You may think you can’t afford to install antivirus protection, but the truth is, you can’t afford not to. Fortunately, cashflow doesn’t have to hold you back. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free offers Kaspersky’s core malware-fighting technology, without some frills and bonus features. It costs nothing, and independent testing labs give its protection top scores. It’s an Editors’ Choice for free antivirus protection. Like most free antivirus software, Kaspersky is only free for personal, noncommercial use.
This product isn’t modeled on the commercial Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Rather, it’s a stripped-down version of the high-end Kaspersky Security Cloud suite. Its main window boasts eight button-panels titled Scan, Database Update, PC Cleaner, Password Manager, Privacy Protection, Safe Money, My Kaspersky, and Secure Connection. PC Cleaner and Safe Money carry shield-shaped overlay icons that mean they’re not available in the free edition. There’s no shield on Password Manager, but what you get is the free, limited edition.
This free version comes with the same feature-limited Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN that Kaspersky distributes with the paid suite and antivirus products. Clicking the More Tools button brings up a collection of five more tool categories. Some or all tools in most of those categories are locked away, only available if you upgrade to the commercial edition. I’ll cover those tools later in this review.
Kaspersky Free automatically updates its antivirus database signatures in the background, but it couldn’t hurt to manually call for an update right after installation.
If you need help using this free product, you’re on your own. The support page offers links to the FAQs and online documentation, and to discussion forums, but but that’s about it. Those using the paid edition can get support via phone or online live chat.
Settings and Scans
Some security products (I’m looking at you Norton AntiVirus Plus) come with pages and pages of settings. Kaspersky’s settings are simpler than many.
The Protection tab lists seven types of protection, including scanning for malware in files, on the web, and in mail and instant messages. There’s also the System Watcher component, a behavior-based system that can detect even zero-day malware. And the Network Attack Blocker aims to prevent dangerous network activity. New to the list is AMSI protection, which lets third-party applications send scripts and files to Kaspersky for evaluation.
All these protections are enabled by default, and you should leave them turned on. Earlier versions of this product didn’t even permit toggling them to the off position. Scrolling down reveals nine more toggles. However, these all relate to components that aren’t available in the free edition.
Other main settings areas include Performance, Scan, General, and Additional. Most of the settings on these pages are self-explanatory, and users shouldn’t need to change any of them.
A full scan with Kaspersky Free ran in 90 minutes, which is not bad given, the current average of 79 minutes. Like many antivirus products, Kaspersky can perform optimization during the initial scan to speed subsequent scans. With Scan Only New and Changed Files enabled, as it is by default, a second scan finished in just over eight minutes.
Once you perform that initial full scan, the real-time protection and System Watch components should take care of any new malware attacks on your computer. If you wish, you can set a schedule to run a full scan, a quick scan, or a vulnerability scan daily, weekly, or monthly.
That vulnerability scan is a bit different from its equivalent in many competing products. In testing, it took over a half-hour to find a vulnerability in Firefox, where Avira’s Software Updater took just a few minutes to find several programs needing security patches. When I clicked for details about what Kaspersky found, I just got a placeholder page saying no details are available.
The Idle Scan and Rootkit Scan components require no intervention on your part, as they operate in the background. Idle Scan makes use of your PC’s idle time to keep an eye on sensitive areas such as system memory. Rootkit scan seeks out processes that attempt to hide their presence from Windows and from antivirus tools.
Browser Protection
The installer for this product also installs the Kaspersky Protection extension for Chrome and Firefox. It used to support Internet Explorer, and some of the documentation still mentions IE, but the online help for installing the extension no longer mentions IE.
If you’ve kept up to date with the new Chromium-based Edge browser, you can install Kaspersky Protection there too, one you enable use of the Chrome Store in Edge. I couldn’t find the extension by searching, but Kaspersky’s online help provided a link.
With the extension installed, you’ll find that Kaspersky marks up dangerous links in search results. You can also click its toolbar button to access the keylogger-foiling on-screen keyboard. However, the Private Browsing and Anti-Banner features are marked with a shield, meaning they require an upgrade.
Near-Perfect Lab Scores
Around the world, independent antivirus testing labs devote tremendous resources to evaluating antivirus products. I follow four labs that release periodic reports on their findings, and Kaspersky has always taken perfect or near-perfect scores from all four. It’s true that the labs didn’t specifically test the free edition, but given that free users now get all antivirus features, including the behavior-based System Watch, the results should be the same.
The experts at AV-Test Institute rate antivirus products on three criteria, powerful malware protection, low performance impact, and small number of false positives (valid files or URLs identified as dangerous). A product can earn six points in each category, for a maximum score of 18, and Kaspersky took that prize. So did seven others, among them McAfee, Norton, and Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center.
Testing experts at SE Labs have devised a system to simulate the actual user experience as closely as possible. They comb the web to capture real-world attacks and use a replay system to hit every product the same way. This lab offers certification at five levels: AAA, AA, A, B, and C. More than 60 percent of products tested took AAA certification, Kaspersky among them. None scored lower than A.
Of the many tests regularly reported by AV-Comparatives, I follow four. Any product that passes a test by this lab gets Standard certification. Those that go beyond the minimum definition of success can earn Advanced or Advanced+ certification. Kaspersky took Advanced+ in two tests but only reached Advanced in the other two. Bitdefender is the only product with an Advanced+ rating in the latest iteration of all four tests.
Where most of the labs offer a range of scores, tests by MRG-Effitas use a pass/fail model. Just half the tested products passed this lab’s banking Trojans test, Kaspersky among them. Another test aims to measure protection against all kinds of malware. Level 1 certification means the product directly prevented all malware infestations, while Level 2 goes to antivirus utilities that remediate all attacks within a day. A quarter of tested products failed this test. The rest, including Kaspersky, achieved Level 1 certification.
I’ve cobbled up a formula to derive an aggregate lab score, up to a maximum of 10 points. With mostly perfect scores and a few near-perfect, Kaspersky’s aggregate score is an impressive 9.7 points. Bitdefender did even better, with 9.9 points, though it only appeared in results from three of the four labs.
The free antivirus tools from Avast and Avira are among the few other free products tested by all four labs. My aggregate algorithm yields 9.0 for Avast and an impressive 9.8 for Avira Free Security. The free antivirus from Sophos scored a perfect 10, but that score is based on just two tests.
Hands-On Malware Protection Testing
When all the labs heap praise on a company’s antivirus technology, there’s no question that it’s excellent. Even with such guarantees from the labs, I still run my own hands-on malware protection tests, to see the program in action and get a feel for its style. The test starts when I open a folder containing my current collection of malware samples.
Kaspersky slowly ground through its analysis of the samples, popping up a notification for each. When that process finished, Kaspersky had wiped out 85 percent of the samples. I also counted as successful a couple of cases where it disinfected a virus, leaving a clean file. Not surprisingly, running this same test on Kaspersky Anti-Virus yielded identical results.
Next, I launched the surviving samples, to give behavior-based detection and other components a chance. Kaspersky caught most of these. In a couple cases it asked for a special scan to disinfect and restart the system. One way or another, it detected 93 percent of the samples and scored 9.3 of 10 possible points. That’s a decent score, but five products tested with this same malware collection have done better. Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus managed a perfect 10 points.
It takes a substantial investment of time and effort to prepare a set of malware samples for my detailed analysis, so I don’t change that collection often. My malicious URL blocking test, on the other hand, uses the latest URLs discovered by MRG-Effitas, typically just a few days old.
For this test, I launch each URL in a browser protected by the antivirus under test, discarding any that are already defunct, or that don’t truly point to malware. I note whether the antivirus blocks all access to the URL, eliminates the downloaded malware, or fails utterly. When I have around 100 data points, I check the stats.
Kaspersky blocked all access to 58 percent of the URLs, quite a bit lower than the 84 percent in its last test. In some cases, it displayed a warning message in the browser, while in others, a notification pop-up announced that it blocked the URL while the browser indicated a server error with the download. For another 23 percent, Kaspersky blocked the browser from downloading the file.
Kaspersky’s 81 percent score in this test is down from 89 percent when last tested. That score is in the lower half of recent products. McAfee, Sophos Home Free, and Vipre all earned 100 percent in their latest tests. As always, a low score in this test counts for less when the labs extol the virtues of the product.
Looking at other free products, Avast scored 90 percent and AVG 91 percent. The real standout (after Sophos) is Windows Defender, with 97 percent protection.
Very Good Phishing Protection
Where malware aims to evade your computer’s security, phishing attacks seek to sneak past your own common sense. The fraudsters prepare websites that masquerade as PayPal, or eBay, or your bank. Sometimes the URLs are close, like pyapal.com or bankofamorica.com. Sometimes the fraudsters don’t even try—I’ve seen the URL in.fect.me used. If you miss the warning signs and log in with your username and password, the fraudsters now own your account.
Modern browsers have phishing detection built in, but the best security products outperform the browsers in my antiphishing test. To prepare for this test, I scour the web for the newest reported phishing URLs, including some that have been tagged as fraudulent and some that are too new for the blacklists. I launch each URL simultaneously in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, and in a browser protected by the product under test. If an URL doesn’t load successfully in all four browsers, I toss it. Likewise, if it isn’t a clear attempt to steal credentials for a sensitive site, I toss it.
For years, Kaspersky’s scores in this test have been at or near the top. In the last two years, it aced the test, with 100 percent detection. Tested at the same time, Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac also scored 100 percent. This time around, the results were initially quite different. On Windows, Kaspersky scored just 89 percent, and the macOS edition scored 84 percent. The Windows and macOS editions didn’t track closely; each caught some frauds that the other missed.
Checking with my Kaspersky contacts, I found that I had hobbled this feature in Windows by disabling the Kaspersky Security Network. I routinely disable features that send malware samples back to the antivirus companies, as KSN does. I didn’t realize that component also contributed to phishing protection. Indeed, in a second round of testing, Kaspersky scored an impressive 96 percent.
At the top in this test we have Trend Micro, which scored a perfect 100 percent. McAfee, Bitdefender, and Norton all came close, with 99 percent. Kaspersky’s score keeps it in the winners’ circle, but not at the very top.
Impressive Ransomware Protection
Kaspersky’s System Watcher component aims to detect ransomware and other malicious software based on behavior, not on recognizing known files, so it should have no trouble handling even the newest attacks. I test such ransomware protection components by turning off the main file antivirus, simulating a situation where that component misses the attack.
With my virtual machine testbed isolated from the internet, I launched a dozen real-world ransomware samples. In most cases, System Watcher detected suspicious activity, terminated the attacker, and offered to disinfect the system and reboot. For a couple of them, it simply deleted the suspicious program and rolled back its activity. Another couple of samples apparently refrained from any malicious activity, perhaps because they detected Kaspersky’s presence. This is common, but I was interested to see that the samples playing coy with Kaspersky weren’t the ones I had seen in that role in other recent tests.
Most of my samples are file-encrypting ransomware, the most common type. Kaspersky had no trouble dealing with my one whole-disk-encrypting sample. That’s impressive. This particular sample got past Bitdefender, Avira, G Data Antivirus, and others—but only with all protective components other than ransomware protection disabled.
I have one sample that’s a screen locker, the kind that takes over your desktop and won’t let you do anything until you pay. System Watcher didn’t stop this one, but Kaspersky has another trick, a built-in system for foiling this kind of lock. Pressing the special key combination broke through the screen lock and allowed Kaspersky to finish its cleanup.
I also ran the RanSim ransomware simulator from KnowBe4. This tool simulates 10 techniques used by ransomware, along with a couple of legitimate activities involving encryption. Kaspersky correctly left the legitimate scenarios alone and blocked all but one of the ransomware scenarios. I did observe that Kaspersky’s notifications about rolling back ransomware behavior continued for quite some time after RanSim finished. It’s possible that even the one scenario it reportedly missed might have been remedied by the rollback system.
Kaspersky did fail one test, but I can’t blame it. I have a small program that simulates encrypting ransomware in an extremely simple-minded way. It finds all text files in the Documents folder and uses XOR encryption on them. XOR encryption simply flips all the bits, ones to zeroes, zeroes to ones. Applying it a second time decrypts the data.
Protection systems that rely on blocking all unauthorized access to the contents of protected folders typically fend off this test. However, its utter lack of sophistication let it fly beneath the radar of System Watcher.
See How We Test Security Software
Kaspersky Secure Connection
All programs in the current Kaspersky product line come with a bandwidth-capped copy of Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN. You can use 200MB of secured connectivity per day on each device, and the VPN chooses the server you’ll use. For $4.99 per month, you can upgrade to the premium edition, which removes the bandwidth cap, lets you choose the country you want to use for your connection, and adds Kill Switch functionality. That last bit means that it can automatically disconnect internet-aware apps if the VPN connection fails. Please read our review of the VPN for full details.
Bitdefender’s product line offers a similar VPN arrangement, with 200MB and no server choice for free, or unlimited bandwidth and choice of servers for a premium. It’s no surprise that the two are similar, since both are backed by the server network of Hotspot Shield. However, with Bitdefender you pay $6.99 per month to remove limits, or $39.99 per year. Unlike Kaspersky, Bitdefender doesn’t make the VPN available as a separate product.
Limited Password Manager
Kaspersky Password Manager costs $14.99 per year as a standalone product, so wouldn’t expect to get it as part of a free suite. And you don’t—the version you get with Kaspersky Security Cloud Free is limited in scope, after an initial free trial.
Briefly, the password manager supports Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and offers a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. It saves website passwords, personal data, application passwords, and secure notes, and it offers secure online storage for documents. But it doesn’t include advanced features like secure sharing, and the free version stores a total of 15 entries of all kinds; passwords, notes, personal data, and so on all count against that total. For more information, please read our review of the standalone product.
As noted, this product is a free version of Kaspersky Security Cloud, not Kaspersky Anti-Virus. When you click More Tools, you see an impressive multi-page collection of additional tools. However, since this is the free edition, many of them are locked away.
The main Security page gives you a view of quarantined files, a system to create a bootable rescue disk, and a report of stats from the Kaspersky Security Network. In addition, the Weak Settings Control scan checks for Windows settings that make your PC vulnerable to attack. These are all available in the free edition.
By contrast, all the tools on the My Network and Manage Applications pages are premium-only. These include a network activity monitor, a software update scanner, and a scan for system vulnerabilities.
On the Data Protection page, backup, encryption, and a hard drive health tool are locked. But even free users get a file shredder, designed to securely delete sensitive data so nobody can recover it. The on-screen keyboard, which helps foil keyloggers that try to steal your passwords, is also free.
Clean and Optimize
The PC tune-up tools on the page titled Clean and optimize aren’t directly related to security, and they have certain limitations. These scans can be helpful, but they feel dated, and they overlap in places. I’ve been saying for years that I’d like to see a remodel in this area, perhaps rolling all four scans into one.
The Unused Data Cleaner aims to help you stop wasting disk space on useless files. After a speedy scan, it displays strongly recommended actions, recommended actions, and additional actions. Clearing temp files and browser caches are strongly recommended, and emptying the Recycle Bin is recommended. Among additional actions I found clearing the Recent Documents list and emptying the thumbnail cache in Windows Explorer. By default, all actions are checked for action except the additional ones.
In a similar fashion, the Privacy Cleaner looks for and removes traces of your computer and browsing activity, organizing its findings into the same three buckets. There’s some overlap with the Unused Data Cleaner. If the Privacy Cleaner causes problems, you can run it again to roll back its changes.
The Browser Configuration check sounds wide-ranging, but in truth it strictly performs diagnostics on the moribund Internet Explorer. I did mention that these tools seem dated. On my test system, it found a handful of problems to fix, but didn’t checkmark any of them for repair by default.
Finally, there’s Microsoft Windows Troubleshooting. This scan looks for damaged and non-standard system settings, whether caused by malware, a system crash, or some other reason. The disinfect and reboot routine that Kaspersky requested for some malware samples automatically triggered this scan on restart. On my test system, all the items it reported involved Autorun for different types of drives.
Mobile Protection
You can install Kaspersky Security Cloud Free on your mobile devices as well, though you don’t get everything that comes with the commercial Kaspersky Security Cloud. As is common, the Android app offers full-service protection while the iOS app hardly does anything.
Clicking Mobile Security in the desktop app reveals a QR code for easy mobile installation. A notification pointed out that my package includes several apps that I could install from the main app, including the password manager and the all-important Kaspersky Internet Security for Android.
The mobile Kaspersky Internet Security app ran a quick scan immediately after installation, reporting no issues.
In addition to malware scanning, you get a full set of anti-theft features including lock and locate, data wipe, mugshot, and alarm. I enabled SIM Watch, which locks the phone if a thief swaps out the SIM, and uninstallation protection, both off by default.
Kaspersky offers to block calls from numbers that you blacklist; I couldn’t test this feature because the Android device I use for testing isn’t provisioned for calling. The related Text Anti-Phishing feature isn’t present in the free edition.
Also absent from this free installation of Kaspersky Internet Security is real-time malware protection. Be sure to run a scan from time to time, especially after installing new apps. The App Lock and Internet Protection features also require a premium license.
Back in the main Security Cloud app, I found it was a snap to connect through the built-in VPN app. Note that the mobile edition has the same 200MB per day bandwidth cap as on the desktop.
I could see that the home network monitor is also a premium feature. The free app can check known breach lists for the email address associated with your My Kaspersky account; checking other accounts requires an upgrade. In testing, it found several possible breaches for me, but offered little detail and no advice on what to do, not even the full URL of the site that leaked.
The Security Live feature checks your device’s settings and offers pro tips to enhance security. Another component identifies apps you rarely use, and apps that have dangerous permissions. That’s about it. Note that the premium edition also comes with a license for the Kaspersky Safe Kids parental control system.
As for Apple mobile protection, there’s not much to see. The iOS app includes the same limited VPN technology as on other platforms and offers to install the optional password manager. Security Live checks for weak settings and displays security news from Kaspersky. The Account Check feature works just as on Android, meaning checking additional email addresses requires an upgrade to premium. And there’s a new anti-phishing feature that’s also reserved for paying customers. That’s all, folks.
Other Approaches
You might expect purveyors of free antivirus products to reserve the best features for paying customers, but some competing products also offer quite a lot at the free level. AVG comes with a secure deletion shredder and a web protection component that marks up dangerous search results and actively foils trackers.
Like Kaspersky, Avira offers a free suite rather than just free antivirus. In addition to a high-scoring antivirus component, the suite includes a free, bandwidth-limited edition of Avira’s Avira Phantom VPN, tracker blocking, a price comparison tool, file shredding, a password manager, and more.
Avast Free Antivirus really piles on the bonuses, at no charge. Its Wi-Fi Inspector checks all networks, wired or wireless, for security problems, and recommends fixes. It includes a full-featured (if basic) password manager, a vulnerability scanner, and an ad-stripping browser that switches to hardened Bank Mode for financial transactions. It marks up dangerous links in search results, watches for URL typos, and (like Avira) seeks better prices when you’re shopping online.
Excellent Free Security
If you’re a security-conscious person on a tight budget, you’ll appreciate the fact that Kaspersky Security Cloud Free gives you all the basics of antivirus protection at no charge. This is the same malware-fighting technology that gets top scores from the independent labs. It also includes a VPN and a collection of suite-level features, though many of the latter require an upgrade. It’s true that Kaspersky didn’t do quite as well in our hands-on tests, but when the labs all praise a product, we listen. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free is an Editors’ Choice for free antivirus protection.
Given that the product is completely free, you can install it and kick the tires without spending a penny. But if you do, we suggest you also check out our other top-rated free antivirus utilities. It doesn’t cost anything to try them, after all.
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free Specs
| On-Demand Malware Scan | Yes |
| On-Access Malware Scan | Yes |
| Website Rating | Yes |
| Malicious URL Blocking | Yes |
| Phishing Protection | Yes |
| Behavior-Based Detection | Yes |
| Vulnerability Scan | Yes |
| Firewall | No |
