Trend Smart Surfing for Mac

by Trend Micro, Inc.

Product Features

• Trend Smart Surfing for Mac lets you shop, bank, and surf online while staying safe from attacks on your identity and confidential information
• Blocks IM and email links that lead to dangerous websites, prevents websites from installing dangerous software on your Mac
• Protects against phishing scams that can trick you into revealing confidential information, along with viruses, worms, and other everyday security threats
• Manage your children's online activity--restricts Internet access by content categories, controls access to chat and IM sites, allows you to block specific websites
• Includes free automatic updates so your protection stays current against new threats

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001V9VERW
• Item model number: SSM096649
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 25, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,136 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Safeguard your family with Trend Smart Surfing for Mac. Now you're free to shop, bank, and surf online while staying safe from attacks on your identity and confidential information. You can also protect your children from inappropriate websites. Get Trend Smart Surfing for Mac and enjoy online freedom!

Total Online Protection for Your Personal Data

Why take chances with your personal and credit card information?
If you enjoy shopping, banking, or surfing online, then you need the maximum protection against identity theft, phishing, and other malicious threats found on the Internet. Get smart, real-time security with Trend Smart Surfing for Mac, so you can experience maximum online freedom with total safety.

Surf the web without worry
Trend Smart Surfing for Mac provides Mac users with peace of mind when surfing the Internet.

• Blocks IM and email links that lead to dangerous websites
• Protects against phishing scams that can trick you into revealing confidential information
• Prevents websites from installing dangerous software on your Mac

Protects against phishing scams and unsafe websites regardless of the Internet browser used, and even checks hyperlinks embedded in email messages or instant messages.

Manage your children's online activity
Parental controls let you decide what's appropriate for your children:

• Restricts Internet access by content categories
• Controls access to chat and IM sites
• Allows you to block specific websites

Select broad categories to block, or fine tune the restrictions with lists of 'Approved Websites' and 'Blocked Websites' instead.

Get essential protection
Trend Smart Surfing safeguards your Mac and personal data against the latest threats:

• Defends against viruses, worms, Trojan horse programs, and other everyday security threats
• Guards against spyware and other malicious software
• Includes free automatic updates so your protection stays current against new threats

Trend Smart Surfing provides essential protection against both Mac and Windows malicious software infection with Automatic ("real-time") and On-Demand ("manual") Scanning.

Simple User Interface
Trend Smart Surfing for Mac was built from the ground up to fit the Mac OS user experience. The entire user interface was designed for simplicity, making all functions easy to understand.

(The most important controls appear prominently on the main interface to avoid clutter.)

(All protection is fully automated, including automatic Web Threat monitoring, automatic scanning for malicious files, and automatic pattern file updates. These features require minimal action or oversight from the end user.)

For extra security, key settings and options in Trend Smart Surfing for Mac are locked with the Mac OS Admin Account password.

Product Description

Trend Smart Surfing for Mac protects your identity and personal data from malicious threats when you shop, bank, or surf online.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New security choice bears consideration, June 24, 2009

By 

ck "moonshadow" (Hawaii nei) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trend Smart Surfing for Mac (CD-ROM)

(What's this?)

Chinese strategist Sun-tzu's practice of keeping friends close and enemies closer continues to be fine practice in business and the boardroom. However, when unknown outsiders are launching spyware, viruses and Trojan horses my way, I prefer the Great Wall approach.

Certainly, as a longtime computer user who tries my best to keep up with computer news and trends, I tend to recognize phishing attempts and sketchy domains and hyperlink/URL tricks. I've run Macs for work and pleasure almost exclusively since the late `80s, and while I love many things about the Mac universe, the relative lack of choice of streamlined protective applications has left me a bit unsettled in recent times.

While I operate behind firewalls as often as I can, that's not always practical. And while I practice safe computing to the best of my ability on the road, including disposable e-mail addresses and single-use credit card numbers, I have cast an envious eye on the arsenals my PC friends have available, both freeware and retail.

Thus, I was glad to see Trend Micro enter the Mac arena in mid-April with its Smart Surfing for Mac program Trend Smart Surfing for Mac. I've been using the freeware version of iAntiVirus and was eager to compare the offerings of these two different suppliers. (I've had mixed experiences with other products.)

TARGET CUSTOMERS
This program seems well-suited to users of a range of computer experience and comfort level. Old hands will appreciate the transparency of settings, while those who are newer to computing and self-support will find Smart Surfing pretty self-explanatory. In my personal life, having had to troubleshoot problems for a college kid thousands of miles away, having had this program on that notebook would have reduced her tears and frustration and greatly streamlined the process.

THE GOOD
Smart Surfing for Mac is simple to install and use out of the box. Installation and running the updater took less than 5 minutes. Modifying the factory settings to my taste took another 5 minutes, and they're easily re-tweaked. Layout is clear and logical, and it's easy to revert to factory settings if one has second thoughts. Menus enable users to set the intensity of threat-protection (novice users may want to boost this); a website filter provides virtual oversight of children's computer use based on specific parameters and the ability to block web sites or behaviors; and users can direct the program to scan a specific location, such as an external drive.

Most interesting and important to me was the ability to enable updates of the application and to choose how frequently and thoroughly I wanted scans to be run. You're able to schedule scans to run automatically on a daily basis or less frequently, and to choose a start time, so you can avoid periods of high use on your computer(s). To test impact, I ran complete scans while actively using other applications. I didn't notice an impact on other applications' responsiveness but did encounter a bit more slowness than my usual experience in the loading of some graphics-intensive websites, which I specifically visited because they tend to load slowly most of the time.

Also useful is the ability to direct what is to be done with suspect files. Experienced users may want to customize Smart Surfing's response to perceived threats. I chose to have the program first try to clean the suspected item, and if that didn't work, to next quarantine it. Past experience with other programs has taught me to look at what a program is objecting to before letting it wipe the file.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD
Certain programs are territorial, not wanting similar programs to be running while they are. Smart Surfing takes this a step further -- its install won't proceed if you have a similar program on your hard drive, even if it's not running. While I understand why you don't want to have two such programs running at the same time, it's been shown in the online world that your best protection comes from having some overlap.

THE PUZZLING
Before uninstalling my antivirus freeware, I had it run a complete scan. It ran through more than 608,000 items, by its count. Smart Surfing identified only about 500,000 items to review. I suspected the large difference was based on how iAntiVirus and Smart Surfing "count" items but didn't want to assume. I've received confirmation from Trend Micro's product team that indeed the count varies based on how a program counts items: "Our `full scan' feature does indeed scan through every file on the system, but with regards to the differences in the total count of files, we attribute this to differences in the way in which files & objects are counted." I decided to provide this degree of detail to anticipate questions future users may have, and as an indication of the company's responsiveness.

THE VERDICT
This program is available as a 30-day trial so you can try it before picking up a year's subscription. If you've got teenagers or older relatives who aren't as savvy as they could be about Internet risks, this is a gift of kindness. And if, like me, life often takes you beyond the firewall, this program is nimbler than earlier competitors' pay-for-use offerings. The fact that Trend Micro's been in this business for two decades and has a suite of by-subscription products would indicate it invests the necessary resources to keep a weather eye out for the fire-tipped arrows that may be aimed at its users.

UPDATE, July 2009: At the risk of making this even longer, I wanted to note that this program is still going strong for me. By using the blocking element of it, I've finally successfully gotten rid of popups that several of my favorite newspaper sites insist on using ... popups that BTW have snuck past the popup blocker option provided by the two browsers I use most often.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You're Looking for Protection for Your Mac, Look No Further, July 13, 2009

By 

Zachary Hackett (Reno, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trend Smart Surfing for Mac (CD-ROM)

(What's this?)

I've read all the reviews of this Trend Smart Surfing for the Mac and can see both sides. Some people don't think the program is necessary, other think the more protection the better. I think I come down on the side of the latter. Trend Smart does a few simple things and it does them well without hogging up your ram. It warns you about suspicious websites. It scans your computer for malware. And it has simple to use parental controls. Actually my better half thinks it has good husband controls as well and you can well imagine the sites she thinks I shouldn't be looking at. Not that I ever go to those places, I don't. Well, if I'm doing research. To sum it up, if you're looking for some additional protection for you're Mac, look no further.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for Snow Leopard!, September 14, 2009

By 

Katy Lake (The People's Republic of New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Trend Smart Surfing for Mac (CD-ROM)

(What's this?)

It's a shame that Trend Smart hasn't upgraded Smart Surfing to perform with Snow Leopard. I feel it's a good program, because no matter what anyone says about Mac's legendary immunity from viruses and other nuisances, eventually some cybercrook is going to find an "in," and all the other morons will follow suit.

It's not so much that Mac is impregnable. It's more like there haven't been enough Macs in use to make it worthwhile for the crooks.

Don't worry. That'll change.

What I wanted was Trend Smart Surfing to be in place, "just in case."

I installed it and it was an interesting experience. It pulled up a few malware annoyances, then disposed of them nicely.

But meanwhile, it slowed my system by a third. I'm no computer wiz, and I don't need the fastest processor on the market, but it's annoying to be used to a good, fast computer clip, and have it slowed to where even I, a non-geek, can notice it.

I had purchased Snow Leopard after the Trend was installed. By the time it got here, I knew from online quips that Smart Surfing and Snow Leopard were oil and water.

So the Smart Surfing had to go.

If you're not on Snow Leopard, and you have a different operating system, Smart Surfing may be a good investment. It didn't HURT my puter, but it did slow it down.

i know if it catches something that could do major puter damage, the moderate system slowness would be a small price to pay. But for me - with Snow Leopard and its putative improvements - Smart Surfing wasn't a good fit.

If you're a little behind the curve with wanting the latest Mac stuff (like the Snow Leopard O/S upgrade), I'd say try Smart Surfing. Can't hurt (much), and could help a lot.