- Written by: Enemali Okwoli Cybersecurity & Tech Writer
Aura Antivirus Overview
Aura’s focus on ID theft protection makes it popular among US users. However, I wanted to see how good the antivirus protection is and whether it’s good for all-around internet security, considering its high price.
I tested every feature that Aura offers to see if it’s worth it. I found that Aura offers decent malware protection, Identity protection, and a handful of extra features like VPN and password manager.
While Aura’s ID protection features are top-notch, it fails to stand out in other areas. The antivirus is average and can’t catch every real-time malware threat. The VPN is slow if you have to use it outside the US and the other features are too basic. In comparison, Norton performs excellently in all areas, and Norton’s 360 plans come with excellent ID protection features .
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- Excellent malware detection rates — Detects 100% of existing malware during my tests, but its real-time protection rates were poor. Click here to see my full test results .
- Top-notch ID protection features — Provides credit monitoring, financial fraud protection, and ID theft insurance. Jump to see the full list of features .
- Few extra features — Comes with VPN, password manager, and parental controls, but the overall performance isn’t great. See how each extra feature performed during tests .
- Intuitive apps for major platforms — Has apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, but only available to US residents. Find out how to install Aura on your device .
- Excellent customer support — Offers email, phone support, and a rich online knowledge base. See my experience with the support options .
- 60-day money-back guarantee — gives you a generous amount of time to test all of Aura’s features. Jump to see all the premium plans .
Security
Aura antivirus offers robust protection against prevalent malware threats. It detected 100% of malware samples during my test but failed to achieve a similar feat for real-time protection. Top-tier antivirus options like Norton and McAfee offer perfect detection rates and real-time protection scores, making them industry leaders.
Virus Scan — Excellent Malware Detection Rates & Fast Scanning Time
Aura antivirus provides excellent malware protection rates , making it a strong contender among robust antivirus options. To test Aura’s malware protection abilities, I downloaded malware samples from the European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research (EICAR).
Aura detected all the malware samples I downloaded to my test PC and immediately quarantined them, even those hidden in zip files. This included viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, and ransomware.
There are 3 scanning options provided in Aura’s on-demand scanner. They are:
- Quick scan — Checks device locations that malware commonly hides.
- Full System scan — Scans all the files and folders on your device for malware.
- Custom scan — Checks only the files or folder that you select.
During testing, Aura’s Quick scan took less than 1 minute to check almost 7,000 files while the Full scan took about 53 minutes to scan over 262,000 files on my PC. While the scanning time is fast, especially for the Quick scan, it isn’t as thorough as top-tier competitors like Norton.
Norton’s Quick Scan took less than 2 minutes to scan about 12,600 files and 22 minutes for 1,000,000 files during a similar test. Plus, with Norton’s Insight feature that remembers and marks safe files, the Full scan time got down to just 3 minutes.
Real-Time Protection — Provides Decent Protection Against Zero-Day Malware Threats
Aura’s real-time protection, called Auto-Scan, isn’t as powerful as its on-demand scanner. Auto-scan works in the background to block malicious downloads or files that you open.
During testing, I downloaded 4 EICAR malware samples, Aura’s real-time protection only blocked 50% of my samples , which was rather disappointing.
