VIPRE is designed to quickly detect and defend against even the latest threats, keeping your devices protected against even those that evade other antivirus solutions. VIPRE was built for quick response times while remaining out of your way – guaranteeing total safety and peace of mind for you and your devices.
The default home tab consists of three distinct functions–Antivirus, Updates and Manage–that highlight this product’s focus on efficiency.
If you’re frustrated with suites laden with features you rarely utilize, this reduced version could be perfect.
Malware Protection
VIPRE is known for its superior virus detection and malware prevention features, with top marks from AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test as well as from other independent testers. The software’s real-world protection test earned it top scores from both independent testers.
Cloud-based security communicates with a threat database to keep its threat listings current. This helps prevent malicious websites from inflicting PCs with malware downloads, as well as exploits designed to steal personal information or lock files until ransom payments are received.
Under our testing conditions, VIPRE successfully blocked 65% of simulated ransomware attacks we introduced it with. That is an acceptable performance although top brands such as Norton may block even more threats in this area.
VIPRE’s comprehensive firewall is a valuable addition to its arsenal of defensive tools. Working in tandem with its antivirus feature, it is easily accessible via tab on the main screen of its interface.
Advanced users will find that this product offers several tools that allow them to tailor their privacy settings. One is a local document scanner, which searches your computer for documents containing sensitive data; and two more tools allow for secure storage and management of passwords and login credentials.
All this is completed by email protection that scans for viruses and suspicious attachments in your email, web filtering to keep dangerous sites off your system, gaming mode to postpone updates and notifications so you can play uninterrupted, and for those using Outlook an antispam filter to detect and block malicious emails.
Firewall
Once you switch on the Firewall Protection toggle, a range of defensive tools becomes active which monitor and manage device, application, and network connections as they come through from the internet. Two auxiliary features remain inactive even if you activate your firewall protection: Intrusion Detection Systems and Process Detection (aka Host Intrusion Prevention System).
VIPRE’s Firewall stands apart from most competing security suites by not providing a graphical user interface to manage defenses, instead leaving users to create rules which they either allow or block for each unknown process trying to access your computer. While it offers fairly simple setup, its lack of intelligence means it could accidentally approve all requests allowing malware into your computer system.
VIPRE also includes additional security features such as ransomware protection to help prevent computer exploits that lock your files until a fee is paid, web protection that blocks malicious websites, and an email scanner which checks POP3 and SMTP ports to detect viruses and threats – my tests with VIPRE showed it could block up to 65% of ransomware attacks I initiated against it.
Privacy Shield is another notable feature, flagging documents containing sensitive data like addresses and credit card numbers before encrypting them to an unseen location on your PC. Furthermore, this program searches your registry and file system for unsecure login credentials that it then removes from your machine. Finally, Gaming Mode postpones updates, scans, and notifications so games can continue uninterruptedly.
Web Filtering
Web filtering (or internet filters) are essential protections against cyberattacks. Most cyber attacks begin as seemingly innocent links, pop-ups or banners leading to dangerous sites with malware and fraudulent surveys designed to steal personal information. Web filtering helps shield victims against these dangers while simultaneously restricting productivity-draining sites like YouTube and Amazon.
Web content filter software works by screening incoming web pages and making decisions based on policies set by admins to allow or block them based on an administrator’s policies. When configured properly, this type of filter can protect against malware, viruses and spyware while simultaneously improving employee productivity, decreasing security risks and increasing regulatory compliance.
Enterprise-grade web filtering solutions are an essential element of your cybersecurity defenses, protecting employees from visiting sites with high risks for containing threats and mitigating risks from drive-by downloads and phishing attacks.
Web filtering also blocks audio and video streaming services that consume bandwidth on company networks, enabling administrators to set limits and reserve it for mission-critical systems. This is especially useful if employees work from remote locations where bandwidth might be more limited.
Web content filtering in schools is designed to protect students from viewing any unwanted or inappropriate online material such as pornography and violence that may have a detrimental impact on their school performance. Furthermore, it limits students’ access to social media and news sites unrelated to classroom work in order to maximize learning. Teachers can even use web filtering technology themselves during class time in order to approve websites they would like their students to visit–this saves both time and energy as it prevents the need to seek out a technology administrator for approval purposes.
Email Protection
VIPRE uses advanced machine learning and one of the largest threat intelligence clouds to protect against ransomware, zero-day malware and other threats that evade traditional antivirus protection. It can detect and stop phishing attacks; provide web filtering services; Edge protection; local document scanner services that block dangerous files being downloaded onto computers or mobile devices; block ads/trackers as well as prevent tracking.
VIPRE’s Email Protection adds another layer of defense against malware: scanning inbound and outbound messages for any harmful content. In addition, VIPRE can encrypt these emails as needed – making this service especially valuable in business environments that must comply with industry security regulations such as healthcare or finance.
Users can customize email protection for each policy by specifying which devices to protect and enabling or disabling anti-phishing protection on each. They can also utilize LDAP Sync for ease of user management – changes made in LDAP are automatically updated in Email Protection! Furthermore, this program can scan encrypted messages and attachments.
VIPRE’s File Shredder is another useful feature, allowing users to securely delete files they no longer require from a computer or mobile device, and organize sensitive documents by providing users with options of whether to delete or transfer to an encrypted vault.
Overall, VIPRE’s malware protection is strong and it performs well in independent lab tests; however, to become the best PC antivirus it must improve its ransomware defenses further. It has a simple user interface but its lack of features compared to full suite solutions may put some users off; however it offers great first year discounts as well as a free trial period so you can assess if it meets your needs before making your final decision.
Privacy Controls
After reviewing security suites whose feature lists seem endless, it’s refreshing to find one that focuses on just the essentials. VIPRE Advanced Security’s firewall protects against network attacks while restricting what your various applications can do online, with plenty of expert-level settings for creating rules covering applications, services, ports and gateways – it even features “Social Watch”, which checks Facebook timeline at preset intervals (hourly, every two hours, four hours apart daily or twice a day!). Plus it comes equipped with file shredders for secure storage space as well as a DNS Protection tool which intercepts requests for hostnames to ensure they come from safe IP addresses – this suite was truly comprehensively comprehensively tested to meet industry standards!
Phishing scanners can help protect you against spam email and other forms of online nastiness that often enters your inbox, while this section also offers local document scanners that detect and delete data stored on PC files, dark web scanners that search for stolen passwords and ID information leaked or sold for sale, webcam and microphone blockers to stop unauthorized use, as well as blockers that prevent access to such devices.
Once you are finished using the program, it’s essential that you log out for security purposes. Simply locate the “Sign Out” or “Logout” option near your account name or profile picture and follow its prompts to log out. Alternatively, use VIPRE’s online interface to remotely manage settings from another device.
VIPRE is missing one security option that has become standard in the industry: an enhanced network scanner. However, according to VIPRE’s representatives, one with this functionality should become available shortly.
