When it comes to internet security, there's one company that will panda to your needs. And will doubtless never, ever use that pun in a press release. At any rate, Panda's latest net security suite has been unleashed on the world, consisting of several different types of protection and some backup features. Oh, and probably the most cute and cuddly desktop icon you'll ever see (a little panda's head: all together now... "ahh").

Our first port of call, as ever, was to check out the anti-virus and spyware performance of this package. We ran several test scans in comparison to AVG, and Panda performed similarly in both the amount of malware it picked up and the scan time (although it was just over a minute slower). The definitions are only updated on a daily basis, which is not as frequent as we've come to expect from some of the big security players these days.

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However, on the plus side Panda does employ collective intelligence routines, meaning that suspected virus outbreaks in the wild are reported directly from users' PCs, so a real-time reaction can be supplied to any emerging threat. A separate vulnerabilities scanner is also on board, and this detects any possible un-patched holes in your system (it picked up four on ours). We were satisfied that the suite provides solid if not world-beating virus protection.

The other security measures Internet Security 2009 offers include a firewall, anti-spam filter for your inbox and an identity protection module. The latter comprises basic anti-dialer and anti-phishing measures, alongside a confidential information monitor which lets you specify sensitive data (credit card numbers, etc.) and ensures this is never sent online without your knowledge.

Rounding the package off are parental control options, with different filter strengths for teenagers and younger kids. There's also a backup module which allows you to specify certain files (photos, music, Internet favourites) to be duplicated on the hard drive or online (a year's free online storage is offered, with a 1GB capacity). Finally, it's worth mentioning that Panda incorporates CPU load control, meaning that it won't bog down your PC with scanning duties if other tasks are active. We definitely appreciated this.

Panda's effort at net security gives the user solid protection, a fairly broad feature set, and you can pick it up for a reasonable price.