You can set it to warn you when something untoward is going on, giving you the option of blocking it, or to go for an automatic block. Ransomware protection comes in the form of the system watcher, which is also capable of rolling back changes to your system caused by malicious programs. Read more: 7 best VPN services for streaming securely in 2021 It’s also a very slow service, no matter how speedy your broadband connection may be. The VPN is only meant to be used when carrying out sensitive financial transactions, but even so, the limit seems a bit low. It also installs itself as a system tray app that you have to hunt out yourself – there’s no link to it from the main application, and this is one of those times that a shortcut on the desktop would be desirable. The VPN is unfortunately rather poor, with a 200mb per day limit.

While there isn’t a firewall by that name, there’s still plenty of network protection, including port blocking, and “self defence” that blocks attempts to remove or modify the security suite. Kaspersky total security comes with a VPN, email scanning, and webcam protection. Safe money just opens a page in the hub app, however, and while the password manager opens in its own window, you can access it from the hub. Once installed it places three shortcuts on your desktop, one for the hub app, one for its password manager, and another for safe money, its banking and payment system protection app. This makes it cheaper than rivals such as Norton 360 and F-Secure, though it does not have a free tier like Sophos does. It then scales with time and the number of devices you want to protect until you reach ten devices for two years at £125. Pricing begins at £39.99 for a year’s single-device protection, but there is a discount for first-time buyers.

However, if you want a free trial, you’ll have to google for it, as while they are available, they’re not mentioned on Kaspersky’s homepage. Another plus is the fact it allows you to install its free trial without setting up an account first, although one is necessary if you want to share the protection across multiple computers – it works with Windows PCs, Apple Macs and iOS and Android mobile devices. The installation process is fairly straightforward, though the software may clash with other antivirus or anti-malware applications you have installed (it certainly didn’t like our pre-existing copy of Malwarebytes).

Kaspersky total security reviews