Kaspersky Antivirus Review

There have been many controversies regarding Kaspersky’s potential ties to the Russian government. Eugene Kaspersky, the company’s founder, has a background in the Soviet military and was educated at a technical college sponsored by the KGB. 

This has raised concerns about possible connections to Russian intelligence and led to the U.S. government issuing a warning against using the product. As of June 20, 2024, the United States government has banned the sale of Kaspersky to new users.

Despite Kaspersky’s denials of any misconduct, the company’s Russian origins and alleged government connections due to Eugene Kaspersky’s college sponsorship continue to fuel worries about potential backdoors or other malicious activity in its software. The controversy has also led to Kaspersky issuing a lawsuit against the U.S. government. 

In 2019, journalist Ronald Eikenberg wrote an article for German magazine “c’t” exposing a bug in Kaspersky’s code. At the time, Kaspersky used unique identifiers in its scripts that could be used to track users across every site they visited, but all the sites that a user visited would have had to cooperate in order for the user to be tracked.

Kaspersky promptly fixed the problem with a patch that made the identifiers uniform for all users, preventing individual tracking. The fix was automatically applied through product updates. 

We can’t recommend Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN due to the company’s privacy concerns. Its VPN is provided in partnership with Pango, a trusted VPN infrastructure provider that has been independently audited. Pango is the same company that powers Bitdefender’s VPN, but Kaspersky’s privacy policy is what dictates how your data is used. 

The VPN is fast and user-friendly, and it unblocked U.S. Netflix in our testing (but not U.K. or European Netflix libraries). However, it has not been independently audited or verified as a no-logs VPN. Try one of the best VPNs for Netflix instead.

Kaspersky’s browser protection feature requires installing and enabling the Kaspersky Protection extension. The extension injects a script into web pages and traffic to interact securely with online banking sites protected by Kaspersky’s encrypted Safe Money network. 

The extension secures data using digital signatures from antivirus databases and Kaspersky Security Network. It does this through a method similar to what HTTPS websites use, employing a secure handshake to ensure any banking website you visit is authentic.

Kaspersky’s identity protection wallet is a secure digital vault that stores and manages sensitive personal information such as passwords, credit card details, personal identification and secure notes. We like some of its features, but it didn’t make our best identity theft protection ranking.

It uses strong encryption and a master password to secure your information so that even if someone gains access to the file, they cannot read or use its contents. You set a master password to lock and unlock the wallet. Besides storing documents, the wallet can generate secure passwords for your online accounts and store them for easy access.

Kaspersky’s parental control helps parents monitor and limit their children’s online activity. It includes web filtering to block inappropriate websites, time limits to prevent excessive screen time, social media monitoring that keeps parents informed about their children’s online interactions and app filtering to restrict access to specific apps the parents choose.

If you’re interested in managing your child’s time on the internet, check out our guide to the best parental control apps.

Kaspersky’s password manager safeguards private information like passwords, bank details and notes by securely storing data protected with a master password. It automatically syncs data across devices and lets you access it anywhere via “my Kaspersky,” an online portal that allows users to manage their Kaspersky products and services from a centralized location. 

The password manager also has an autofill feature that fills out online forms for you, plus a single sign-on feature that allows you to sign in to multiple accounts through one set of credentials. It’s not one of our favorites, though — see our best password manager article to learn what we’d recommend instead.

Kaspersky’s antivirus software for macOS and Windows have both demonstrated excellent malware detection capabilities, scoring highly on independent tests. Kaspersky for Windows and macOS supports an on-premises administration server and console that ensures secure and efficient data exchange between the user’s device and the Kaspersky security center.

The macOS version offers a web-based administration console for business users. Kaspersky is more optimized for Windows than for macOS, so scanning speeds may be slower on Apple devices.

The Android version of Kaspersky Internet Security includes features like SMS scanning for phishing, incoming call identification to identify and block spam calls, and allowing calls only from contacts. Kaspersky Safe Kids on iOS lacks the browser blocking features that are available in the Android version.

Android allows for deeper system integration and more comprehensive permissions, which means that antiviruses on Android will be able to run more advanced malware protection than on iOS.

Apple’s strict control over iOS limits the capabilities of security apps to access the device’s root coding and make system-level changes. Kaspersky’s Android app supports a wide range of devices and versions, while the iOS app is limited to Apple devices running iOS 14.0 or later.

Kaspersky’s longer subscription terms don’t offer significant savings over the one-year plans. You will only save a few dollars by committing to a two-year or three-year plan (and the three-year plan is only available with Premium). The real value here is in locking in the lower pricing for a longer period, as all plans renew at nearly double the initial sign-up price.

Kaspersky offers a bare-bones free version of its antivirus software that scans for malware and viruses and protects devices. The free version impacts system resources less than other free software, like Microsoft Defender.

A 30-day money-back guarantee covers all plans. To claim your money back under the guarantee, just contact customer support and ask for a refund. The vast majority of people who commented online about refund requests reported that they were able to claim their refund, with a minority reporting that they were not successful. 

Kaspersky’s strength is its independent lab tests, like AV-TEST and AV Comparatives, where it consistently ranks among the top antivirus products. In fact, Kaspersky and Bitdefender are often tied for the highest scores in malware detection, and it regularly outpaces McAfee and F-Secure. For more, read our full article on Bitdefender vs Kaspersky.

Kaspersky’s biggest weakness is the controversy surrounding its alleged ties to the Russian government. There are concerns that it could be compelled to provide user data or introduce backdoors for surveillance purposes. It is also slower than some competitors, like Webroot. Check out our Webroot vs Kaspersky review for more.

Kaspersky’s security features include web threat protection, which: 

• Blocks malicious websites and phishing pages
• Adds anti-phishing protection to prevent credential theft by blocking access to known phishing sites
• Includes analysis of URLs and web content for suspicious patterns
• Filters phishing emails
• Provides real-time alerts

Kaspersky’s safe browsing makes surfing the internet less risky by scanning websites and downloads for threats. Kaspersky detected every piece of malware in many recent tests, so we’re prepared to say its real-time protection is enough to keep you safe from external assault.

Kaspersky got a perfect 100% protection score in SE Labs security testing, as well as a 6/6 in AV-TEST security testing. Its software passed several SOC 2 audits conducted by an independent accounting firm, most recently in May 2023. A SOC 2 audit is an assessment of a service provider’s system privacy and security. 

Kaspersky’s privacy policy raises some red flags in its language and data collection practices. The policy’s broad statements about its data collection scope and vague notification methods for policy updates are points of concern. 

Data collection from the website includes:

• Browser fingerprinting
• Cookies
• Tracking technologies

The mobile apps gather:

• Personal information
• Technical details
• Behavioral data

This is all standard for most antivirus privacy policies, but the lack of specificity and potential privacy implications mean that users should read the full policy to decide whether the risk is acceptable. As we noted in the features section, it’s worth being especially cautious of Kaspersky’s VPN.

Kaspersky’s live chat is better than most, with a live support agent available almost immediately. The agent was able to answer all our questions within seconds and emailed us all the relevant information and guides for our test questions. They knew the product well, which is not our experience with all antivirus products.