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September 2007

Ratings Antispyware programs

Trend Micro AntiSpyware (PC-cillin Internet Security 2007)

Sunbelt Software CounterSpy 2

Availability

Programs are periodically updated.

New versions should perform at least as well

as the version we tested.

In performance order.

indicates Quick Pick.


Excellent	Very good	Good	Fair	Poor

Product	Price	Service		Overall Score	Test results	Features
Where available as part of a suite, name of suite appears in parentheses.
Trend Micro AntiSpyware (PC-cillin Internet Security 2007)	$30	$30	1	82.		•	•	•	•
Sunbelt Software CounterSpy 2	20	15	1	79.		•	•	•	•
F-Secure Internet Security 2007	60	60	3	77.		•	•	•	•
McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007	70	70	1	77.		•	•		•
BitDefender Internet Security 10	60	45	1	74.			•	•
Check Point ZoneAlarm Anti-Spyware (Internet Security Suite 7.0)	20	20	1	69.		•	•	•	•
Microsoft Windows Defender	free	none	-	69.			•	•	•
PCTools Spyware Doctor 5.0	30	20	1	67.			•	•
Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.3	30	30	1	62.		•	•	•	•
SpyBot Search and Destroy 1.4	free	none	-	60.		•	•	•	•
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2007	70	70	3	60.			•	•
Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Plus	27	none	1	48.		•	•	•	•

Only available in suite; price and fee is for suite.

Discontinued; new version is being tested

Guide to the Ratings

Product shows the name of the stand-alone product and, in parentheses, the name of the security suite that contains the same program, if available. The stand-alone and suite versions of that component should be equally effective. Overall score combines detection, features, and ease of use. Detection indicates how well the product was able to detect and block installation of spyware. We used spyware determined to be "badware" by StopBadware.org, an organization of which CU is a member. We also created variants of the actual spyware and tested for detection of those. We first allowed the programs to scan for the spyware, then we tried to install the spyware to see whether it could block the installation. Because of the advance in methodology, the scores this year are not comparable to those from prior years. Features and ease of use indicate how intuitive the interface is and how easy it is to perform common functions. Prevents changes means spyware that isn't initially blocked is prevented from actions such as changing your home page and redirecting Web searches. Prevents startup indicates detection and stopping of spyware from starting automatically at boot-up. Spyware details indicates extra guidance to help decide whether to remove a detected item. Price is for the download version and includes the first year of service. Boxed versions usually are available for about $10 extra.

For our antivirus and antispyware tests, we enlisted help from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), a computer-security consulting firm. ISE’s president, Avi Rubin, is a former technical advisory board member of a company acquired by software vendor McAfee before ISE began work for Consumer Reports. He continues to act as an adviser to that company and was not involved in our testing.