ESET NOD32 Internet Security Download 18.0.17.0 2025

Decent Phishing Protection

Writing code to hide from antivirus tools and steal people’s passwords is hard, bitter work. Bamboozling people into just handing over those passwords can be much easier. Phishing websites imitate secure sites of all kinds, from online banking systems to gaming sites. The netizen who logs in to one of these frauds has just given away access to the real account. It’s possible to spot phishing scams if you’re alert, but having help from your antivirus means you’re protected even when your eyelids are drooping.

Comprehensive Device Control

NOD32’s Device Control is a feature more suited to business settings than to consumer use. Out of the box, this feature is disabled. To enable it you must reboot the system. With Device Control active, you can prevent the use of a wide variety of device types, while making exceptions for trusted devices. Among other things, Device Control can prevent anyone from stealing data by copying to unauthorized external drives and head off infestation by USB-based malware.

ESET NOD32 Internet Security isn’t the only security company offering such a feature. Device Protection in Avira Antivirus Pro lets you whitelist or blacklist specific devices, and you can password-protect settings so nobody can mess with the lists. However, even when password protection is active, any user can whitelist a new, unknown drive. G Data Total Security offers more advanced device control, and it can prevent others from adding exceptions. Note, though, that this is G Data’s top-tier mega-suite. ESET NOD32 Internet Security puts device control in its basic antivirus. It’s an excellent bonus feature for an entry-level product.

Intricate Device Control System

The Device Control system in NOD32 is the most elaborate of any I’ve seen. You can create rules for a wide variety of devices, including card readers, imaging devices, and Bluetooth devices, as well as more traditional external drives. Each rule sets an action for a device type, an individual device, or a group of devices. Available actions include blocking use of the device, opening it in read-only mode, or allowing full read/write privileges. You can also configure a rule to simply warn that policy limits access to the device, and that accessing it despite the warning will be logged.

As with G Data and others, using this system is a game of rules and exceptions. For example, you could start by forcing read-only use of CD/DVD drives, so nobody can burn secrets to disk. On top of that, you might create an exception allowing you, but nobody else, to burn disks. Or you could ban removable drives but permit specific authorized ones.

In a super-techie household, you might set different access levels for different user accounts, with full access for you but limited access for others. Note, though, that NOD32 relies on the awkward Select Users or Groups dialog to pick user accounts rather than providing a more user-friendly account list.

Yes, even less technical consumers can probably manage to configure NOD32 so the kids can’t corrupt the system with infected thumb drives, but it’s not easy. Most users should leave this feature turned off.

Useful Security Tools

Device Control isn’t the only feature that takes ESET NOD32 Internet Security beyond the realm of simple antivirus. There’s a whole page of tools to enhance your security experience. Some are useful to all; others require a technical mindset.

Several of the tools give you views of what NOD32 has been doing for you. The Security Report displays statistics on how many applications, web pages, and other objects ESET NOD32 Internet Security has scanned, along with a world map showing the current malware situation. You can peruse logs of malware detections, HIPS events, and more.

Bringing up the Running Processes list shows you every process running, with a lot more information than you’d get just by looking at Task Manager. Drawing from ESET NOD32 Internet Security LiveGrid analysis system, it reports the reputation, number of users, and time of discovery for each process. This chart, like the chart of file system activity, may be more useful to a tech support agent who’s examining your system remotely. The same is true of the live file system activity graph.

ESET’s SysRescueLive tool

Soon after installation, you should download ESET’s SysRescueLive tool. This tool runs from a bootable DVD or USB, meaning Windows-based malware is powerless to resist it. If a NOD32 scan detected and removed malware but you still feel like you’ve got malware on the system, run a scan from this tool. Malware that requires this aggressive tool can be seriously persistent, and can interfere with regular antivirus, which is why you want to download it before you run into any such trouble.

Quite a few competing products offer a similar bootable rescue disk to handle the most persistent malware. Bitdefender one-ups the bunch, though. Its Rescue Mode lets you boot to an alternate operating system without the need to create a disk.

Many security suites offer a system cleaner that wipes out junk files and erases traces of your computer and web-surfing history. With NOD32, System Cleaner has a different meaning. Like Webroot’s similar feature, it aims to correct and restore system settings malware may have modified. For example, some ransomware replaces your desktop wallpaper with a ransom note, even before attempting encryption behaviors that might trigger an antivirus reaction.

PC’s Configuration Details

Everybody should run the SysInspector tool right after installing NOD32. This scanner logs a ton of details about your PC’s configuration, including what services are active, the status of critical system files, and the values of essential Registry entries. The report alone might be valuable to a tech support agent, but the key is SysInspector’s ability to compare two reports and tell you what changed. If you run into any kind of system problem, comparing the current status with a no-problem baseline should give you a clue as to the cause.

Even if you always get someone else to help you out of computer jams, you should still run a baseline SysInspector report. Your tech-savvy niece or remote-control tech support agent will find it extremely helpful.

Good for Techies

Independent lab test scores for ESET NOD32 Internet Security NOD32 Antivirus are mostly excellent, with a few that are merely good. Its scores in our own hands-on tests range from poor for basic malware protection to very good for phishing protection and malicious download blocking. It offers numerous features beyond the basics of deleting malware and preventing new attacks. If you’re tech-savvy enough to use it, the Device Control system is the most comprehensive we’ve seen. In that case, you should consider ESET NOD32: It’s a worthy contender.

If that doesn’t sound like you, consider our Editors’ Choice antivirus tools, which pack plenty of more typical security features along with award-winning protection. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus and Kaspersky Anti-Virus consistently earn top scores from the independent testing labs. McAfee AntiVirus Plus doesn’t score as high, but it protects every device in your household. Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus scores high in our hands-on testing, and it’s the tiniest antivirus around.