Kaspersky sounds like it should be some sort of computer chess program, but as anyone familiar with the anti-virus world knows, the company is a long-standing bastion of the battle against malware. The 2009 version of Internet Security provides four core forms of protection for your PC.

The primary arm is the anti-virus scanner itself. Our test hard drive contained 45GB of data and it took Kaspersky a very nippy 25 minutes to perform a full scan. We ran a comparison using BitDefender, which we've found to be quick in the past, and it took 7 minutes longer than Kaspersky.

What was equally impressive was the thoroughness of the virus scan, with Kaspersky picking up on a few vulnerabilities that had previously been missed. For example, it alerted us to the fact that our Java installation needed patching and that a word processor program contained loopholes because it hadn't been updated to the latest version.

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Kaspersky's system security section contains a firewall and a system of application filtering rules. Trusted programs are detected during the installation process and you're warned when any other applications attempt to make any incoming or outgoing connections. You can then block any unwanted activity if you wish.

Under the online security banner there are anti-dialer and anti-intrusion measures to prevent your computer from being compromised, alongside an anti-phishing module which constantly monitors your surfing to ensure any dodgy web sites are blocked.

The final arm of the suite is the content filtering system, which boasts an effective ad banner blocker, an anti-spam system (that trains itself for greater accuracy) and parental control options. All of this pretty much runs itself automatically, with the program requiring very little input from the user (though you can tweak various settings if necessary).

Many other useful functions are also provided, such as the ability to create a rescue disk to boot your system if it becomes inoperable and a privacy cleaner which cleans out your cache and cookies. New additions for the 2009 suite include a virtual keyboard that allows the user to enter online passwords with complete safety (to avoid key-loggers), and several analysis wizards.

The first of these wizards is a security analyser which scans for any vulnerabilities or potentially damaged parts of your system, and the second is a browser configuration wizard. The latter examines your browser settings and determines how secure they are, providing suggestions as to possible improvements. The wizards only discovered two points of contention on our relatively new PC, although older computers may benefit more.

Kaspersky is graced with a fast and efficient virus scanner along with a thorough range of online security options. It goes above and beyond the average remit, including the likes of security wizards that pick up on potential problems that other suites could miss.