Zone Labs Zonealarm Security

We've seen a wealth of updated Internet security suites in recent months, but one company notable by its absence has been Zone Labs. That's all about to change, though, with the launch of the Zonealarm Security Suite (ZASS) - a fully integrated security suite designed to protect against online threats in all their forms.

In addition to its renowned firewall, the suite provides protection against viruses, Trojans, spyware, inappropriate web content, information theft and, uniquely, a number of safeguards for users of instant messaging (IM) services. In fact, the only real glaring omission is the lack of any kind of email spam filtering.

At its heart is Zonealarm Pro. Now at version 5, this is a time-tested and proven firewall with a number of new features to improve its effectiveness and ease of use. Chief among these is Automatic Program Control, which uses a fingerprinting technique to identify applications before making a recommendation as to whether Internet access should be granted or denied. It certainly removes any guesswork when faced by an access request from a cryptically named Windows service or other unfamiliar program.

Additionally, Boot-time protection ensures the firewall is functioning before any Windows networking components are loaded, protecting the PC early in the boot process and preventing any malware from phoning home during this crucial window of opportunity.

Anti-virus protection comes courtesy of Computer Associates' award-winning Etrust engine. Automatic updates ensure that its definitions are always current and alerts can even be raised if an application attempts to send a large number of emails within a user-defined period - a good indicator of potential worm activity.

Despite this, there's no requirement to use the inbuilt anti-virus protection. During installation you can opt to continue using one of the big-name anti-virus products and ZASS will unselfishly monitor it and sound an alert if it becomes disabled or its definitions aren't up to date.

The program is by no means the quickest when performing a full system scan, although this would normally be done when unattended. It should also be pointed out that disabling the firewall turns off the inbuilt anti-virus protection - something that needs to be borne in mind if temporarily turning it off in order to resolve a compatibility issue, for example.

When browsing web pages, it's difficult to ignore the Privacy Advisor; a small window that pops up with an alert whenever it blocks a third-party cookie or other potential privacy infringement. As there are very few websites that don't use any of these technologies to some extent, this particular alert rapidly becomes rather irritating, especially as it takes the focus away from the active window. Thankfully, it's a simple matter to turn it off without affecting its functionality.

Protection when using IM clients such as MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Trillian is an area that security products are only just beginning to address, and here ZASS is well equipped. As well as controlling access to all of the popular IM clients on an individual basis, it can block IM spam (spim), file transfers and strip out executable URLs. Messages are encrypted by default, although correspondents will need to be using either ZASS or the Imsecure utility, available as a free download from Zone Labs.

Dynamic web content filtering allows parents to be confident that their children won't be subjected to pornography and other inappropriate content, although such filtering can only be applied across the board and not on a per-user basis.

All the settings are accessed through a single interface and context-sensitive help is displayed at all times. Installation provides an informative security tutorial, and password protection is available to stop unauthorised users from changing any of the settings.

A single PC connected directly to the Internet is very vulnerable, but ZASS is a mature security product that provides comprehensive protection against all current threats. It has plenty to offer new and experienced users alike and, priced at a shade under £40 with a year's worth of updates and discount offers for users of rival suites, we have no hesitation in recommending it.

Contact: Zone Labs
www.zonelabs.com

System requirements:

• Windows 98SE or greater
• 233MHz Pentium-class processor or greater
• 128MB of Ram
• 20MB of hard disk space

See also:

Steganos Secure Filesharing 6

Keep P2P downloading habits to yourself.  09 Sep 2004

Kidisafe

Protect your child from internet grooming.  10 Aug 2004

Webroot Spy Sweeper

Protect yourself from Spyware with this useful utility.  11 May 2004

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