ESET Smart Security 9
- Ratings For Eset Antivirus software, free download
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- Eset Antivirus software, free download
- Ratings For Eset Antivirus Software Review
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Pros
Good antivirus lab scores. Includes password manager and file encryption. Enhanced home network scanner. Anti-theft. Scans firmware for malware. Webcam control.Cons
Password manager lacks advanced features. So-so phishing protection. Device control too complex for most users. Old-school firewall. Limited parental control. Expensive.Bottom Line
ESET Smart Security Premium adds file encryption and a basic password manager to the features in ESET's entry-level suite. These additions don't merit the higher price.
Like most security companies, ESET offers an antivirus, a security suite, and top-tier security suite with additional features. ESET's entry-level suite includes all the expected components along with additions such as an unusual anti-theft system, powerful (but complex) control over device usage, and a network security scanner. ESET Smart Security Premium adds a basic password manager and a file encryption system, along with support for macOS, Android, and Linux.
When I reviewed the previous edition, I dinged it for its high price. It listed at $79.99 per year for a single subscription, and $99.99 for three. Kaspersky gives you five licenses for that price, Bitdefender and Norton cost $10 less for five, and with Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Complete you pay $79.99 for five licenses. The current pricing is more in line with the norm; $59.99 per year for one license, $79.99 for three, and $99.99 for five. It's still a little on the high side, especially considering that that same $99.99 gets you unlimited cross-platform licenses for McAfee.
When you go to download ESET Smart Security, you'll see that it, like McAfee, is a cross-platform effort. You can use your licenses to install protection on Windows, macOS, Android, or Linux devices. And, as noted, the Windows edition gets some features not found in the entry-level suite.
Read Me First
On Windows, the base protection you get is identical to that supplied by ESET Internet Security. Rather than repeat my reporting on the many features of this suite, I suggest you read that review before proceeding. The password management and file encryption tools aren't strongly linked to the other features.
The main window, which is almost identical to that of the entry-level suite, has three special spots, large blue button panels offering access to important features. The Connected Home Monitor occupies one of these; Password Manager and Secure Data own the other two. That's the only real difference in the two suites, appearance-wise.
Basic Password Manager
Smart Security's password manager is a licensed version of Sticky Password Premium, but it doesn't cover the full spectrum of Sticky Password's feature set. For example, it lacks Sticky Password's ability to sync privately across your home Wi-Fi network, without ever sending passwords to the cloud. This feature hasn't changed since version 10, released a couple years ago.
You start by creating a password store, associated with your email address and a master password. ESET insists that the master password be at least eight characters long and contain capital letters, small letters, and numbers. A floating window checks off these requirements as you type. For security, you can use a virtual keyboard to enter the master, or any password. To avoid the possibility of a screen scraper (or shoulder surfer) seeing which characters you click, the virtual keyboard can generate a flock of decoy cursors that move at random. It's an entertaining effect, besides being useful.
The password manager integrates with Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera, and imports passwords stored insecurity in the browser. It can also import from a half-dozen competitors, among them Dashlane, LastPass Premium, and RoboForm. The password manager also offers integration with less-known browsers, among them Chromium, Pale Moon, and SeaMonkey.
As expected, ESET offers to save your credentials when you log into a secure site. At capture time, you can give the new entry a friendly name or assign it to a group, but you can't create a new group the way you can with LastPass. Also as expected, when you revisit the site ESET offers to fill those saved credentials. If you encounter a nonstandard login form that the password manager doesn't recognize, you're out of luck. ESET doesn't include the Sticky Password feature that lets you simply capture data from all fields.
The browser extensions serve to capture and replay passwords, but for full control you open the password manager dashboard. Here you can edit your password entries, organize them into groups, and even nest groups inside groups. These groups become menus and submenus that you access by clicking the browser toolbar button. Clicking an entry from that menu navigates to the site and automatically logs you in.
Getting all your passwords into the password manager is just the first step; you also must replace weak and duplicate ones with new, strong, unique passwords. ESET's password generator helps you by creating random passwords. Out of the box, it generates 15-character passwords composed of letters (upper and lowercase) and numbers; I strongly recommend you add punctuation to the mix. Consider, too, that you might as well make your generated passwords longer, since you don't have to remember them. Some competing password managers default to 30 characters or more.
Ratings For Eset Antivirus software, free download
Two-factor authentication adds security by requiring both a master password and another factor, typically a fingerprint or a physical token. ESET lets you switch from the master password to authenticating with a USB or Bluetooth device, but since doing so replaces the master password, it isn't two-factor authentication. As long as you've created a memorable but hard-to-guess master password, you should probably stick with it for authentication.
Like Keeper Password Manager & Digital Vault, RoboForm, and a few others, ESET can go beyond website passwords to capture passwords for applications. To use this feature, you identify the target application using a crosshair cursor and then log in. Next time you launch that application, the password manager can autofill your credentials.
ESET extends its password-filling skills to fill in personal details on web forms. Each form-filling identity includes personal, contact, internet, and business data; you add banking and credit card data separately. When you visit a web form, ESET puts a red border around the fields it recognizes. You click the toolbar button and select an identity to fill details.
In testing, ESET didn't fill every field, but anything it fills automatically is something you don't have to type. RoboForm Everywhere started life as a form-filler utility and then evolved into a password manager. It remains a top form filler, with a huge number of field types. Many password managers let you save multiple instances of credit card data; RoboForm offers multiple instances of any field type.
Top-notch password managers such as Dashlane, LastPass, and Keeper include a full security audit that flags weak and duplicate passwords. Some even help automate the process of updating passwords, replacing bad ones with strong ones and recording the change. ESET's Warnings page is a pale shadow of those full-scale audits. It does list saved entries with extremely weak passwords, but it's much too lax. A six-letter password that uses two character types qualities as Normal strength, meaning it won't appear on the Warnings page. The password 'Monkey' gets a normal rating; I think it should come with a warning instead.
This password manager doesn't offer the full cross-platform experience found in many competing products, though you can install client-only apps that will replay (but not capture) passwords for macOS, Android, and iOS. You can't view and manage passwords online the way you can with the full Sticky Password. It's a decent basic-level utility, but not comparable to the very best standalone password managers.
Encryption for Secure Data
A to be a strong password! Note, too, that by default, Smart Security automatically decrypts the drive for the current Windows user account. If you walk away from your desk without logging out, you leave your files unprotected. Unless you've secured your account with a very strong password and always lock it on stepping away, I suggest you disable this option.
Smart Security doesn't maintain a list of the encrypted drives you've created the way McAfee Total Protection and others do. Rather, you must locate the vault file and launch it to open the encrypted drive. Now you can treat it like any other drive.
You wouldn't stash one copy of a sensitive contract in your wall safe while leaving other copies lying around unprotected; you'd put the extras through the shredder. The same is true for the unencrypted originals of sensitive files, so products that offer encryption often include a secure deletion utility. Kaspersky Total Security even makes deleting the originals part of the vault creation process. Alas, Smart Security offers no file shredding app. The best you can do is hold down Shift while deleting originals, so they don't wind up in the Recycle Bin.
Smart Security also lets you create an encrypted folder on any removable drive. You just supply the password; you don't have to enter a filename or choose the capacity. Here, too, I advise disabling automatic decryption for the current Windows user account. When you mount the drive and enter the password, Smart Security makes the encrypted folder available.
Support for macOS
As the download page points out, you can use your Smart Security licenses to install protection on macOS devices as well. What you get is the Pro edition of ESET Cyber Security (for Mac). Please read my review of that product for an explanation of the basic set of features. Here, I'll discuss the Pro-only features, firewall and parental control.
As with the Windows product, the firewall reacts to a new network connection by asking you just what sort of connection it is. Depending on whether you respond that it's a Public, Home, or Work network, the firewall configures itself appropriately.
On Windows, ESET's firewall defends against outside attacks and optionally manages network permissions for local programs. Program control isn't an option in the macOS version, which may be a blessing. If you set the firewall to Interactive mode in Windows, it asks you for a decision on every new program that attempts network access, even Windows processes. After responding, you must also enter the settings password and deal with a User Account Control dialog. It's impressively annoying.
Most users should just let the firewall do its thing, without trying to understand or modify the configuration. The slightest peek into the rules, zones, and profiles confronts you with details that only a firewall expert would understand.
Parental control is much like its Windows equivalent, though not identical. On Windows, you enter a birthdate for each child; on the Mac you mark each account as Parent, Teen, or Child. The Windows edition offers 30 categories that you can block; under macOS, it's 27 categories. In both cases, parental control consists solely of filtering out unwanted content.
Where the Windows version has no trouble filtering secure (HTTPS) websites, the macOS edition fails. HTTPS sites with naughty content go right past it, as do secure anonymizing proxies. A clever teen can use such a proxy to completely foil parental control and monitoring. This feature just doesn't work well.
Protection for Android Devices
ESET offers basic Android security at no charge; using one of your licenses levels you up to the Pro edition. I installed the app on a Motorola Moto G5 Plus and found that it offered a month's worth of Premium features. Once the trial of Premium expires, the free edition loses many features, as you can see in this chart.
As usual, the app requested various permissions needed to carry out its mission. On completing installation, it launched a quick scan. It suggested strengthening protection by enabling four components: App Lock, Anti-Theft, Anti-Phishing, and Scheduled scan. Turning on these components naturally required even more permissions. For example, App Lock needed access to usage data, and Anti-Theft needed location and camera data, as well as Device Administrator permission.
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Like the similar feature in Bitdefender Total Security, Kaspersky, McAfee, and others, App Lock lets you put sensitive apps behind the protection of a secondary PIN. Now even a nosy friend who picks up your unlocked phone won't be able to peek at your emails or texts. Bitdefender takes this feature a step beyond, with options such as the ability to quickly leave and return to an app without needing a PIN, or to suppress App Lock when you're on a trusted Wi-Fi network.
As with the Windows-based anti-theft system, full activation of anti-theft features may require one or more optimization steps. You can trigger locate, lock, and wipe, as well as sound a loud siren, by sending coded SMS messages or by using the My ESET web portal. Commands don't take effect immediately. Rather, the device checks in every 10 minutes.
In addition to the usual remote locate, lock, and wipe functions, ESET's anti-theft can lock the device on removal of the SIM card. Several competitors, Webroot among them, offer SIM lock. Given that the Android device I use for testing isn't provisioned for cellular data, I can't test this feature.
You can enable Anti-Phishing for Chrome and for other browsers you may use. I tested it using the AMTSO Features Check page and found that indeed it displayed the proper warning. Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Webroot are among the other Android products that aim to fend off phishing frauds.
With all those features in place, the app bears a certain resemblance to its Windows counterpart. It uses the same white background and blue buttons, and the same status banner, complete with ESET's cyborg mascot. Across the bottom are icons for Antivirus, Anti-Theft, Anti-Phishing, App Lock, Security Audit, and Security Report.
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Much like the privacy audit feature in McAfee and Webroot, ESET's Security Audit lists applications that have potentially risky permissions. For example, it flags apps that access your contacts, or track your location. Take a moment to review these. When you tap the icon for each type of permission, you get a list, and you also clear the notification of newfound apps. When you review the audit later, you'll see notification numbers only if there are new apps involved.
Symantec Norton Security Premium takes the app-review concept to the next level, reporting on apps in the App Store before you even download them. Trend Micro reviews your apps based on the resources they use, rather than on permissions.
Security Audit also checks your Android device's settings, looking out for any that may not be configured correctly. For example, it warns if you've rooted the device, or if you have USB debugging enabled.
Other Android security software does go a bit beyond ESET's. For example, McAfee, Kaspersky, and Webroot help you manage battery power. Still, ESET Mobile Security includes all the expected antivirus and anti-theft capabilities, as well as app lock, security audit, and more. And since every standalone mobile installation costs $14.99, even in quantity, it's actually cost-effective to use one of your $10 Smart Security licenses instead.
Doesn't Add Enough Value
ESET Smart Security Premium brings all the features you expect in a suite, but then, so does ESET Internet Security. The top-tier suite just adds password management and encryption, and both come up short. The password manager lacks advanced features such as secure password sharing and password inheritance, and its rating of password strength is way too lax. And there's no secure deletion utility to ensure that unencrypted originals of your sensitive files can't be recovered.
In the security mega-suite realm, Bitdefender Total Security is our Editors' Choice. It earns great scores from the independent antivirus labs, and its massive feature set includes password management, webcam protection, file encryption, anti-theft, and more, much more. If you're looking for a security suite with all the trimmings, Bitdefender is a great choice.
Given that ESET offers protection for macOS and Android devices, it also qualifies as a cross-platform suite. In that arena, our Editors' Choice products are Symantec Norton Security Premium and Kaspersky Security Cloud. Norton protects 10 devices for just a bit more than ESET's five-device price, and it comes with 25GB of hosted storage for online backups. If you use all 20 licenses, Kaspersky has one of the lowest per-device costs, and it works well across platforms.
Sub-Ratings:
Note: These sub-ratings contribute to a product's overall star rating, as do other factors, including ease of use in real-world testing, bonus features, and overall integration of features.
Firewall:
Antivirus:
Performance:
Privacy:
Parental Control:
ESET Smart Security Premium
Ratings For Eset Antivirus Software Review
Bottom Line: ESET Smart Security Premium piles encryption and a basic password manager onto the features in ESET's entry-level suite, but it just doesn't add enough value for the money.