It has been a while since a G Data product received a separate review. The changes in the products are usually limited and the Rhineland corporate culture does not help to generate extra attention. Doing the right things right is clearly a priority at G Data over security bling-bling. That certainly seems like a good approach when it comes to security, but is it enough to deal with all the threats of today? We test G Data Internet Security 2018.
G Data Internet Security 2018
Price€39.95 (1 pc, 1 year), €79.95 (5 pcs, 1 year)
Language
Dutch
OS
Windows 7/8/8.1/10
Website
www.gdata.nl 8 Score 80
- Pros
- Enhanced Security
- Backup software
- Negatives
- Missing automatic backup
- No free cloud backup
G Data promises 'Better performance and maximum protection against ransomware' with its Antivirus, Internet Security and Total Security 2018. G Data's performance is always good, but never top notch. In the latest AV-Test Endurance test of Internet Security suites, G Data took seventh place in a field of eighteen participants, but behind six competitors with the perfect 6.0 score. One of these was Bitdefender, of which G Data uses the anti-malware engine as the second scanning engine in the products. But those were results with older versions of G Data. In the 2018 versions, the ransomware fight has been improved; They themselves speak of a next-generation antivirus. It combines old techniques, such as old-fashioned scanning, with behavior control and exploit protection.
Encryption Detection
Abnormal behavior, such as bulk encryption of files, is monitored. In August, G Data thus scored 100% twice in protection against new threats (zero-days) and the most widespread viruses at the time. So a promising improvement. At least as important with ransomware is recovery. Then backup is important, and G Data therefore already offers its own backup program in the Internet Security suite. This makes it possible to back up to Dropbox, Google Drive and the German TeamDrive. Unfortunately, G Data and TeamDrive do not offer free storage: you have to pay from the first bit. Storage on Dropbox and Google Drive is of course free. If you want to back up to a NAS or local disk, or if you want to automate the backup, you need the more extensive backup function of G Data Total Security. The latter in particular is a disappointment because automatic backup offers the best chance of recovering recent data after a ransomware attack. The fact that this is not also possible with Internet Security is a disappointing choice by G Data.
Conclusion
G Data Internet Security is not the most comprehensive security package of its kind and only recently achieved the highest scores in security. At the same time, it is user-friendly and is packed with options to fine-tune the operation. We do not think it is a good choice that it is not possible in Internet Security to automate backups.
