Computerworld — Just a few short years ago, all a PC needed for protection was a basic antivirus program to guard against any malware that arrived via an e-mail attachment, embedded in a shareware application or piggy-backed on a floppy disk.

These days, however, the threat landscape has changed drastically. Now PC users have to cope not only with viruses, but also with spyware, spam, infected Web sites, adware, key loggers, phishing schemes and much, much more. It's enough to make your head spin.

As a result, properly securing a PC now requires a layered approach that incorporates many security technologies. Although some are still sold in separate packages, most security products are currently gathered in suites, available from a multitude of security software vendors.

The crowded market makes picking a suite a bit of a dilemma for most users. Narrowing down which product to use requires a closer look at what type of protection is available.

Security suites can include some, or all, of the following: antivirus, antispyware, antispam, anti-malware (rootkits, bots, zombies, etc.) and antiphishing tools, plus a link scanner, privacy controls, parental controls, content filtering, registry protection, data filtering and password protection.

In this roundup, I look at nine security suites that include all of the features mentioned above. The suites are BitDefender Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security, McAfee Internet Security, Norman Internet Security Suite, Norton Internet Security 2010, Panda Internet Security, Security Shield 2010, Trend Micro Internet Security Pro and ZoneAlarm Internet Security.

How we tested

New viruses and threats arrive every day --and on any given day, one vendor may be a little quicker on the draw to prevent a virus than others. That makes evaluating the strength of a particular anti-malware or antispam product very difficult -- there is never a level playing field.

With that in mind, I tested each security suite based upon factors that affect the user directly. I evaluated each for ease of installation, ease of use, notification capabilities, updating and quality of the interface.

For testing purposes, I used a Toshiba Tecra A11-S3450 notebook computer configured with 4GB of RAM, an Intel (INTC) Core i7-620M CPU and a 320GB 7,200-rpm hard drive that was running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional.

(Some of these products also have versions for other operating systems, such as Mac OS X, iOS and Android, and other devices, such as netbooks. These are noted in the spec boxes that are included with each review.)

During testing, I installed each product on the Toshiba notebook and timed how long the machine took to boot up, then I compared that figure to the time it had taken the machine to boot up without a security suite installed (see table). After each test, I restored the notebook back to its pretesting condition using Paragon's Backup & Recovery 10 Suite. That way, each product was installed under the exact same conditions, with the same software configuration.

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