Kaspersky ONE Universal Security

The typical security suite comes with licenses to install on three Windows-based PCs. If you have two PCs and a Mac, you're out of luck. If you have four PCs you have to buy enough licenses for six. With Kaspersky ONE Universal Security ($79.95/year direct for three devices) you can apply protection to any three devices be they PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet. Got more gadgets? For $99.95/year you can protect five devices; $149.95/year brings the total up to ten. The boxed product sold in retail stores is the five-device edition. At the moment Kaspersky is offering $20 off for any of the packages.

When you insert the CD (PC or Mac) from the boxed edition, it opens a window from which you can install the products or view their user guides. One click starts the process of installing protection for the PC or Mac, and the user guides explain how to install tablet and smartphone security.

That's all there is to Kaspersky ONE. There's no online management console like what you get with McAfee All Access ($99.95 direct for? licenses, 4.5 stars). It's a software bargain bundle with flexible licensing that lets you choose which devices to protect.

Protection Components
Kaspersky ONE lets you install Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars) to protect each of your PCs. This suite has a good antivirus and parental control components as well as an unusual and effective firewall that manages program control without bothering the user. In testing, its antispam and antiphishing components lagged, but overall it's a good security suite.

Note that the suite's price is the same as the price of Kaspersky ONE for three licenses. A ten-license Kaspersky ONE package is less than twice that price, so it's a good deal if you need to protect a lot of PCs.

Mac users don't get suite-specific features like spam filtering and parental control, just antivirus. Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac will scan for viruses, fend off malware attacks, and warn you away from dangerous URLs. It even removes viruses that target Windows. Yes, your Mac is safe from those, but you wouldn't want to accidentally transfer one to a PC.

Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 ($29.95/year direct) offers varying levels of protection depending on the phone's OS. Sorry, iPhone users. Like McAfee All Access ($99.95 direct for? licenses, 4.5 stars), Kaspersky ONE doesn't protect iPhones. It offers anti-theft and spam filtering for Blackberry devices and adds antivirus and privacy protection for Android devices. Symbian and Windows Phone 7 devices also get firewall protection, data encryption, and parental controls

Kaspersky ONE protects your Android tablet devices with Kaspersky Tablet Security ($19.99/year direct). This tool uses the same underlying technology as the smartphone version. It's formatted for the tablet interface, naturally, and it omits smartphone-specific features like blocking unwanted calls. The company plans to add anti-theft features like remote locate, lock, and wipe later this year.

A Growing Market
With the widespread adoption of non-PC devices, protection across device types is a growing need. Quite a few other vendors have released or announced products similar to Kaspersky ONE.

The $99.95 Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security Premium Edition lets you protect three PCs with Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars), three Macs with Trend Micro Smart Surfing for Mac, and three Android devices with Trend Micro Mobile Security Personal Edition ($29.95/year direct). It also comes with 50GB of hosted online backup through Trend Micro SafeSync.

Bitdefender Sphere, also $99.95, is quite similar to the Trend Micro product. It lets you install Bitdefender Total Security 2012 on three PCs, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac on three Macs, and Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android on three Android devices.

Trend Micro and Bitdefender offer no support for non-Android mobile devices. If your device collection doesn't match their fixed three-apiece license lineup, you might need two packages. Kaspersky is decidedly more flexible.

Details about Norton One are still hazy. Symantec has said that it will include a single management console, which is good, and users will have the option to add licenses above the not-yet-stated base number for "a small additional fee."

McAfee All Access ($99.95 direct for? licenses, 4.5 stars) remains our Editors' Choice for multi-device security bundles. It already has a single online management console like what Norton plans. Users aren't limited to a specific number of licenses for each device type. In fact, there's no limit at all; you can install McAfee All Access on every device you own. And while its Mozy-powered backup licenses aren't unlimited, you'd be hard pressed to use up as many as McAfee offers.

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