Kaspersky releases Anti-Virus and Internet Security 2012

Russian security company Kaspersky has dropped the beta tag from Anti-Virus 2012 and Internet Security 2012 products, launching both today. While there are no revolutionary changes on offer, Kaspersky has provided more than enough general improvements and enhancements to justify giving the programs a closer look.

Significant low-level changes sees both Anti-Virus and Internet Security 2012 offering strong protection even earlier in the boot process, for instance, making it harder for rootkits to modify the operating system, and blocking attempts by malware to disable the antivirus engine.

More visible modifications include the new interface, which makes it easier to monitor your security status, and track completed and ongoing scans. The tweaked gadget ensures you can launch many tasks directly from the desktop, and the support for touchscreens is a welcome addition.

Kaspersky reports that its cloud protection has been significantly improved, while new heuristic technologies do a much better job of detecting phishing websites.

The System Watcher can now roll back even more actions taken by an application, very useful for repairing damage caused by malware (or many other programs which might have adversely affected your system, in fact).

And of course there's still the lengthy list of features that were available in previous versions: enhanced spam filter and parental controls; a smart firewall that keeps alerts to a minimum; a virtual keyboard to bypass keyloggers; sandboxing, vulnerability scans, privacy options, Windows troubleshooting tools and more.

All this functionality doesn't appear to come with a performance penalty, though, quite the opposite. Kaspersky also claims to have reduced the impact of both packages on system performance, and our initial tests seem to confirm that: they're not exactly lightweight, but neither program had any significant effect on our test system's boot or application launch times.

There's plenty to like about the new range, then; they're an interesting mix of power and ease of use that makes them suitable for just about every level of user. Sounds appealing? Then take a look for yourself -- 30-day trials of both Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Internet Security 2012 are available now.