Steganos' Internet Security 7 tackles the Internet's three most major threats to your computer: viruses, hackers and diallers. Based on four security applications that tackle different areas of Internet security, Internet Security 7 offers a relatively effective and easy-to-use solution for keeping your Windows-based computer and its data safe. However, the utilities all have to be installed and configured manually, which is a real bane, and they run on Windows clients only, which won't suit businesses running multiple operating systems. Individuals looking to secure their Internet connection may want to take a look, but businesses should look for a more complete and intuitive program.

Pros: Low cost; secure; hourly virus updates licensed from Kaspersky
Cons: Separate utilities; runs on Windows clients only


Steganos has recently rounded out its seventh generation of products, comprising Internet Security 7, AntiVirus 7 and AntiSpyware 7. Each of the products are designed for consumers and small to medium-sized businesses, and each serves an entirely different purpose. In this review we've taken a look at Internet Security 7, a collection of utilities that goes head-to-head against Internet-based threats and nuisances, including hackers, viruses and spam.

The package consists of four separate utilities: AntiVirus 7, Personal Firewall 7, AntiSpam 7 and Steganos AntiDialer 7. Unfortunately, each program has to be installed and accessed separately - there's no common interface that combines all of their features. Nevertheless, the installation process is quick and easy, but you'll need your e-mail details handy when it comes to configuring the spam controls.

A really neat feature of Internet Security 7 is that it updates its virus databases every hour, ensuring that you have the most up-to-date protection against the newest threats. With the package you also get one year of free updates. It also helps to protect your PC from script, macro, file and boot-sector viruses, polymorphic viruses, viruses in ActiveX and Java applications, as well as worms and Trojan horses. Suspicious or infected files are immediately quarantined and disinfected, and there are no log files generated for drilling down details.

All incoming and outgoing e-mails, as well as file attachments, are checked in real-time for viruses and spam (based on keyword recognition), and the software's firewall feature provides protection against hacker attacks. You can select from five different levels of security, and a new learning functionality enables the software to 'adapt' to your needs. There's also a 'stealth mode', which makes your PC invisible to hackers.

Personal Firewall is designed to safeguard a computer running a Windows operating system. It protects the computer against unauthorised access to its data and external hacker attacks from the Internet or an adjacent local network. It works by monitoring the TCP/IP network activity of all applications running on your machine. If it detects any suspicious actions, the program notifies you and if required, blocks the suspect application from accessing the network, including DoS (Denial of Service) attacks.

The firewall notifies you about any such attacks, and allows you to review the list of all established connections, open ports and active network applications and, if required, lets you terminate unwanted connections. Setting the firewall is done using five security levels: Block all, High, Medium, Low, Allow all. By default the program starts with the Medium level, which is a training mode that will automatically configure your security system depending on your responses to various events. You can also set the program to filter network operations into wanted and unwanted, and can configure the intrusion detection system.

Application rules let you select the required application and allow an activity that is compliant with the application type. You can define any number of rules for every application, as required. If any network activity not meeting conditions of the rule is detected on your machine, the program will notify you and allow you to block the unwanted action (if Medium level is enabled). In order to define the simplest rule for an application, you can simply select its type from the drop-down list. To define a more complicated rule, you can specify the remote services and addresses allowed for this application.

Packet filtering rules allow or block network packets sent or received by your machine. These rules review the packet header (the protocol used, the port numbers, the IP addresses and so on), and take decisions on the basis of this data. These rules are applied to all network applications running on your machine. For example, if you create a rule to block a certain IP address, all network communications to this address will be prohibited.

Steganos AntiVirus, which is licensed from Kaspersky, helps to protect your computer from viruses and malicious computer programs sent via removable and permanent storage devices, e-mail, and Internet protocols. You can set the software to perform real-time scanning of virus scan of all objects being run, opened or saved, as well as execute a manual virus scan on selected disks, files, or folders. You can also set it to run virus checks on a scheduled basis. Incoming and outgoing e-mails can be checked too, and the software supports most of the popular mail clients.

When infected or possibly infected files are found, if the anti-virus database has been not updated for a critically long time, or your computer has not been scanned for a long time, the main window of the AntiVirus application will contain recommendations to perform certain actions along with detailed explanations of why you should perform these actions. There's also a quarantine area where you can store possibly infected objects, ready to be disinfected, deleted, restored, or sent to Steganos for analysis. Quarantined files are stored using a special format and do not constitute any danger.

Steganos's AntiSpam utility uses a word filter to 'recognise' spam messages in POP3 and Web-based e-mail. These so-called spam words have a certain spam probability. AntiSpam blocks an e-mail if it contains keywords whose total spam probability passes the defined threshold. For instance, in the default setting, the threshold level is set to 100 per cent. You can adjust the behaviour of the word filter by changing the aggressiveness or changing the spam-probabilities.

Similar to any anti-spam package, AntiSpam has a Learning Filter that processes your e-mails first and tries to determine spam. This filter scans every mail for known words. Every word has a certain probability. With the rules defined from Thomas Bayes (English mathematician, 18th Century) AntiSpam calculates whether an e-Mail is spam or not. This filtering method is also called Bayesian Methode or Bayesian Filter. The result of the scan will indicate an e-mail as spam or non-spam, or neither. If the last result is the case, the word filter will process the e-mail as well.

Finally, AntiDialer provides protection against expensive diallers (nasties that attempt to run up huge phone bills by connecting to premium rate lines) and unintentional connections. Acting like an anti-virus utility, AntiDialer lets you scan and quarantine diallers. You can also set allowed diallers, should the software prevent you from dialling specific numbers.

BIOS, Mar 16, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Security