In the ongoing game of cat and mouse — security software versus hackers — Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 concentrates this year on catching more malware and spam, scanning faster, and making its interface easier to use. Whether you browse Web pages, send and receive e-mail, exchange instant messages, shop and bank online, or share digital files, a competent security product such as Trend Micro offers some peace of mind.
Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008 and Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 are both much like last year's versions with a few enhancements thrown in for good measure. The company has also unveiled a new product in this year's lineup, Trend Micro Internet Security Pro, which offers the features covered by last year's TrendSecure services.
Trend Micro's TrendSecure offered online services that extended security beyond a home PC, such as when you use a public computer or when connected to the internet via a wireless hotspot. The TrendSecure name has vanished, but its functions have mostly been incorporated into Trend Micro Internet Security Pro.
After finally scratching the PC-Cillan name last year, Trend Micro still appears to be in a pattern of shuffling and re-mixing its product line. For the most part, Trend Micro largely continues to shine on its strengths.
Scenes From a "Mal"
For 2008, Trend Micro introduces proactive intrusion blocking technology designed to detect and halt unauthorized and malicious changes to your computer's operating system and core software. The feature boasts real-time prevention capabilities that adapt to new and emerging threats without having to rely on signatures that have to be constantly updated.
Trend Micro claims that this approach reduces the number of alerts that you have to deal with because it traces changes back to their sources instead of reacting to them. So in use, if a single source makes several changes to your operating system, whether it's to the registry and key files, this, in theory, only registers as a single alert instead of numerous alerts for each area.
Without formal lab testing, it's hard to determine whether the approach truly reduces alerts, but customizable security warnings let you decide how often you want to receive security warnings. You can tell the program to inform you of all alerts, to group alerts together, or only occasionally alert you. The end result is that you will hopefully see fewer alerts — always a welcome option.
The company's Web Threat Protection feature is designed to guard your PC from attacks and goes beyond traditional URL filtering by assessing the safety of each Web page based on its age, content, behavior, and reputation.
The program looks for pages that are associated with malware and determines whether a page is new or has registered with several domains in a short period of time (a potential indication that a site was created for nefarious purposes), and checks for IP addresses of known spammers.
Most ingenious hackers with spam on their minds have moved beyond e-mail messages from so-called Nigerian diplomats with money to give you to now sending image-based spam. As a result, Trend Micro now searches for spam in images as well as text.
A feature that won't be available until early 2008 will be designed to disable links to untrustworthy Web sites that come via e-mail. Trend Micro users will automatically receive this update, which has been named "Worry-Free Click."
