Review Kaspersky Anti-Virus in 2024, Better NOT

Mytips.id - Kaspersky Anti-Virus has enjoyed fierce competition in the cybersecurity field for two decades. 

It may be user-friendly and popular, but the reputation and security ties of the company are far more important than the features of the antivirus application. 

While we do not assess products based on political considerations, we cannot recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus because the product is owned by a Russian company reported to cooperate with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and leak real-time intelligence and customer data. 

Additionally, the infrastructure of Kaspersky hosts the domain of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and Eugene Kaspersky, the owner of the company, refuses to condemn the illegal military actions carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Pros and cons of Kaspersky antivirus:

- Regularly updated database with the latest threats and viruses
- Minimal impact on memory and system performance
- System optimization available
- TDSKILLER scans for bootkits and rootkits
- User-friendly interface

Is Kaspersky safe?

The safety of Kaspersky as an antivirus depends on what you consider safe. If you are looking for an AV tool that will not share your information with a government led by a dictator, then Kaspersky may not be the right tool for you. 

However, independent testing conducted by AV-Comparatives and AV-Test shows that Kaspersky Anti-Virus can offer decent protection against malware. On Windows, the antivirus is able to detect 90% of offline threats and 97.9% of online threats.

 Moreover, there were only 2 false positives. In comparison, Bitdefender had 6 false positives, while TotalAV had 0 in the same test. Both are considered among the best antivirus tools in 2024. Overall, AV-Comparatives concluded that Kaspersky has a protection rate of 99.96%.

Kaspersky security features:

Despite the reputation and ties that Kaspersky has with the Russian secret services, its products are claimed to be good. Of course, just like any other paid service, the range of available features will heavily depend on the price package you choose. 

This means that protection can range from basic antivirus and malware protection to a complete set with many additional tools. Let's take a look at some of the features provided by Kaspersky.

Virus scanning:

Firstly, there is scanning. Kaspersky antivirus solutions include the following types of scans:

- Quick Scan: checks common places on your device for malware, including temporary folders. If any threats are found, users are advised to perform a full scan.

- Full Scan: scans the entire system.

- Selective Scan: allows users to choose specific folders or files for scanning.

- External Drive Scan: scans drives such as hard drives, USB sticks, and similar devices.

- Application Vulnerability Scan: scans applications for vulnerabilities.

- Background Scan: scans system memory, boot disk sector, and startup objects. The scan runs simultaneously with the Application Vulnerability Scan and cannot be launched independently.
- Instant File Scan: allows analysis of files by dragging and dropping them directly into the application.

Malware protection:

Kaspersky's malware scanner has been tested by major testing labs, including AV-Comparatives and AV-Test. Both have shown that Kaspersky performs very well, capturing 99.2% of zero-day malware and 100% of widespread malware, with very few false positives.

Two-Way Firewall Feature:

The Two-Way Firewall feature is included in all Kaspersky Anti-Virus packages. Its main function is to protect users from cyber attacks by monitoring incoming and outgoing network requests. It also makes it easy to allow or block suspicious requests. 

The firewall feature is enabled by default, but users can also disable it through the main application window or the application settings window.

App Lock:

Kaspersky's App Lock feature is mainly designed for mobile devices. It allows users to restrict access to selected mobile applications, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or others, ensuring maximum privacy protection. App Lock works by locking apps and prompting for a code when someone tries to access them.

Safe Browsing:

Kaspersky's Safe Browsing tool scans various links to search for phishing website addresses and prevents users from visiting them if threats are detected. A similar feature is the URL Advisor, which checks websites and marks them as safe, suspicious, or dangerous. This Safe Browsing feature is available in the Kaspersky Anti-Virus application and is included in all packages.

Additional Features:

Kaspersky also offers a range of additional features that go beyond basic antivirus functions. Here are a few things worth considering:

Password Manager:

The full version of Kaspersky Password Manager is available for Plus and Premium package subscribers. It allows you to store unlimited passwords and vaults behind a master password. 

Most internet users have multiple accounts protected by passwords, and internet security experts recommend using different strong passwords for each account. 

Since most people cannot remember so many random character strings, password managers have become increasingly important in web browsing as they fill in login credentials for you. 

Kaspersky Password Manager includes a password generator that creates passwords up to 99 characters long, a password checker that notifies you if a password is weak or old, leak detection that informs you if any of your passwords have been leaked online, a document vault that offers storage for all your sensitive documents, autofill that allows you to automatically fill in login information on websites or applications, an ignored website list that allows you to ignore specific websites if you don't want the Password Manager to save the passwords, and browser extensions for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari. 

When you install the browser extension and activate it with the master password, you can automatically fill in passwords from your vault whenever you visit relevant sites in that browser.

Compared to other leading password managers such as NordPass or Keeper, Kaspersky Password Manager is quite good but not on par with top solutions on the market. For example, the browser extensions do not always work properly, and the free version only allows 5 data entries, whether they are passwords, photos, documents, or other file types.

In conclusion, while Kaspersky Anti-Virus may have its merits in terms of malware protection and features, its ties to Russian intelligence services and the owner's refusal to condemn illegal military actions raise significant concerns. There are alternative antivirus solutions available that provide strong protection without these controversies.