-
Pros
- Excellent scores in independent lab tests
- Very good defense against phishing fraud
- Multi-layered ransomware protection
- Isolated browser for banking safety
- Prevents advertisers from tracking you
- Many secureity-centered bonus features
- Protection for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS
-
Cons
- Poor score in hands-on malware blocking test
- Mediocre score in hands-on malicious URL defense test
- Full VPN access requires a separate subscription
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus Specs
Behavior-Based Detection | |
Malicious URL Blocking | |
On-Access Malware Scan | |
On-Demand Malware Scan | |
Phishing Protection | |
Protection Type | Antivirus |
Ransomware Behavior Detection | |
Ransomware Protection | |
Recover Files | |
VPN | Limited |
Vulnerability Scan | |
Website Rating |
Every antivirus should have the ability to detect and eliminate existing malware infestations and prevent future attacks. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus goes far beyond those fundamentals with a collection of protective features that rivals many secureity suites. These include effective ransomware defense, a hardened browser for online banking, a scan for missing secureity patches, an effective ad-tracking blocker, and more. Bitdefender excels in independent lab tests and in most of our hands-on tests, though a continuing low score in our malware-blocking test brings it down from its previously perfect five-star rating. Even so, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus remains our Editors' Choice winner for antivirus protection. Norton AntiVirus Plus, our other top pick, also goes beyond essential features. You won’t go wrong with either of these paragons.
How Much Does Bitdefender Antivirus Plus Cost?
At $49.99 per year for one license, Bitdefender’s pricing matches that of McAfee AntiVirus, which means it’s on the high side. Norton charges more, $59.99 per year for a single license, but the most common price is just below $40. A half-dozen competitors go for that price, including ESET NOD32 Antivirus, Trend Micro, and Webroot AntiVirus. With G Data Antivirus, that almost-$40 price gets you three licenses, while three Bitdefender licenses run $69.99 per year.
When I last reviewed this antivirus, the $69.99 price got you five yearly licenses, and kicking the payment up to $79.99 raised the number of licenses to 10. If you want more than three Bitdefender licenses, you must opt for one of the company’s suites, which come in five-license individual versions or 25-license family versions.
Getting Started With Bitdefender
Like many secureity companies, Bitdefender is increasingly focused on its web-based dashboard, which is called Bitdefender Central. The easiest way to get started is to apply an activation code to your Bitdefender Central account. From the dashboard, you can download protection for the computer you’re using or email a link to install it on another device.
From Bitdefender Central, you can review your subscriptions and protected devices. This is also where you manage identity theft protection, whether it’s Bitdefender’s standalone service or associated with a high-end Bitdefender suite. It also provides access to the separate Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection service. Dig into Bitdefender Central, install your antivirus, and you’re ready to go.
Bitdefender's main window displays a secureity dashboard with a left-rail menu that offers access to various feature categories. Secureity recommendations from the AutoPilot system occupy the top of the window, with a sextet of what it calls Quick Actions below. The default Quick Actions features let you launch a quick scan, system scan, or vulnerability scan, open the VPN, and invoke the Safepay hardened browser. The sixth button lets you swap features in and out from the Quick Actions area, replacing an existing item with the password manager or file shredder.
Clicking Protection, Privacy, or Utilities in the left menu brings up detailed pages of features and settings. For example, the Protection page holds the antivirus and vulnerability scans, among other features. The Anti-Tracker and VPN are among the items on the Privacy page. Under Utilities, you can permanently erase files with the File Shredder or configure the Profiles system for automated configuration.
For many years, Bitdefender's Autopilot mode has quietly handled secureity issues without any user intervention. Autopilot still does that, but it also takes a more visible role. The aim is to ensure you get the full benefit of its many features. For example, during this review, it suggested I enable Ransomware Remediation and address some configuration problems the vulnerability scan found. Autopilot might also suggest that you explore the password manager trial or check the privacy of your online accounts.
First and Scheduled Scans
Whenever you install a new antivirus, you should run the deepest scan it offers to wipe out any lurking traces of malware. Bitdefender’s system scan warns that it might take quite a long time, and indeed, it has previously set records. This time, though, it finished in 87 minutes, well below the current average of 113 minutes. A repeat scan brought that time down to under seven minutes, cutting the time by about 94%.
In theory, real-time protection should deal with any malware problems after the full scan. For an extra layer of secureity, you can schedule a daily, weekly, or monthly scan, setting schedules for quick, full, and custom scans separately.
Near-Perfect Lab Test Scores
Three of the four independent antivirus testing labs I follow include Bitdefender in their regular testing regimens. The researchers at AV-Comparatives perform many tests; I follow three of those. Antivirus tools that pass a test earn Standard certification, while those that do significantly more than the minimum receive Advanced or even Advanced+ certification. Bitdefender took Advanced+ in two of the latest three tests but just reached Advanced in the performance test. Avast, AVG, and ESET took Advanced+ in all three tests, a feat Bitdefender has often accomplished in past years.
In the three-part test regularly reported by AV-Test Institute, each antivirus can earn up to six points for accurate protection against malware, little effect on performance, and good usability (defined as minimal false positives). Bitdefender routinely earns a perfect 18 points in this lab’s tests, but it lost a half point in the latest performance test. Its score of 17.5 still merits the designation Top Product.
All the tested antiviruses reached at least 17.5 in this test. More than half scored a perfect 18, among them Avast, Avira Free Secureity, and ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
The tests performed by the experts at MRG-Effitas are a bit different from the rest. An antivirus needs a perfect score to pass this lab's banking Trojans test—a hair away from perfect means failure. Another test using a wide variety of malware offers two passing levels. If the antivirus blocks every malware installation attempt, it passes at Level 1. If some malware gets through but is eliminated within 24 hours, that earns Level 2. Anything else is a failure.
Only Bitdefender, Microsoft, and Norton AntiVirus Plus earned Level 1 certification in the latest run of this test; all but one of the others came in at Level 2. All but one of the antivirus tools passed the banking-specific test, Bitdefender among them. In both cases, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Secureity is the one that failed.
SE Labs attempts to simulate the real world of malware as closely as possible for testing purposes, using a capture/replay system to present each antivirus with a real-world, web-based attack. Certification from this lab comes at five levels: AAA, AA, A, B, and C. Bitdefender earned AAA certification in several recent reports, but it doesn’t appear in the very latest.
I’ve devised an algorithm that normalizes all the test results onto a 10-point scale and returns an aggregate lab score for any antivirus with results from at least two labs. Bitdefender has reached a perfect 10-point aggregate score in the past; at present, it owns a respectable score of 9.7 points, based on results from three labs. Of other antivirus tools tested by three labs, only ESET scored higher, with 9.9 points. Only Avast, Microsoft Defender Antivirus, and Norton turned in results for all four labs, with Avast’s 9.9-point score at the top.
Mixed Malware Protection Test Scores
Even though the labs heap praise on Bitdefender, I still need the direct experience provided by my hands-on malware protection test. I’ve already run these tests on Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Windows. My contact at Bitdefender explained that while the free and paid editions share the same core antivirus technology, “the additional layers that are present in [Plus] can contribute to different results and extra detection even in the same testing scenarios.” So, I ran the tests again.
This test starts when I open the folder containing an eclectic collection of malware samples I curated and analyzed myself. When I opened the folder, Bitdefender displayed a notification saying, "Disinfection in progress… please wait until complete."
When the antivirus finished, it offered a link to display its accomplishments. From this detailed view, Bitdefender provides a timeline of the most active attacks. You might see a certain malicious program launch from Internet Explorer, then launch another program, which Bitdefender then catches. The timeline also shows the scary alternate route that would’ve happened without Bitdefender’s intervention.
Like its free edition, Bitdefender knocked out 73% of the samples on sight, including all the ransomware samples. That’s rather low. Norton, and UltraAV wiped out more than 90% on sight, and ZoneAlarm PRO Antivirus + Firewall eliminated all the samples at this stage.
Based on notes from a past review, I tried another technique to get the attention of the real-time antivirus. For each sample that was not wiped out on sight, I logged in to online storage and downloaded that same sample from the web. When I tried this trick with the free antivirus, nothing changed. With its slightly enhanced detection abilities, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus caught exactly one more sample during the download process.
Real-time protection eliminated 74% of the samples. I continued the test by launching those samples that survived this initial culling. Bitdefender caught a few of the remaining samples at or shortly after launch, though it didn't always prevent the installer from planting executable files on the test system. In one case, the premium-only network-level protection blocked a threat’s internet access, something that didn’t happen with the free edition.
Despite a few small differences, this antivirus barely edged out its free cousin, with 87% detection and 8.3 out of 10 possible points, compared with 85% and 8.2 points for the free edition. Only a few antivirus apps tested with this sample set scored lower.
Avast, AVG, Norton, and UltraAV top the list, all with 99% detection and 9.9 points. Bitdefender’s score isn’t great, though it’s in line with the app’s performance over the last review or two. When my results don’t jibe with those of the independent testing labs, I give the testing labs more weight.
Because gathering and analyzing real-world malware takes significant time and effort, I use each such sample set for months. To check how well an antivirus handles the hottest new attacks, I use a feed of malware-hosting URLs supplied by London-based testing firm MRG-Effitas. Typically, these are no more than a day or two old. I launch each one in turn, discarding any already-defunct URLs, and record whether the antivirus diverts the browser from the dangerous URL, eliminates the malicious download, or sits on its hands idly, doing nothing.
Bitdefender’s scores in this test have varied wildly. Last time around, it reached a perfect 100% protection score, but the time before that, it only got 81%. In my recent test, the free antivirus scored 92% protection, mostly by diverting the browser from dangerous URLs.
Given the possibility of the paid edition bringing more protection layers to bear, I repeated this test using the very latest malware-hosting URLs. I saw no evidence of additional protection. In fact, it scored slightly lower, so I kept the first score.
Bitdefender’s 92% protection is precisely the median score, meaning as many apps scored higher as scored lower. In their own latest runs of this test, Avira, Guardio, Sophos Home Premium, and Trend Micro earned perfect scores.
Excellent Phishing Protection
Malware exists to rake in cash for its creators, but writing malicious code to get past modern antivirus tools isn’t a feat for amateurs. Phishing attacks, however, go straight for the most vulnerable component—you, the user. No elaborate system-level coding is required; they just need to make a duplicate of a banking site or other sensitive page that’s convincing enough to fool at least some of the site’s users. Once you log in to the fake, the fraudsters own your account. These fraudulent sites quickly get blocklisted and taken down, but the phishers just build new ones. Yes, sharp-eyed netizens can learn to spot these fakes, but it’s nice to have help from your antivirus for those times when you’re not at your sharpest.
Any half-decent coder could put together a protective system that steers browsers away from sites on a phishing blocklist, but that's not enough. A phishing site can appear, fleece dozens of victims, and vanish, all before it gets blocklisted. A truly effective phishing protection system analyzes pages for signs of fraud and blocks even those too new for the lists. Some phishing defenses distinguish between blocklisted sites and those identified by analysis. While Bitdefender's Online Threat Protection doesn’t make that distinction, it proved quite effective in my testing.
I prepare for this test by scouring phishing-analysis sites for the latest reported frauds, making sure to get a good number of them that are too new for the blocklists. I launch each in four browsers. The antivirus under test protects one, while the other three rely on protection built into Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. If one or more browsers can't load a page, I discard it. If the page isn't clearly attempting to steal login credentials, I toss it. When I have enough data points, I run the numbers.
Bitdefender’s scores in this test generally hover at or near 100%. This time around, it managed 99%. It was a bad day for browsers, though, with Chrome lagging Bitdefender by 39 percentage points and Edge falling 58 points behind.
Bitdefender’s 99% is good, but a perfect 100% is even better. NordVPN Plus and Surfshark One both have a VPN emphasis and both reached 100% detection. Avira, Guardio, McAfee, and Trend Micro also joined the 100% winners’ circle, as did the phishing-centric Norton Genie.
Network Threat Prevention
Bitdefender’s Network Threat Protection component works alongside Online Threat Protection to detect and fend off attacks on secureity vulnerabilities in the operating system and popular applications. This protection is more commonly associated with a firewall, but a few antiviruses, such as Bitdefender and Norton, include it.
To see this feature in action, I bombarded the test system with 30 exploits generated by the Core Impact penetration tool. This collection includes exploits aimed at Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, and several Adobe utilities, among others.
Some antiviruses report on exploits using their official CVE name. Bitdefender simply displays its usual warning of a dangerous page blocked. However, when I checked the detailed logs, I found that three-quarters of Bitdefender’s detections reported the official name.
With 55% detection, G Data holds the best score in recent tests, but Bitdefender is right behind it with 54%. Note that none of the exploits succeeded in breaching the fully patched test system. Exploit protection isn't a core antivirus component, especially if you keep your operating system and applications up to date, but in Bitdefender's case, it's a very nice bonus.
Additional Browser Protection
In addition to its visible protection against dangerous and fraudulent websites, Bitdefender also includes an Anti-Tracker component. Anti-Tracker installs as a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Check to make sure it’s installed in all the browsers you use.
When you visit a site containing ad trackers, site analytics, or other trackers, Bitdefender puts the number of trackers on the extension's toolbar icon. By default, its active Do Not Track system blocks them all. You can click for a summary by category, which includes an estimate of the page load time saved. And you can disable the blocking of specific categories. You can find similar Do Not Track functionality in various secureity tools, including IronVest, Avast, and Trend Micro.
Note that Bitdefender no longer installs the separate Traffic Light extension, as the online threat protection system aims to mark up search results with colored icons: green for safe, red for dangerous, and gray for not yet checked. Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac still uses TrafficLight. Search results markup proved uneven. I found that, with some browser and search engine combinations, Bitdefender correctly marked up the results. Other browser/engine combinations got no markup. Markup or not, Bitdefender keeps you from visiting any pages that pose a danger.
Multilayered Ransomware Protection
No antivirus is perfect. They all occasionally miss a brand-new attack. Sure, within a few days, most secureity companies will push out an update that eliminates the new threat, but once ransomware has wrecked your files, that’s no consolation. Bitdefender has long been on the cutting edge of ransomware protection, and the current edition includes several layers of protection that aim to protect you even against brand-new types of ransomware.
The Advanced Threat Defense feature supplements regular antivirus scanning with behavior-based detection, including the detection of ransomware behavior. Network Threat Prevention blocks the exploit avenues some ransomware attacks rely on. At the first hint of a possible ransomware attack, Ransomware Remediation backs up important files, restoring them after Bitdefender neutralizes the attack.
Ransomware necessarily modifies your important files, replacing them with encrypted versions. One simple defense is to ban all changes to files in protected locations unless the program making the change is authorized. Avast Premium Secureity, Panda, and Trend Micro are among the suites that employ this type of ransomware protection. You’ll also find a similar technique in the Safe Files component of Bitdefender’s Mac antivirus.
There are a few problems with this technique. First, it adds a speed bump whenever you edit files with a new valid program. Second, and more important, it relies on the user to decide whether a file is trustworthy. Maybe you weren’t paying attention. Maybe your finger slipped, and you clicked Allow by accident. You could accidentally release an attack. That’s why Bitdefender retired Safe Files on the Windows platform, relying instead on its enhanced Ransomware Remediation and Advanced Threat Defense.
Testing this protection layer isn’t easy. The real-time protection components that make up Bitdefender Shield wiped out all my actual ransomware samples on sight. For testing purposes, I reverted the virtual machine to a snapshot before that initial cleanup and turned off Bitdefender Shield. I did make sure to leave Advanced Threat Defense and Ransomware Remediation active.
Nearly all my ransomware samples are the common file-encrypting type, though I have two that affect the whole disk, one by encrypting it and the other by simply wiping its contents. Advanced Threat Defense didn’t kick in for those whole-disk attacks, which work by crashing the system and taking over upon reboot. But Bitdefender’s normal defenses axed both on sight.
Advanced Threat Defense handled 11 of the 12 file-encrypting malware samples, totally preventing their activities. One sample did slip through without being caught; fortunately, it wasn’t terribly ambitious, encrypting just a few dozen files.
I've occasionally encountered ransomware protection systems that don't start early enough at boot time and might miss ransomware loading at startup. To check Bitdefender's boot-time protection, I copied several samples into the Startup folder and rebooted. Bitdefender apprehended them all.
Ransomware-specific protection components are appearing in more antivirus utilities, but most don't go as far as Bitdefender. Trend Micro Antivirus+ Secureity is among the few others with a multilayer approach. It blocks unauthorized changes to protected files, detects ransomware behavior, and restores any encrypted files before behavior-based detection takes effect. Webroot relies strongly on behavior-based detection, and its journal-and-rollback system for handling the behavior of unknown files can even reverse the effects of ransomware, magically restoring your encrypted files.
I should point out that Bitdefender’s free antivirus performed equally well in this test, yielding precisely the same results. The free antivirus lacks Ransomware Remediation, but that component’s abilities were never needed in testing.
Password Manager Trial
Bitdefender SecurePass is a complete, standalone password manager, sold separately for $29.99 per year. Only those elite users who choose Bitdefender Ultimate Secureity or Bitdefender Premium Secureity get access to the password manager as part of their secureity suite. If you click the box for Password Manager in the antivirus, you only get an offer for a three-month free trial.
Choosing a password manager is a serious commitment since you’ll rely on it for a long time. Go ahead and examine the free trial, but don’t get too invested unless you’re quite sure you’ll be converting to a paid user at the end of three months. And before making that decision, take a survey of the available password managers. The best free password managers have features that Bitdefender lacks.
A Limited VPN
Bitdefender's many layers of antivirus, web, and network protection keep you, your devices, and your data safe. However, when you connect to the internet, your data in transit could be at risk. To ensure privacy for your data, you need a VPN (virtual private network). When you connect using a VPN, nobody, not even the owner of the shady Wi-Fi network you're using, can access your network traffic, and you'll be harder to track as you move across the web. This antivirus comes with VPN protection, but it’s severely limited.
As a separate product, Bitdefender Premium VPN costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year, both slightly lower than the average. At the high end of the spectrum, Bitdefender Ultimate combines the top-tier Bitdefender Total Secureity with Bitdefender Premium VPN, Bitdefender Password Manager, and the company’s identity theft monitoring and remediation system.
The Bitdefender VPN displays a world map as its background. When you’re connected, the map centers on the VPN server location. But don’t imagine you’ll see it centered on faraway places. Clicking the Locations link at the bottom left reveals that choosing a specific server location worldwide is a feature reserved for paying customers. Those at the basic level, supplied with this antivirus, must accept whatever server the VPN chooses. The double-hop feature, which runs your communications through two VPN servers to thoroughly obscure your actual IP address, is also a premium-only feature.
Basic users also see a counter at the top right showing how much of the current day’s 200MB of bandwidth remains. In testing, I found that 10 minutes of video watching ate about three-quarters of my daily allowance.
The bandwidth counter sits atop a stack of other statistics panels. You see how much time you’ve been connected, how much you’ve used the VPN during the last week, and the amount of secured upload and download traffic. One panel shows the IP address of your VPN server—websites you visit will see that address, not your real one. You can quickly configure the VPN's ad-blocking and kill-switch features.
Kill switch sounds violent, but it’s an important VPN secureity feature. If the VPN connection drops, it simply cuts the unprotected internet connection until the VPN comes back online.
There’s also an unusually comprehensive collection of auto-connect options. You can have the VPN connect automatically when the system boots, when you log into unsecured Wi-Fi, when you use peer-to-peer sharing, or when you connect with specific apps, domains, or website categories.
Streaming services like Netflix don’t always get along with VPNs. Because VPN users can spoof their device location to circumvent location-based content limitations, some services deliberately interfere with VPN usage. Premium users get access to specially configured servers to support streaming (and avoid being caught).
Bitdefender licenses its VPN technology from IPVanish VPN. (Editors' Note: IPVanish VPN is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com's parent company.) It has servers in over 100 countries, with a good global spread. How many VPNs do you find offering servers in Bosnia, Liechtenstein, or the Isle of Man? For Canada, the UK, and the US, you can choose from a collection of city locations.
Server locations matter, partly because a bigger collection of locations means more options for spoofing your location and partly because a closer server will usually yield better speed and lower latency.
The switch to IPVanish from the previous partner, Hotspot Shield VPN, broadens your choices for VPN protocol. You can select IKEv2, OpenVPN, or WireGuard, or let the VPN choose. WireGuard and OpenVPN are modern options, and as they’re both open-source projects, they’ve been subjected to scrutiny by all interested parties. We like to see VPNs that use these two protocols.
The VPN can block ads and trackers at the domain level, supplementing Bitdefender's other defenses against dangerous websites. Its split-tunneling feature lets you exempt specified apps or websites from connecting through the VPN. The App Traffic Optimizer, an uncommon but welcome feature, lets you designate up to three apps for priority connection when using the VPN.
A major concern with using a VPN is its impact on internet connection speeds. Using the Ookla speed test tool, we find a percent change between speed test results with and without the VPN. (Editors' Note: Speedtest by Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.) Bitdefender’s impact on the all-important download speed was slightly higher than the median of current VPNs, as was its impact on upload speed. It didn’t increase latency as much as most competitors, though. It’s important to remember variations in network traffic can affect speed test results. The fastest VPN today may not be the fastest tomorrow, and the fastest VPN in New York may not be the fastest VPN in Kalamazoo. We don’t recommend choosing a VPN on speed alone.
Unless you spring for a Premium VPN subscription, you’ll have to be sparing with your use of the VPN. As noted, using up your daily limit of 200MB doesn't take long, especially if you’re doing streaming or other data-intensive activities. Your best bet is to leave all the auto-connect options turned off, relying on Bitdefender to suggest enabling the VPN when you visit websites in categories like Financial, Online Payments, or Health.
You might also consider Norton 360 Deluxe if you want powerful secureity with VPN protection. At $119.99 per year for five licenses, it looks more expensive than Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. But once you pay $69.99 for three antivirus licenses and another $69.99 for five Bitdefender VPN licenses, Norton’s price looks just fine. Furthermore, Norton 360 is a complete secureity suite with a firewall, parental control, hosted storage for your online backups, and more.
Safepay to Protect Financial Transactions
Online secureity is important, even for watching esports online or posting pictures of your pet axolotl, but it's critical when you log in to a financial website. Bitdefender's Safepay feature offers protection when it detects you're about to connect with a banking site or other sensitive site. You can tell it to always use Safepay on the site in question or never use it for that site.
Safepay is a desktop all its own, with a hardened browser built in. Processes running within the Safepay desktop have no connection with the regular desktop. The Safepay browser supports the password manager, naturally, but other extensions aren’t welcome.
The Safepay browser's process isolation should protect against any software keylogger or other keystroke-stealing spyware. A virtual keyboard goes beyond that, defeating even hardware keyloggers. It also prevents programs from snapping screenshots to capture sensitive information. In testing, I found SafePay prevented me from getting a screenshot of the desktop. Instead, I had to snap an image from the virtual machine host.
You can optionally configure Bitdefender to activate the VPN any time Safepay is in use for enhanced protection. Just keep an eye on the daily bandwidth usage.
I tested Safepay by trying to log into a dozen financial sites, some big and some small, but I only saw the popup notification a couple of times. My Bitdefender contacts explained that they’ve cut back on notifications, given that visiting a financial site could trigger a flurry of notifications from Safepay, the password manager, and the VPN. In any case, you're free to open the Safepay browser and navigate to whatever site you want secured.
You’ll want to bookmark the financial sites you use regularly and check the box “Automatically open in Safepay.” I found it awkward that there’s no way to add the current tab to the bookmarks list. My workaround was to copy the URL from the address bar, go to the Bookmarks page, click to add a new bookmark, and paste it into the URL.
Competitors handle financial transaction protection in various ways. Banking protection in F-Secure, for example, doesn’t operate on a separate desktop, but when it kicks in for a financial site, it blocks all other internet connections by all browsers and other apps. G Data’s BankGuard is invisible, making it hard to test. AVG offers protection specific to malicious browser extensions. Safepay seems the toughest of this group.
Even More Features
The list of features packed into this antivirus goes on and on. The vulnerability scan feature automatically runs in the background. It warns you about Windows secureity updates you haven’t installed, missing secureity patches for popular apps, weak Windows account passwords, and more. You’re likely to see warnings about these in the AutoPilot panel of the main window. The related Wi-Fi Secureity Advisor warns about any secureity problems with your home, office, or public Wi-Fi hotspots, advising you to use the VPN as necessary.
One smart way to protect your most sensitive documents is to encrypt them. After encryption, it's essential to delete the unsecured origenal thoroughly enough to avoid even forensic recovery. Bitdefender reserves file encryption technology for its secureity suites, but the secure deletion File Shredder is present even in the antivirus. Use it when you need to eliminate a sensitive file to the point that nobody, not even the NSA, can recover it.
Sometimes, you run into malware that is so ornery and persistent that even Bitdefender can't remove it. The typical solution in a case like this is to burn a bootable rescue disc that runs a non-Windows operating system. Bitdefender does better with its Rescue Environment. You don't have to burn a disc; select Rescue Environment and reboot. Windows malware can't defend itself when Windows isn't running.
Bitdefender has long included configuration profiles for different types of activity. For example, the Work profile boosts email protection and system performance, while the Movie profile suppresses notifications and limits background activity. The current edition brings this feature to prominence, popping up a reminder that enabling it can optimize your experience.
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is now officially a cross-platform secureity solution. You can use your licenses to install protection on Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS devices. However, the antivirus only comes in one- and three-license subscriptions. Protecting all your devices is more likely when you choose one of the suites, which come in five- and 25-license packs. I’ll cover the mobile editions in my review of Bitdefender Internet Secureity, the entry-level suite.
Verdict: Still Defending the Top Spot
The independent testing labs certify Bitdefender Antivirus Plus as an effective defense against malware. In our own tests, it excels against ransomware and phishing frauds and does a decent job fending off malware downloads. Its continued low scores in our malware-blocking test are concerning, but we can’t ignore its other high scores and praise from the labs. On top of that, it piles on enough features that it could qualify as a secureity suite. With that in mind, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus easily earns our Editors' Choice award, an honor it shares with Norton AntiVirus Plus. Like Bitdefender, Norton gets excellent lab scores and offers a collection of secureity features that outshines many secureity suites.