The previous millennium had barely closed when BullGuard entered onto the security scene in 2002. Today, 8 years later, their desktop security suite has reached version 9.0 and is the focus of this latest edition of the Security for Everyone series. BullGuard was first reviewed here at version 8.7 and enough technical and performance issues were identified to keep it from receiving the "Buy for Grandma!" rating. Let's see if the previous concerns have been corrected in version 9.0.

First Impressions

BullGuard provides a 60 day trial of Internet Security 9.0 and is easy to obtain once you supply your email address. Bullguard states they only require an email address for support purposes and thus far I have received nothing but an introductory email. The installation is very simple and doesn't provide any options for customization. A single reboot is required after which an initial update is performed. The install is clean and doesn't add any third party software.

When accessing the main interface you will find that BullGuard has embraced more of a dashboard navigation system rather than one focused on tabs. This provides ample room for descriptive icons and short status messages, such as the message pictured below indicating a recent scan has not been done.

The remainder of the icons are just as descriptive as the one shown above and provide access to the most frequented parts of any security suite, namely the ability to start a scan, edit application access, view update status and contact support. You can also access the BullGuard online drive, of which you have 100 MB by default, and choose the option to backup your data to several destinations.

While reviewing the Windows 7 security settings I discovered that BullGuard does not end the Windows Firewall or Windows Defender applications. Also, it doesn't detect any other security installed solutions (e.g. Microsoft Security Essentials) to warn you to uninstall them before installing BullGuard Internet Security 9. This is unfortunate for two reasons. The first is that running multiple firewall or antispyware applications can introduce problems. The second is that this same problem was identified in the BullGuard Internet Security 8.7 review and still has not been corrected.

From the security settings I moved to the system services where I found it too easy to stop the BullGuard scanning service as well as the update service. Upon restarting the scanning service the system hung to the point of unresponsiveness and a forced shut down was required to get the system back online. I ran through this exercise several times with the same poor results.

Thankfully I did not encounter any performance issues while running a system scan on my 32-bit test system. Also, the problems with the 64-bit version that we identified during the review of BullGuard Internet Security 8.7 are now gone. A member of our team has made some quick tests on a 64-bit system and everything ran smoothly and fluently. There was no performance impact with version 9.

Ease of Use and Configuration

The dashboard design of the main BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 interface makes choosing where you want to go an easy task. Each main security, backup and support function is easily accessible from the large icons. The footer section of the interface provides additional top-level access to areas like Antivirus and the Firewall, as well as a link back to the main interface. These footer links persist throughout the application, lending credence to the notion impression the BullGuard team has designed an application with the consumer in mind.

As you move through the application, you continue to find a well thought out system. When choosing the Antivirus and Firewall sections you are greeted with some friendly statistics and icons inviting you to move into associated areas. Wizards are present where needed, such as when configuring a scheduled scan or backup. You'll also find plenty of logs and statistics at your disposal for viewing real-time or historical data. Automatic updates are configured by default yet a scheduled scan is not. This is remedied easily enough by editing any of the pre-configured antivirus profiles.

The default protection appears adequate. Each application that accesses the internet will force a prompt which you can respond to by allowing or denying access. If you are not at your computer when the prompt is displayed, access is denied by default but BullGuard will prompt again the next time the application attempts access.

Firewall

BullGuard provides a nice interface for managing the firewall. Here you'll find application settings and other rules that allow you to fine tune your network activity.

With Application rules you can set which applications should be allowed or denied internet access, which protocol they can traverse and which ports they can traverse them on. If allow or deny is too black and white, you can choose 'Ask me' which will force a prompt each time the application accesses the internet.

Beyond application settings, you can set Advanced rules that really define how the firewall manages your network traffic. Each advanced rule found here is one that has been predefined by BullGuard based on the type of network you're accessing. You do have the option to create an advanced rule. For example, with this interface you could choose to open a port and forward data from it to a specific port on a remote device.

To determine how well the BullGuard firewall default settings protect your system, an intrusive scan was performed against the test system. The scan performed was one that does not rely upon an ICMP (ping) response. This was required because BullGuard blocks ping requests by default. The firewall proved very effective.

There were no open ports found and no critical or harmful information extracted from the scan. A single notification was displayed indicating an attack had been identified and the offending machine blocked. Very impressive.

Antivirus and Antispyware Features

The team at Virus Bulletin, an independent antivirus testing team, has given BullGuard a status of PASS for each of their previous three tests conducted since April 2009. These tests measure how well BullGuard protect against known threats and how well it could identify files that exhibited threat-like behavior. The latter is a test of the heuristic capabilities of the scanner.

BullGuard does not disappoint when it comes to its antivirus module. From the main interface you can start a scan, access the quarantine, view logs, create or edit antivirus profiles and adjust settings.

Antivirus profiles are where you can define different areas and objects to scan. This is where you would also schedule a profile to scan. There are four default profiles for scanning: a Computer scan, My Documents scan, Email scan and a Quick Scan. You cannot edit these default profiles but you can schedule them to occur if you find they meeting your needs. If they do not meet your needs you have the option of creating your own profile.

The antivirus settings include the standard options such as enabling heuristic scanning, setting the default action if a threat is found, excluding files and more. Quite honestly, there aren't any specific features that set the BullGuard Antivirus and Antispywaremodules apart from anyone else. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The focus should be on security and BullGuard does this well.

While testing the antivirus scanning engine, I copied a compressed infected file from a USB drive. This was intercepted without issue and later easily recovered from the quarantine. I also moved in and out of several known malicious sites and BullGuard thwarted those connection attempts handily.

BullGuard has done well by implementing a default scanning configuration that does a good job of protecting your system. The options available are plenty yet the chance is good you will not have to wade deeply into them. BullGuard also integrates well with the Windows shell via the right click context menu giving you the opportunity to start a scan of any directory or file directly from the explorer interface. Most importantly, from a usability perspective, the end-user will not feel overwhelmed with this interface and that is something to be proud of.

Unfortunately we identified a strange problem when testing the 64-bit version of BullGuard Internet Security 9.0. Each time we tried to run a quick antivirus scan, we received an UAC prompt before being able to run it. This is very unfortunate as users without administrator permissions will never be able to run a scan. Also, this leads us to believe that certain processes used by BullGuard don't run with system or administrator permissions. This means any good virus can compromise your security by easily killing Bullguard's scan processes. The is very worrying as it definitely compromises the security of your system.

Fortunately the problem did not replicate on 32-bit systems. The 32-bit version did not raise any UAC prompts in order to make a simple quick scan. We are not sure how this has slipped BullGuard's quality assurance team but they should really look into it and improve their 64-bit version in future updates.

Verdict

I would really like to say BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 is an application built for Grandma. The fact that I was able to disable key services with little effort (not to mention the resulting crashes), coupled with the problems with the 64-bit version and the fact that it required me to end the Windows Firewall and Windows Defender applications myself, leaves little room for indecision. The verdict will have to be "BUY for Geeks!".

However, BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 is one of the best designed security suites I have seen thus far, from an interface and ease of use perspective. I sincerely hope someone at BullGuard reads this review and the previous one and can work toward correcting these seemingly minor yet vulnerability-inducing application inefficiencies. If they fix them, they will truly have a great application, designed with the end-user in mind.

Purchasing Options

The product can be purchased from Amazon UK (for European readers) or directly from BullGuard's WebShop. Thanks a lot to those who purchase the product from Amazon. This will help us receive a small commission from your purchase.

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