SecureIT Plus

Did you get your security suite through a deal with your ISP? If so, you may already be using a branded version of the SecureIT Plus ($5.95/month) suite. However, ISPs don't necessarily know what's best in consumer security products. The quality of the components in SecureIT Plus varies wildly.

The basic SecureIT antivirus is quite a bit cheaper, at $1.95/month for three licenses. The Plus edition offers exactly the same antivirus, the same firewall, and the same phishing protection as the basic edition. SecureIT Plus adds a tuneup component and parental control.

Possibly more importantly, with the Plus edition you get 24/7 help and support. This includes a built-in chat-based help system that strongly resembles that of Password Genie ($15/year direct for five licenses, 3 stars), another product from the same parent company. With your permission, the tech support agent can remotely diagnose and fix problems.

Good Malware Protection, Poor Cleanup
Since the antivirus component is the same as that of SecureIT ($1.95/month direct for three licenses, 3 stars) I'll simply summarize here.

SecureIT's malware removal score of 3.6 points is the lowest achieved by any product tested using either my current collection of malware samples or the previous set. It left behind tons of malware traces from threats it managed to detect and even left some running. Looking specifically at rootkits it scored a dismal 3.2 points. Company representatives concurred that this product is really aimed at keeping clean systems clean, not at dealing with existing infestations. Click below for a score chart. To understand where the scores come from, please read How We Test Malware Removal.

In my malware blocking tests, SecureIT soared. With 9.7 of 10 possible points, it has the best score of any product tested using the current set of samples. It detected all the rootkit samples and scored 9.8 points. ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall (free, 3.5 stars) earned 10 points against those same rootkits, but 9.8 is darn good. SecureIT also did a good job at blocking malware downloads. The article ?How We Test Malware Blocking explains how I test products and come up with these scores.

Firewall and Phishing Protection
I made sure that SecureIT's antiphishing component was turned on for testing, but it didn't detect a single fraudulent site, not even when I dug up some week-old examples. Consistent antiphishing champion Norton blocked 94 percent. Internet Explorer alone managed to block 45 percent. Don't rely on SecureIT for phishing protection. The chart below details the sad news, and the article How We Test Antiphishing explains exactly how I derive these scores.

The firewall component, shared by SecureIT and SecureIT Plus, has its own set of problems. It failed a couple Web-based attack tests, to start with. It nominally controls which programs can access the network, but the only ones I ever observed it blocking were essential Windows processes. A cyber crook could easily write code to disable this product's protection.

The one bright spot in my firewall testing involved exploits. When I attacked the test system using the Core Impact penetration tool, SecureIT blocked 60 percent of the exploits and identified them by name. No exploit managed to break through security. For a more detailed view of the firewall please see my review of the basic, non-Plus SecureIT edition.

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