By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
August 24, 2010

With more and more children gaining access to the wealth and variety of content over the Internet, keeping them safe from harmful Web content has become the advocacy of Kaspersky Lab, with its recent release of the 2011 version of their antivirus and Internet security software.

“When you come to think of it, children are more important than money,” remarked Jimmy Fong, channel sales director for Southeast Asia, Kaspersky Lab. “Children can now access things they shouldn’t. They are precious, so we need to protect them.”

Kaspersky Lab’s antivirus and Internet security software have had parental control options for several years now, but Fong said the new release will provide more functionality for safeguarding children.

The new controls, Fong said, will focus mainly on security issues with social media, a relatively new platform where children often meet bad influences, sometimes leading to harm and, worse, criminal acts.

“Bad guys are more intelligent [these days]. We want to protect people even if they do not recognize the threats,” Fong said.

Wong said the new parental controls are simple enough that parents wouldn’t have to spend so much time tinkering with them. One of these tools include a facility to limit the daily usage of computers by the children, as well as a filter for the types of applications they can launch. A module that will control usage of certain words in various websites—such as Facebook or Twitter—has also been made available.

“This concept is not new anymore, but the implementation has been very hard,” Wong admitted. With these tools available at their disposal, parents would have to discuss, agree, and set rules with their children in order for it to become effective, Wong added.

“They would have to spend effort and time to think about the rules and regulations they are going to set. They need to think it over. If they do not want to go over it and set some rules, nobody can do it for their children,” he related.

Among other features of the new version include System Watcher, a utility which registers all activities in the system, analyzes them, and blocks harmful malware by rolling the system back to a time before the malware attacked.

Additionally, Kaspersky fortifies its “green zone” feature introduced in the 2010 version. The feature is now called the virtual desktop, a safe utility users can use to test-run applications downloaded from the Internet without causing harm to the user’s core system.

Interestingly, some key features of the new release can now be easily and quickly accessed through a “gadget,” a small widget placed on the desktop of Windows Vista or Windows 7 users, which enables the user to check on the system’s status, or launch certain commands right from the desktop.

The Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 suite retails for P1,160 for a one-user pack, P2,640 for a three-user pack, and P4,120 for a five-user pack. The Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 package, on the other hand, sells for P960, P1,840, and P3,020 for the one-, three-, and five-user pack, respectively.

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