Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014

Pros Very good score for malware-blocking. Accurate spam and phishing detection. Firewall Booster aids Windows Firewall. Checks social media privacy settings, links. Can block transmission of private data. Secure deletion.

Cons Hard to install on malware-infested systems. Too-rigid behavior-based detection blocked valid programs. Somewhat limited parental control. More performance impact than many. Bottom Line Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014 offers more features than many suites, but not all components are top-notch. It displayed more of an impact than many in my hands-on performance test.

By Neil J. Rubenking

There's a trend among some security vendors to enhance their entry-level antivirus product with features more commonly found in a security suite. Of course, doing so raises the bar for the company's actual security suite. Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014 ($59.95 direct; $79.95 for three licenses) definitely rises to the challenge. It takes the full range of features found in Trend Micro's standalone antivirus and adds a significant collection of additional security components.

The main window for this suite summarizes your security status with a great big icon, in most cases a green checkmark indicating full protection. If there's anything wrong with your security configuration, you just click a button to fix it. This window also summarizes recent security activity; additional tabs offer access to more security features. Three tabs labeled Privacy, Data, and Family house most of the suite-specific features.

If the product's appearance isn't to your liking, you can replace the main window's background. The product comes with eight widely varied background images, flowers, clouds, stars, and more. Or choose an image of your own to truly personalize the installation.

This suite shares the same antivirus protection found in Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2014, along with quite a few other security features. You'll definitely want to read that review for full details. I'll summarize my evaluation of the shared features here.

Better Defense than Cleanup
Getting Trend Micro installed on twelve test systems for malware removal testing took hours of back-and-forth with tech support, including quite a bit of remote control diagnosis and repair. Trend Micro earned two stars for installation experience and 5.8 points for malware removal. The best scores among products tested with my current malware collection went to Bitdefender Internet Security (2014), AVG Internet Security 2014, and Norton Internet Security (2014). For a full explanation of how I test malware removal, see How We Test Malware Removal.

Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014 malware removal chart

With 94 percent detection and 9.2 points, Trend Micro fared much better in my malware blocking test. Only AVG and Ad-Aware Pro Security 10.5 scored better against the same malware collection. Trend Micro also did a great job blocking access to malware-hosting websites. To learn just what goes into this test, please see How We Test Malware Blocking.

Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014 malware blocking chart

Like Symantec, Trend Micro downplays the value of old-fashioned static malware detection tests and praises dynamic, real-world tests. Trend Micro's technology took the highest rating in the whole-product dynamic test by AV-Comparatives, and it also did well in AV-Test's three-way certification test. To learn more about the testing labs summarized in the chart below, please read How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014 lab tests chart

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