McAfee Internet Security 2013

I expect a full-featured security suite to include antivirus, firewall, antispam, parental control, and antiphishing or other privacy protection. With McAfee Internet Security 2013, you get all of that plus online backup, system cleanup, vulnerability scanning, and more. McAfee's many components displayed a wide range of variation in their effectiveness, some excellent, some not so much. In the best suites, like Editors' Choice Norton Internet Security (2013) , all the components are top-notch.

Most security suites come as a three-license package. If you need to protect four computers, you have to buy another package. Your $79.99/year McAfee purchase is a bit more generous: it does protect three computers, but if you need more you can simply add them for just $15 a year apiece.

The suite's main window strongly resembles that of McAfee's 2013 antivirus, with big buttons designed for use on a touchscreen. In fact, the only immediately visible difference (aside from the product name) is the addition of a button for parental controls. Both are fully compatible with Windows 8, and with previous editions all the way back to Windows XP.

For those still navigating with a mouse, the Navigation Center offers another way to access all of the suite's features. It also includes links to McAfee resources including the Virus Information Library, an interactive Threat Map, and an expert-oriented site called HackerWatch.

Average Antivirus
The suite's antivirus protection is exactly the same as what you get in McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2013. I'll summarize my findings here; for full details, please read my review of the antivirus program.

Installing McAfee protection on my malware-infested test systems was something of a nightmare. On four of the test systems it wouldn't install or wouldn't run properly. McAfee's standalone Stinger tool and CleanBoot Recovery Disc only fixed one of the problem systems. The others required hours of remote assistance by tech support or, in one case, hours on the phone.

McAfee detected 68 percent of the malware samples and scored 5.3 points for malware cleanup, which is precisely the average of products tested with my current malware collection. Norton and Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete 2013 earned the best scores in this test, with 6.6 points for each. Many products detected 100 percent of the rootkit samples; McAfee detected just 40 percent. Its 4.0-point score for rootkit removal is well below average, and way behind the 9.4 points earned by Kaspersky Internet Security (2013) . For details on my malware cleanup test, see How We Test Malware Removal.

McAfee proved especially effective at blocking sites that host or have hosted malware. When I tried to re-download my current sample set, it blocked 91 percent either at the URL level or during the download. That's better than most, though VIPRE Internet Security 2013 and Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013 managed 100 percent.

When I checked McAfee's ability to detect and block already-downloaded samples, it detected 89 percent of them and scored 8.9 points. That puts it above the average for this test, but just barely. Webroot scored a near-perfect 9.9 against the same set of malware samples. The majority of current products detected 100 percent of the rootkit samples, and most of those earned a perfect 10 points for rootkit blocking. McAfee scored 8.0 points against rootkits. The article How We Test Malware Blocking explains how I test malware blocking and come up with these results.

I reference independent lab tests, when available, to supplement my hands-on testing. All of the labs I follow do include McAfee's products in their testing. In general, they rate it as good, but not great. Bitdefender Total Security 2013 , F-Secure Internet Security 2013, and others score much higher. The chart below summarizes recent tests. For more about the labs and their tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

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