TrendMicro is a well known name in the computer security industry and offers leading antivirus software solution for home and home office users, small business computers, medium business computers and enterprises. For home and home office users, TrendMicro offers one complete security package that includes award-winning antivirus software, antispyware, protection from phishing websites, firewall and more. What makes TrendMicro software special is that apart from the advanced internet security, it also includes PC performance optimizer and data protection by offering 2GB online storage space. TrendMicro offers different packages for home users: TrendMicro Titanium Antivirus and TrendMicro Titanium Internet Security, these are the recent 2011 versions of their security. TrendMicro takes the #5 spot in our top ten antivirus ratings.
Advanced Features:
TrendMicro Titanium Antivirus features:
- Prevent unauthorized changes to your applications, helps reducing virus infections.
- Stops malicious downloads from internet and mobile devices attached to your computer system.
- Blocks your access to harmful, infected and phishing websites that may harm your computer.
- Protect your children from accessing objectionable websites and limit internet usage time.
- Protect your personal information from identity theft with encryption, shop safely over the internet without risking your sensitive information.
- Complete protection from malicious links and downloads on instant messenger.
- Free 2GB online storage to store your critical data on TrendMicro's secure online website.
- Specialized technical support staff ready to support through email, chat and phone.
TrendMicro Titanium Internet Security
The main user interface of TrendMicro Internet Security Pro (version 3) is not much changed from last year's version. There is an overview tab which has a red-yellow-green status indicator, with a prominent 'Fix Now' button to deal with any threats encountered. There are also tabs to access the various modules of the suite and display status. There is also a 'Pro Features' button to bring up a toolbar for the Pro features (the non-Pro edition will set you back $20 less).
Installation Issues
We installed Trendmicro on our malware-infested test systems. This can often be problematic, but Trend Micro was able to handle most issues. One system lost connectivity, but an error message pointed to a problem with proxy configuration - this was indeed the issue and the installation succeeded after the configuration was corrected. Two systems rebooted or crashed, and the installation succeeded on the second attempt.
To get one system working, we had to supply logs to Trend Micro's technical support, and run a special utility they made available. One system wouldn't work after days of trying, but the tech support team finally fixed it after a three-hour remote access session.
Independent Testing Labs
The big independent testing labs test products against huge malware and virus collections. Trend Micro doesn't participate in the tests run by AV-Comparatives, ICSA Labs, or Virus Bulletin. West Coast Labs certifies Trend Micro's technology for virus detection and removal. It also grants it checkmark certification for detecting malware and Trojans in general.
AV-Test rated Trend Micro 'Satisfactory' at non-signature detection and malware detection, and 'Poor' for on-demand spyware detection. It was rated 'Good' for fast performance, response time to new threats, and low false positives. Other products were rated considerably higher - Norton Antivirus and Fsecure Antivirusachieved 'Good' or 'Very Good' in every test category.
System Performance Impact
Trend Micro added 54 percent to system boot time - this was the biggest slowdown of any 2010 suite we had tested to date. 14 percent was added to the time required in the browsing test - this was below the average of 38 percent. In a zip/unzip test, 43 percent was added to the time - this was the second largest slowdown of any 2010 suite, the biggest slowdown being caused by Bitdefender Antivirus with 54 percent.
Remote Control
All computers on the network are displayed by Trend Micro's network map, and for those with Internet Security Pro installed, the status can be monitored. Scans and updates can be remotely triggered, file versions can be checked, logs viewed, and features turned on and off. All in all, a very useful utility.
Trend Micro Vault
This is a very nice feature: the vault is a password-protected encrypted folder for storing private or sensitive files. The vault closes automatically when your computer goes idle or shuts down. If your computer or laptop is stolen, and you report it as such on Trend Micro's website, the vault can be locked down so the thief has no access even if he knows the password.
Phishing Protection
In Internet Security Pro, phishing protection is incorporated into the general protection against web threats. We thought it would benefit from a better antiphishing algorithm, as there is no discernible difference between the way it handles phishing sites and malware-hosting sites.
Efficient Antispam
Trend Micro works with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express to filter incoming POP3 e-mail. There are three levels you can select - Low, Medium or High. You also have the option to add addresses to a blacklist (always blocked) or a whitelist (never blocked).
In testing, we found no discernible impact on speed when downloading e-mail. It performed well in this test, matching the efficiency of Bitdefender Antivirus in this area.
Full-Featured Parental Control
Internet Security Pro has an unexpectedly complete Parental Control module for a full suite. Its default settings apply to everyone using the computer, but it also integrates with Windows accounts to allow user-specific settings. All web activity by anybody not labeled as 'Adult' is logged. The web filter can block 28 categories of undesirable websites, and browsing time can be limited using a weekly grid.
Multilayered Malware Cleanup
Trend Micro scanned our standard clean test system in just under 35 minutes, an average result. However, unlike Bitdefender Antivirus, Fsecure Antivirus and Kaspersky Antivirus, subsequent scans were no faster.
Trend Micro's scanner removed serious threats, including viruses and Trojans, and reported them as 'Resolved Threats.' The software doesn't remove 'Unresolved Threats' (including adware, spyware and other lower risk items) unless you request it to. It didn't always succeed to remove these in our testing - when it failed, we 'decided to ignore the threat.' This was not the case.
94 percent of all threats were detected by Trend Micro, but it did a very poor job of removing them. Executable were left behind for about 30 percent of the samples, and some were left still active. Trend Micro's score in this test was 6.6 points out of 10. Only two rival products did worse in this test - Panda Cloud Antivirus and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware 1.36 both scored 6.5 points.
In a commercial keylogger test, Trend Micro's score of 5.0 was above average. In our rootkit test (both keylogger and malware), Trend Micro picked up less than 80 percent, scoring 5.2 points, a below-average result. In the rogue security software (scareware) test, Trend Micro's score of 5.7 was also slightly below average.
Multitier Malware Blocking
Access to known malware-hosting websites is blocked by Trend Micro. Viruses and Trojans are detected in memory, suspicious program behavior is reported, and spyware warnings are issued. Internet Security Pro blocked 75 percent of all our attempts to re-download the malware samples. This was better than most rival products could achieve.
When a folder containing already-downloaded malware samples was opened, Trendmicro destroyed 75 percent of them immediately. When we tried launching the remaining threats, it tried to block all but one of them, but executable files were installed by a couple of them; one of them actually installed and ran. Overall, Trend Micro scored above average in this test, scoring 8.9 points. The best performer here was the beta ofNorton Antivirus, with 9.6 points.
In a commercial keylogger test, Internet Security Pro achieved 6.1 points, an above average result. In a scareware (rogue internet security software) test, it achieved a perfect 10 out of 10 - sharing this result with Panda Cloud Antivirus, Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware 6.1, Bitdefender Antivirus, and the Norton Antivirus beta. Trend Micro scored below average at preventing rootkit installation, with 6.8 points.
Conclusion: Trend Micro Internet Security Pro performed reasonably well in the anti-malware tests, but rival products can do considerable better. The scanner could definitely be more efficient at cleaning up detected malware.
We were disappointed because Trend Micro had promised improvements, especially in the area of system performance, in the new version of their suite, but we didn't find much evidence of real improvement during extensive testing. We found the spam filter effective and simple to use, and parental controls were effective and flexible. We also liked the ability to manage systems remotely via the network map. The secure vault feature is a very useful bonus.
On the down side, Trend Micro still has a heavy system performance impact. The phishing protection is not particularly effective. Although it was quite effective at detecting malware, it was not so efficient at cleaning up the threats it had found.
