¾ÅÒ»ÐÇ¿ÕÎÞÏÞ

If there's one thing I've learned the hard way, it's that you can't take cyber security for granted.

As someone who's seen my entire PC encrypt itself and shut itself down before my very eyes, I can assure you, there's nothing more stressful than discovering all your data - from photos and documents right through to logins, passwords and financial information is now in the hands of someone else.

Whether or not something like that has happened to you or a family member, if you've been putting off securing your devices, I'm imploring you to act immediately.

Somebody once told me alarm systems and security cameras won't necessarily prevent your home being broken into, but if your house is more secure than the one next door, guess which one will be targeted first?

At the very least, we should all be locking our front doors.

Well, I think I've found a product that doesn't just secure the doors, it bars the windows and locks your place down under 24/7 surveillance as well.

Security Suite Pro Plus is Trend Micro's top-of-the-line consumer product and as such, I don't think I've ever come across a set of cyber-safety features this comprehensive.

Confusingly, Trend Micro's entry level package is called Maximum Security and while it certainly has a lot of the same tools included, it's nowhere near as "Maximum" as Security Suite Pro Plus.

There are so many settings, tools and extensions I'm not going to do a deep dive on every single one - but rest assured, when it comes to the latest antivirus, malware, ransomware, spyware and any other-ware protection, Trend Micro has you well and truly covered. As you would expect.

What I also need to point out straight off the bat is an old piece of advice but a good one; don't try and run two different security regimes on the same device simultaneously. Trend Micro does not seem to play well with others and I discovered one or two options wouldn't work at all until I'd fully uninstalled my previous security apps.

This isn't surprising; for me, one of the most important things about running a cyber defence as all-encompassing as this one is how much processing power it's using up in the background. If you've got two opposing apps fighting against each other to carry out the same task, chances are things are going to crash (or at least slow down) pretty quickly.

That bit of prep out of the way and I was able to carry on with my installation and setup - at this point I've installed Security Suite Pro Plus on an iPhone 16, a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and a Windows 11 PC. Although there are indeed too many features to list, setup is surprisingly user-friendly. The default settings for most options seemed to work for me without any tweaking at all.

The Android and iOS user interfaces are pretty similar, while the desktop version is laid out slightly differently, dividing the many features into categories and hiding them behind the appropriate, clickable icons. However, all versions of the home screen present you with a big, friendly "Scan" button to press. Not only does a scan filter through all your files for anything suspicious, it also looks for any opportunities to optimise your device - perhaps listing obsolete or duplicate files that can be deleted, right through to OS updates you may have missed.

At any time you can consult your latest security report which lists... well, everything really. Wanna know how many text messages and emails have been scanned for phishing attempts and other security risks? No problem. Security Suite Pro Plus even monitors notifications from your apps, before you actually open them. Shopping online? Trend Micro is keeping an eye on things to make sure you're paying someone real, not a scambot.

You can set up browsing protection, although not for every browser - I use Arc on most of my devices and being a more minor player, it's not covered.

You can also monitor the Wi-Fi network you're connected to in real time - you'll soon be notified if there are any security flaws, things like default passwords being used for example.

And of course, you get access to Trend Micro's excellent VPN, which can be set to activate automatically if you join an unknown network - or perhaps even a regular one you're not feeling totally safe with.

But here's where things get a bit clunky. Although the VPN is included as part of the Security Suite Pro Plus package, you have to download it as a separate app; it integrates with the main program but must be set up independently. This is different to other security suites I've used where the VPN is just another option to click on or off.

I've also found it to be very bossy as VPNs go - especially the Windows version. The PC I've installed it on is the one I use for my Plex media server. This means I want other devices on the same network to be able to access it in order to play my stored files. I'm sure there must be a way to make this work but I haven't figured it out yet.

Scam Check is another Trend Micro app that's included but must be installed separately. What a good app it is though. Like other, similar services, you can copy links, images and screenshots into the app to check if they're legit but (as with everything else) Trend Micro seems to go several steps further. You can set Scam Check as your default SMS app to filter out scam texts in real time. You can use it to block potential spam calls and perhaps most impressively, you can check video calls for deep fakes.

Yup, what a sad indictment on society that technology has now progressed to the point the person we're talking to on a video chat might not be that person at all. Never mind, just let Trend Micro check that for you.

This just goes to show Trend Micro is right on top of all the latest trends in cyber trickery.

I'm definitely in favour of a belt-and-suspenders approach when it comes to cyber-security, and if you've ever been scammed, had your ID stolen or data compromised, I'm sure you feel the same way. With Security Suite Pro Plus, you're not just getting a belt and suspenders, Trend Micro throws in handcuffs, a straightjacket, a padded room and seals it all inside a Faraday cage for good measure.

As stifling as that sounds - and yes, as my experience with the VPN goes, the combination of all these tools may be a little over-the-top - interestingly I haven't found any significant drain on the resources of any of the devices I've been testing this suite with. In fact, thanks to the optimisation options available, one or two of them are now running even better.

This is the kind of set-it-and-forget-it protection I feel like I can trust, absolutely. If you like the sound of it too, I'd act quickly. Trend Micro is now offering customers the opportunity to subscribe to Security Suite Pro Plus for two years for only NZ$238.00 - that works out at less than $10 a month. Not much to pay to keep yourself safe, no matter how sophisticated the scammers become.