 2013. Its overall score of 5.1 points is a bit below average. Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete 2013 and Norton Internet Security (2013) tied for top score in this test, with 6.6 points.

Outpost also turned in a below-average score when measured specifically against rootkits. For an explanation of this test, see How We Test Malware Removal.

When challenged to protect a clean system against new attacks, Outpost scored much better. With 9.4 points it came in just behind BullGuard Internet Security 2013. Webroot aced this test, achieving 9.9 of 10 possible points. Outpost blocked rootkits very effectively, scoring 9.8 points. To learn more about this test, see How We Test Malware Blocking.

Normally I factor the results of independent lab tests into my overall product rating, but hardly any of the labs that I follow include Outpost in their testing regimens. Outpost did receive VB100 recognition in nine of the last ten tests by Virus Bulletin. For background on the independent labs and their tests, please read How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/JE9bNcaFViM/0,2817,2414272,00.asp

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