Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus – Review

Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus is a very light, fast, and feature-rich security suite, but is that enough to make the company's own antivirus worth considering?

Available for Windows and Mac , Webroot takes an unconventional approach to malware hunting . In fact, the software is very focused on intelligently monitoring the “behavior” of apps and processes, in order to spot even the most recent threats. This is probably the reason why Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus is very light on the system, occupying only 15 MB on the disk (unlike other suites that even require 1 GB of free space). And scans are blazing fast too, as the software only scans a selection of file types. The company claims on their site that their suite is up to 60x faster than the competition, and in fact we've seen scans that last only seconds.

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Plans and prices

Despite its space-saving format, SecureAnywhere AntiVirus includes, in addition to antivirus, also a firewall , a real-time anti-phishing system, network monitoring and an additional layer of protection against ransomware .

In addition, the package includes Identity Shield, an identity protection feature, with tools designed to prevent access to your data by websites and malware. The tool promises to keep users safe from keyloggers, suspicious browser add-ons, cookies and website data theft, screenshot capture schemes, and so on.

Upgrading to Internet Security Plus with AntiVirus, the company also offers support for Android and iOS, along with a simple password manager .

Finally, Internet Security Complete adds web activity deletion and 25 GB of protected online backup space .





SecureAnywhere AntiVirus (PC/Mac) | €34.99 per year for 1 SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus device (PC, Mac, iOS, Android) | €54.99 per year for 3 devices SecureAnywhere Internet Security Complete (PC, Mac, iOS, Android) | €74.99 per year for 5 devices + 25GB of online backup Click here to subscribe to a Webroot Secure Anywhere plan starting at €34.99 per year

Antivirus

Al At the end of the simple installation process, Webroot starts the first system scan. In our case, it took less than a minute. Then, you will find yourself in front of the suite interface.

The first thing you will notice is the amount of elements inside it, including icons and panels available. Of course, you could ignore everything and let the software handle the protection automatically, but the scan button is big and well visible .

In any case, you will have various types of scans at your disposal, such as the quick scan that scans RAM only, the full scan that covers all local storage drives, a deep scan that looks for possible rookits, trojans and other malware, as well as the custom scan which allows you to select specific files and/or folders. However, getting to these options can be less straightforward than expected, as you'll have to access the security settings and navigate between different panels.





All scan options, however, they guarantee an extremely fast process. The detection rates also proved satisfactory: for the first time, our test tools were detected even before they were started.

However, we also encountered a number of false positives. As an example, we use PCMark Professional to measure the impact of security suites on the system, well Webroot has recognized this as a potential threat. This is also a first.

Features

URL filtering combines Webroot's extensive database of malicious sites with real-time anti-phishing monitoring to protect users from harm . In our tests, the system performed well, routinely blocking malicious sites that Chrome and Windows didn't recognize. Unfortunately, however, you need to use an extension compatible with Edge, Chrome and Firefox. Other apps will not be protected.

The firewall offered by Webroot is not comparable, in terms of configurability, to that of Norton , Bitdefender or other similar products. In fact, SecureAnywhere AntiVirus automatically manages most of the functions, looking for new and untrusted processes that try to connect to the Internet, warning the user about new connections made by unverified apps, asking for approval or blocking.

This lack of control will undoubtedly alienate many more experienced users, however, it may be appreciated by basic users or those who don't want to invest too much time in more detailed configurations.





Identity protection works in the background, "locking down" browser sessions to counter possible keyloggers, screen grabbers, clipboard snooping attempts and other attacks aimed at stealing user data. We tested the system with a freeware keylogger while browsing with Chrome. By disabling Identity Shield, the keylogger recorded URLs, usernames, passwords, and anything else typed from the keyboard. However, by activating the service, the blocking was effective and the logs no longer contained any usable data.

There are other extra tools that Webroot hardly mentions, but which turn out to be quite useful. An example is SafeStart Sandbox, which allows suspicious programs to run in isolated environments, so they cannot make changes to the system.

The Antimalware Tools dialog offers a utility to manually remove potentially harmful software, entries of the Registry included. While this is not a full-featured uninstaller, it is useful and quite unusual to see one in a security suite.

There are also some handy system “repair” features, including an option to set default policies immediately. If malware manages to disable Task Manager , Registry or impose other restrictions , Webroot will fix the problem with a single click.

Protection

Although SecureAnywhere AntiVirus performed well in our internal tests, you should always evaluate the results obtained at independent laboratories.

Unfortunately, Webroot has not been analyzed by either AV-Comapratives or AV-Test in recent years. SE-Labs , on the other hand, included the brand in its Home Anti-Malware tests , although the results are not entirely encouraging .

The best result achieved by Webroot is a fifth position out of nine , with a score of 97% overall accuracy. In itself it is not disastrous, but it must be considered that the suite has been surpassed by three free antiviruses, namely Avira Free Security , Avast Free and even Microsoft Defender .

Analyzing instead the worst result, in the SE-Labs test of the second quarter 2021 , the company achieved the last place with an overall accuracy score of 94% , while all other competitors achieved 100% .

Speaking of ransomware protection , we tried a simulator personalized which, as such, does not appear in the databases and does not have a recognizable signature or behavior pattern. Unfortunately, the result was unsatisfactory : SecureAnywhere completely ignored our ransomware simulator , as a result we saw thousands of files and gigabytes of data encrypted .

Admittedly, our test did not involve using of actual malware, however given the poor score we got with SE-Labs, we find it difficult to recommend this product to anyone with serious ransomware concerns.

Conclusion

Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus it's a really lightweight product, with precise URL blocking and great extra features. However, the test results show a certain lack of precision, especially compared to the competition.

Of course, Webroot works without problems in parallel with other antiviruses, and maybe a combo with Microsoft Defender could allow you to stay safe enough , but we can't fail to point out that there are much better antiviruses on the market.

Click here to subscribe to a Webroot Secure Anywhere plan starting from €34.99 a year