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Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 review

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Verdict:

Excellent protection, cross-platform support and loads of extra features make this one of the best security packages around

Review Date: 9 Nov 2012

Price when reviewed: £27

Supplier: http://store.expertreviews.co.uk

Reviewed By: Kat Orphanides

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

Bitdefender won our Best Buy award last year and its performance this year remained excellent, even though it was slightly outshone by Symantec and Kaspersky's latest internet security suites.

Bitdefender completely blocked malicious software in 93 of our 100 tests, and entirely neutralised the threat in another five instances for a total protection score of 98 per cent. It was only compromised by two threats, putting it on a par with ESET and Norton but failing to match Kaspersky's perfect score.

Unlike any of its fellow test leaders, Bitdefender put in a perfect performance in our false positive tests. In one instance, it popped up a non-blocking warning about a benign program, but it didn't block a single harmless application, making it the security program least likely to get in the way of your day-to-day internet use. This gave it an excellent total accuracy rating of 373.75.

Unlike many security suites, you can choose which elements you want to enable or disable during the initial setup process; these include anti-spam, a firewall, antimalware, anti-phishing, antifraud and a search advisor plugin for your browsers. The spam filter is the only one that's disabled by default. Once again unlike its rivals, you can sign in using your Facebook, Google or Microsoft account to activate your product, as well as using or creating a Bitdefender account, which is handy for those who like using unified logins.

Once installed, Bitdefender puts itself into autopilot mode and you can happily leave it at that, with or without the security widget enabled to let you know what it's up to. The widget provides shortcuts to Bitdefender's events overview, firewall settings, anti-virus settings and your online account controls, as well as showing any protection or event alerts, but there's no shortcut to the main screen of Bitdefender's primary interface.

Instead, you can launch this via the Start screen or its desktop notification area icon. The interface hasn't changed much since last year, but its large buttons are already suitable for touchscreen users of Windows 8.

You can scroll through all of Bitdefender's main features, starting with anti-virus, anti-spam, privacy and firewall settings. Each of these includes a shortcut to its settings screen and a number of instant options for triggering a manual scan, accessing a file shredder for secure deletion or viewing the traffic across your network adaptors. Scroll to the right, and you can access a couple more features: updates and SafeGo plugins, which you can activate to defend your Facebook and Twitter accounts against malware. Once you've given it permission to access your social media accounts, SafeGo provides a web-based dashboard that you can use to check for infected items in your feeds and examine your privacy settings.

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User comments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitDefender#Trojan.FakeAlert.5_problem

SOFTWIN's "BitDefender" anti-virus engine, undermined our company's reputation with clients by recklessly and falsely identifying our software as malicious and unsafe.

SOFTWIN's customer service replied quickly to our initial request to reevaluate the error showing a false-positive of our software with a one word response "Spam". How lovely.

SOFTWIN's negligence has taxed our company's credibility and has caused our clients to suffer losses in revenue, time and productivity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitDefender#Trojan.Fa
keAlert.5_problem

Please join us in our boycott of the "Bitdefender" software until SOFTWIN establishes responsible business practices. Thank you.

By Lanne88 on 18 Dec 2012

The Wikipedia entry you link to doesn't seem relevant

It refers to a faulty update in 2010 that falsely identified system files as malware. We reported this at the time and note that it was quickly remedied.

Regarding your software being reported as a false positive, we can't comment unless we know what product you make. You're welcome to contact me at kat@expertreviews.co.uk if you wish to discuss this further.

We stand by our review and recommendation of Bitdefender Internet Security as an excellent anti-malware product.

By kat_orphanides on 19 Dec 2012

DO NOT BITE!

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD OR BANK INFO! BitDefender automatically sets customers on Auto-Pay. When you decide to drop them, you will have to contact multiple outsourced/overseas phone numbers and spend hours on the phone trying to get them to take you off of autopay and refund the overcharges. They will also entice you to accept special offers to renew. When you do, you will be double-charged - because you were already on auto-pay (by default). They will not reply to your online requests either.

By Jackberts on 22 Jan 2013

DO NOT BITE!

By Jackberts on 22 Jan 2013

Software

I use Bitdefender Total Security Suite. Here is a link with a $50 off coupon.

https://store.bitdefender.com/order/checkout.php?P
RODS=4559871&QTY=1&OPTIONS4559871=h-3u-1y&CART=2&C
OUPON=29USD-29Feb2013&AFFILIATE=XXXXX

It is very lightweight; hardly even know its running. It’s not free but for $29 you can’t go wrong.

By rjoudrey on 27 Feb 2013

Software

By rjoudrey on 27 Feb 2013

I use Bitdefender Total Security Suite. Here is a link with a $50 off coupon.

https://store.bitdefender.com/order/checkout.php?P
RODS=4559871&QTY=1&OPTIONS4559871=h-3u-1y&CART=2&C
OUPON=29USD-29Feb2013&AFFILIATE=28041

It is very lightweight; hardly even know its running. It’s not free but for $29 you can’t go wrong.

By rjoudrey on 27 Feb 2013

Slows the computer, unethical company

I was dissatisfied with my one-year’s subscription to Bit Defender for the following reasons:
Its interface is non-intuitive for me, a moderately competent computer user. Some obvious and oft-used functions are hidden in the Options and Advanced files and elsewhere. A cursory search does not find them, evoking an appeal via the email help line, with a reply in a few days.
The replies from the help line are terse, sometimes with elaborate steps. I found some of the steps altogether unfamiliar and could not carry them out.
At one point during the year, my computer slowed considerably. Believing it to be a virus, I drew upon Bit Defender’s resources (scans, etc.) to purge the virus or quarantine it. Not successful, and for the rest of the year I worked with a slower computer.
I decided not to renew, did not reply to appeals for renewal from Avangate (the company offering Bit Defender), and chose another security program. As soon as I switched to the other security program my computer resumed its fast speed again, loading programs quickly.
The slowing problem is apparently known to Bit Defender, because it has a portion of its website devoted to what to do if your computer slows down while using the program!
Meanwhile, without my authorization, Avangate company renewed my subscription and charged me for another year’s subscription. There is nothing in the detailed outline of the contract as given on its website saying this would happen. Avangate had sent the software by email to an email address that I had terminated three months earlier, and then responded to my dispute of the new charge by saying “...this is a virtual item, delivered online. Therefore, the customer cannot ‘return’ the item, and he cannot dispute the receipt...” From Avangate (via my credit card company) there was additional information saying that “...your online order placed...on December 19, 2011...has been successfully completed...” I had not placed that online order.
A trivial extra, but annoying when discovered: Bit Defender is provided by a company in the Netherlands. This is not revealed as it cites its subscription price. A small foreign exchange fee (2 or three dollars) linked to its purchase appeared on my credit card the following month.
Given the slow and clumsy performance of Bit Defender and unethical merchant practices of its company, I recommend avoiding this product from the start.

By murrax on 3 May 2013

BitDefender Total Security

I have used BitDefender Total Security over many years. However, the last two year, Bit Defender have so much changed that it is a total different Suite as it was previously. Evenything changed except the name, usefull functions disappeared (as the registry control). This new Version 2013 will probably be the last one. I was not able to get Antispam to work and several options which I selected (as the Firewall Advanced mode) switch themself back to default after each reboot. Concerning the design, all is new

By DaveK on 15 May 2013

Bitdefender Total Security

Tgn is different from all the BitDefender Total Security Suits in the past, new Logos and very confusing to access options for old fashioned Bitdefender users. It appears that BitDefender is now run by a different owner ? Last but not leasts, the the usefull simple and expert mode in previous version had just evaporated. Initially very good, I will no try alternatives...

By DaveK on 15 May 2013

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