In the 2010 study of security suites, the Checkpoint Zone Alarm Internet Security 2010 was ranked in the twelfth position. Priced at forty dollars (for 3 users as on March 29th 2010), it possesses the fundamental features namely, antivirus, firewall, antispam, antiphishing as well as Internet security features. It also comes with a one year credit bureau monitoring in case of ID theft. However, it performed poorly in tests conducted for detecting latest malware threats.
The Zone Alarm Internet Security has a neat interface, best compared to others. Changing configuration is easy, but it cannot turn off JavaScript or ActiveX inside the ForceField tool which monitors malware. The virtualization feature, emulating the operating system partly makes attackers assume that they are successful, but actually they are not. The code is run separately from the PC, so that the PCs operating system is protected from attack.
Zone Alarm could detect all test samples, disabling 80% of the infections. Though the result is good, it is behind the top performers that disabled 90% or more of malware samples. A malware removal rate of thirteen percent from Zone Alarm Internet Security was the least.
The performance was good for rootkit detection as well as disinfection. It detected 87% of inactive rootkits, 100% of the active rootkits. It removed 87% of rootkits. The topper is Norton Internet Security which could detect as well as remove all rootkits including stealth malware which conceals other infections.
Zone Alarm Internet Security showed the worst software performance, in the test conducted with behavioral scanning (detecting malware based on its behavior on PC). It detected just 13% of the test samples and could block 7% of them, but unable to render total removal of any sample. This test which can efficiently judge the response for threats from brand-new malware proved Zone Alarm a problematic one.
In order to compensate this failure, Zone Alarm Internet Security uses multiple firewalls, present in the PC’s operating system kernel which makes up the indispensable parts. This prevents running of rootkits or malware. Though they weren’t tested directly, its inadequate behavioral scanning must be noted. Its customary malware detection ability, detected 97% of the samples, showing an average performance. The best one could detect 99.9% of the samples.
Zone Alarm Internet Security suite showed an overall average performance. The boot time of 52.49 seconds was 5.5 seconds slower on the average scale. It performed better in access scan test to find the speed of response for virus scanning while opening or saving files. It scanned 4.5 GB in 3minutes and 34 seconds. The topper took 2 minutes and 51 seconds.
As such Zone Alarm Internet Security cannot be recommended based on behavioral detection. An extra 10 dollars will fetch Zone Alarm Extreme Security for more protection of Internet browser sandbox running all browser applications.
The author enoys writing informative article of technology and video gaming. I keen interest these days is in the latest game console add-ons, namely the MOVE for the Playstation and the new Kinect 360. Games on both platforms look to be taking motion control to a new level. However, the Kinect games are really more intriguing because they function without the need for a motion controller.
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