360 Total Security is an outstanding antivirus with multiple tools to keep your computer functioning optimally. In particular, 360 Total Security excels at protecting against ransomware attacks with its decryption tool should this malicious software infiltrate your system.
Ad-supported version available free, or upgrade for premium features and an ad-free installation for premium version available on Windows, Mac OSX and Android devices.
Virus Protection
360 Total Security offers excellent virus protection, with its cloud-based engine continually scanning and updating to detect new threats. In addition, 360 Total Security also offers useful tune-up tools like Speedup (which you’ll find near Cleanup in the main menu) and Patch Up to improve stability and detect and address system vulnerabilities.
Another strong point of this suite is its user-friendliness – everything can be controlled with either large buttons or checkmarks, making this suite easier for touchscreen devices to use.
However, the antivirus takes up a lot of resources: 1.5GB of hard drive space is taken up by its installation; three background processes run at any given time and up to 200MB RAM are consumed; this exceeds industry norms but shouldn’t pose too many issues for most regular users; moreover, its aggressive notifications could cause confusion for newcomers.
Firewall
360 Total Security’s firewall offers a continuously updated list of processes running on your computer, making it easy to spot malicious activity. Furthermore, you can customize real-time protection settings and block network access for apps you don’t trust.
360 Total Security was able to detect over 99% of threats in real-time during our tests, although it did have issues with false positives and inaccurate alerts which may mislead users into taking dangerous actions. It also required more resources than its competitors: 1.5GB hard drive requirement and up to 200MB RAM consumption during use.
360 Total Security’s Document Protector tool is one that we particularly admire; it protects documents against ransomware attacks while making safe backups and decrypting those infected by ransomware. Plus, its Patch Up feature centralizes Microsoft and Adobe updates for easier computer maintenance.
Anti-Theft
360 Total Security’s free version only covers one device, but you still gain access to most of its core antivirus features as well as optimization tools and ransomware protection. Premium plans provide additional firewall, data shredder and privacy protection features.
Although its antivirus scanning performance is solid, it falls behind those from competitors like Bitdefender and Norton in speed and accuracy. Malware detection rates were somewhat lower too; users had to decide whether an app should be allowed or blocked themselves, leaving open the possibility for potentially harmful actions that are approved due to inaccuracy of alerts. Top competitors like Kaspersky and Bitdefender employ a more cautious but secure approach by themselves determining whether an application poses any threat.
User interface (UI) of Avast Free Antivirus Pro is user-friendly, with key categories (virus scan, speedup, cleanup and full check) easily accessible on the left-side screen. All additional tools can be easily found under Tool Box menu and its Document Protector feature provides real-time document protection to help ensure safe backups in case of ransomware attacks.
Privacy Protection
360 Total Security’s anti-malware performance is unimpressive. Since 2017, no third-party tests have been run using Avira+Bitdefender engine and its performance wasn’t particularly good.
Our test revealed that it only detected 83% of malware used during our examination – this falls below industry norms and indicates the need to take additional measures in order to protect your PC from these threats.
This program features a privacy protection component to erase browser history, cookies, and any other traces of online activity from your computer. Furthermore, there is also a data shredder feature which securely deletes sensitive files from your system.
Document Protector is another key element, providing valuable protection from ransomware threats by decrypting files encrypted by ransomware and making frequent backups of documents to protect you against these types of attacks. Furthermore, Document Protector can detect dangerous websites and warn when trying to open them.