The vast majority of those who rely on SecureIT ($1.95/month for three licenses) for antivirus protection don't necessarily know they're using it. Most of the company's installations are handled by ISP partners; less than two percent of users purchase the product directly. In addition to protection against viruses and other malware, the product offers a firewall and phishing protection. However, the only thing it does really well is keep malware from infesting a clean system.

Managed Installation
Installation is straightforward, but if it seems too difficult you can have the company's tech support experts manage the process for you. For $29.95 extra, they'll clear out any conflicting software, install the product, and run a scan for active malware. I don't know how many people would choose to pay more than a year's subscription price just to get security software installed. And if manual malware cleanup is required to get the product installed, that's a separate fee.

The product installed correctly on most of my malware-infested systems. Problems on one test system went away after I uninstalled and reinstalled the product. SecureIT would not install on a test system that can only run in Safe Mode due to malware. Many vendors offer an online scanner, a no-install cleanup tool, or a bootable cleanup disk; not SecureIT. My contact at the company confirmed that the product won't install in this situation, noting that SecureIT "is not designed to be a simple clean-up utility, but rather a long-term preventative maintenance application."

On another test system the SecureIT installation finished, but the product didn't run correctly due to a problem with some Visual Basic support files. Worse, this same problem balked the uninstall routine, so uninstalling and reinstalling wasn't an option. SecureIT simply didn't do the job on those two test systems.

Very Poor Malware Cleanup
Even when it did install and run properly, SecureIT did a poor job of cleaning up malware-infested systems. It only detected 58 percent of the threats, and its malware removal score of 3.6 of ten possible points reflects the fact that it left behind tons of malware traces for those threats it did detect. Quite a few were still running after SecureIT's alleged removal. Also, in several cases it detected and removed a malware installation file without doing anything about the active threat.

SecureIT performed especially poorly against rootkit samples. It detected 60 percent of them, but left the rootkit technology actively running for more than half of those it detected. ZoneAlarm Antivirus + Firewall 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars) detected all of these same threats and scored 8.2. When tested with my previous set of samples, Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) detected 100 percent and scored 8.9 points.

For an explanation of how I test malware removal and derive these scores, see How We Test Malware Removal.

SecureIT malware removal chart

The most surprising thing about these test results is that SecureIT uses the BitDefender engine, and Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars) was much more effective in testing. My contacts at BitDefender took a look at the product and concluded that while all the necessary components are present, the routines for disinfection just don't get called.

Vastly Better Malware Blocking
My SecureIT contacts pointed out that the program is really intended to protect a clean system, not to clean up a malware mess. That point came through clearly in my tests of malware blocking. When I tried re-downloading my current malware collection, SecureIT jumped in to block the download for almost 90 percent of those whose URLs were still valid.

Likewise, when I opened a folder containing already-downloaded copies of those same samples, SecureIT started wiping out those it recognized immediately. By the time it finished, just over 10 percent of the samples remained.

The product's handling of threats embedded in self-extracting ZIP files is a little odd. It can't remove the threat from within the archive, and it won't quarantine the entire file. Instead, it prevents all access. The file won't launch, which is good, but you can't even delete it. This behavior needs some work.

I tried to launch the samples that survived the initial massacre, but SecureIT blocked most of them from executing. It detected 97 percent of the threats and scored 9.7 points, the best score by any product tested with my current sample set. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95 direct, 4.5 stars) managed 100 percent detection and 10 of 10 points with the previous malware collection; next closest was Comodo Antivirus 2012 (free, 3 stars) with 9.1 points.

SecureIT detected all of the rootkit samples and didn't let any of them install executable files. Looking specifically at rootkits, the product scored 9.8 points. ZoneAlarm also detected 100 percent of these same samples and squeaked past SecureIT with a perfect 10 points for rootkit blocking. Tested with my previous sample collection, Webroot, Comodo, and Norton also scored a perfect 10. For details on how I perform my malware blocking tests, see How We Test Malware Blocking.

SecureIT malware blocking chart

Absent Antiphishing
SecureIT definitely includes an antiphishing component, and it was definitely turned on during my test of phishing protection. Over a period of several days I tried visiting very new suspected phishing sites in browsers protected by SecureIT, by Norton, and by Internet Explorer 8's built-in SmartScreen Filter. I kept at it until I accumulated results for 100 verifiable fraudulent sites.

SecureIT blocked exactly none of these definite phishing sites. That puts its detection rate 94 percentage points behind Norton and 45 points behind Internet Explorer alone. I really wanted to see this feature in action, so I dug into one of the online phishing-site databases for some week-old samples and tried those. Once again, SecureIT blocked none of them. The article How We Test Antiphishing explains exactly the process I go through to test phishing protection.

SecureIT antiphishing chart 

Luckily for SecureIT, phishing protection is a bonus feature, not a central antivirus component.

Some Firewall Protection
As another bonus, SecureIT offers a personal firewall. However, this component has its problems. I expect a personal firewall to prevent hack attacks by stealthing all the system's ports and to prevent abuse of the network connection by programs running on the system. SecureIT doesn't do either well.

I run a number of port scans and other Web-based tests to check a firewall's protection. Most of them ace every test, even the built-in Windows Firewall. SecureIT failed the stealth test and Trojans test from the AuditMyPC website.

As for program control, I never did manage to trigger any kind of reaction by connecting to the Internet with off-brand browsers and such. However, on one test PC it reported that it blocked the System process, and on another it blocked svchost.exe, the generic host process for Windows services. Needless to say, I chose to allow network access for those processes. Not surprisingly, SecureIT also didn't detect any of the stealthy connection techniques demonstrated by my collection of leak test utilities.

In any case, a malicious program that needed to get around SecureIT's protection could easily disable it. Its essential processes are protected, so you can't just kill them using the programmatic equivalent of Task Manager. However, I had no trouble stopping its services, which eliminated most of its protection. In fact, a malicious program could disable SecureIT by damaging its Registry settings.

The product did a much better job in my exploit protection test. I attacked the test system using 30 exploits generated by the Core Impact penetration testing tool. As far as I could see, SecureIT didn't block any at the network level, but it wiped out 60 percent of them the moment they tried dropping a file on the test system.

Protection, Not Cleanup
Don't buy SecureIT to clean up your computer after malware has gotten a foothold. It just doesn't do that job. And don't buy it based on the bonus firewall and antiphishing features, as they're just not effective. But if you have a brand-new computer or three needing antivirus protection, this product's low price makes it a good deal.

If you can afford to spend a little more, you'll be better off with one of our Editors' Choice products, Norton AntiVirus 2012 or Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus. If even a low price is too high, go with our Editors' Choice for free antivirus, AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (free, 4 stars).

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