However, Norton was significantly more effective than the other two at removing what it found. It cleaned up almost every trace for nearly half of the threats it found and achieved a malware removal score of 7. Norton detected 78 percent of the scareware rogue antivirus threats. Four other products detected more, but Norton's removal was very effective. With 7. In a separate test using commercial keyloggers in place of malware Norton again scored well but not at the top.
Webroot definitely won this test with 7. Both the malware and keylogger collections include samples that use devious rootkit techniques to hide from detection. Spyware Doctor, Webroot, and three other products detected every single one of the rootkit samples; Spyware Doctor scored 9. With 89 percent and 7. Norton Antivirus Malware Removal Chat. Norton does a great job cleaning up malware; in particular, it's very thorough at removing what it finds. While other products scored higher in specific categories, Norton took the overall prize.
Good not Best Blocking Norton's download intelligence automatically evaluates any file you download using your browser. The edition extends this protection to files arriving via many e-mail, chat, and peer-to-peer clients as well as popular download managers. If it detects that the file you just downloaded is malicious, Norton simply wipes out that download without comment.
That silent elimination fooled me at first; I expected some kind of notification. When I tried to re-download my current collection of malware samples download insight wiped out 70 percent of them.
Norton's real-time protection kicked in the moment I opened a folder containing my existing samples. By the time it finished, three quarters of the malware samples had been wiped out. I launched the remainder and noted whether Norton blocked their installation. Norton did a good job blocking malware installation, but others did even better. Where Norton detected 86 percent of the samples Webroot detected 91 percent. Norton's 8. Blocking installation of commercial keyloggers is less important.
After all, a spy who's sitting at your computer installing the software can just turn off your antivirus. Norton did detect and completely block 79 percent of the keylogger samples. Webroot detected them all and scored 9. The independent labs invariably include Symantec in their tests, and it regularly takes top or near-top marks. I expected improved results, and I wasn't disappointed. As with Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security, the Application Rating scan identifies known good files that need not be scanned, which reduces the time for a full scan to just a couple minutes.
On one infested test system, the installer reported a problem and suggested I contact support. The support agent verified my information and then used remote control to solve the problem.
The only thing more painless would have been never encountering a problem at all. When Norton completes a scan, it just reports the number of threats found and fixed.
That's in keeping with its low-key style. Most users don't want or need to know the exact names of the threats now that they're gone. Users can click for more detail and get a breakdown of threat types.
Oddballs like myself who actually do want the names must peruse the security history. Norton detected 89 percent of the malware samples and scored 7. I did say Norton 's scores improved. That improvement comes specifically in the area of rootkits, where Norton detected percent of the samples and scored 8. While quite a few other products detected percent of the rootkits, only PC Tools, with 9. Norton Version 5. For these tests I install the product on a clean system, attempt to launch malware samples, and chart the product's response.
Between Norton Safe Web blocking malicious sites and Download Insight blocking dangerous downloads, Norton blocked almost 80 percent of the samples still available for download. When I opened a folder containing pre-downloaded instances of those same samples, Norton wiped out 78 percent of them immediately, just slightly more than Norton Internet Security did. I launched those that survived the initial onslaught and tallied up just how effectively Norton fended them off.
Norton detected 89 percent of the threats and scored 8. Others did better overall, though. Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security 9. But with 9. As in the removal test, Norton showed serious improvement at handling rootkits, scoring a perfect 10 for blocking rootkits. If you're one of the dwindling group who lack this benefit, Norton 's antispam will do a good job without requiring any user intervention.
There's no training required; all you need do is agree when it offers to integrate with Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. Those using a different e-mail client probably aren't the target audience for Norton In testing, I found that downloading a thousand messages took around twice as long with the spam filter engaged.
Given that e-mail arrives in the background you'd be hard-pressed to notice any slowdown. Out of over 8, recent messages Norton did not mistakenly identify a single valid message as spam. It did allow almost 12 percent of undeniable spam into the Inbox, but that's significantly better than Norton Internet Security did. Multiple Privacy Features Norton Internet Security is my touchstone for testing products that claim to protect users from fraudulent phishing websites.
Its combination of database-driven blocking for known fraudulent sites and real-time analysis for new ones consistently beats almost all of the competition.
Norton offers exactly the same technology. Norton Antivirus : System Insight. Clicking chart elements displays additional details; here it shows what process caused a peak in CPU usage. Norton Antivirus : Norton Community. The Norton community page is constantly updated with current information about the number of good and bad files known to the community. Norton Antivirus : Reputation Scan. The reputation scan evaluates the programs found on your computer for trust level, age, and prevalence.
It offers a comparison of your statistics with those of all Norton users. Norton Antivirus : Performance Alert. New in the edition, performance alerts let you know when a particular program is hogging system resources.
Norton Antivirus : Performance Details. Clicking the link in a performance alert brings up a window like this one that shows just what triggered that alert. Facebook users can invoke this feature to scan wall links for scams and other dangers. Norton Antivirus : Facebook Post. If you wish, you can share the results of Norton's Facebook scan with your friends.
And I chose tools that perform suspicious actions like installing a global Windows hook or launching the browser under remote control. Norton's reputation technology correctly identifies these file as very rarely seen, which triggers a higher level of scrutiny by SONAR.
They're not digitally signed, and many lack file version information. The fact that they came from another computer on the network is another strike against them, to SONAR. Patrick Gardner, the senior director of development for Symantec's STAR Security Technology and Response , recommends that "false positive" tests be weighted based on the prevalence and importance of the file mistakenly identified as risky. Killing an essential Windows process, as McAfee did in , is extremely serious.
Damaging a Microsoft Office installation is also serious. Since Norton's Insight database whitelists all trusted programs that are reasonably prevalenct, Gardner contends SONAR simply can't block a significant valid program. Reputation-based detection is a powerful tool against polymorphic and zero-day malware, and I have to grudgingly agree that its benefits outweigh the possibility of erroneously whacking an obscure program that only exists on a few computers.
That's what I did with my antiphishing test tool, a program that runs on no other computer in the world. Independent Labs Agree All of the independent testing labs that I follow include Norton products in their tests, and Norton gets good ratings overall.
Norton took the VB aware in nine of the last ten tests by Virus Bulletin. Norton scored 15 and With an average of Bitdefender's 16 point average is currently the highest. A just-released preliminary test of the edition by AV-Test gives this product some serious praise. In every test it scored above average, and it blocked percent of 0-day attacks.
AV-Test will incorporate the edition in ongoing tests starting this month. For an explanation of the various test types and the data in the following chart, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
Intrusion Prevention The standalone antivirus doesn't include the full firewall component found in the full Norton suite, but it offers powerful protection against Web-based exploits. I attacked the test system with over 30 exploits generated by the Core Impact penetration tool.
Norton detected and identified every attack, reporting its action in a small slide-out notification window and sometimes a second notification with a more detailed identification. Clicking the link to "View Details" brings up the security history entry describing the attempted intrusion, with a wealth of detail about the attack.
The full-scale firewall in many security suites only manages to block and identify a handful of these. Finding this level of protection in a "mere" antivirus is very impressive. If you have a subscription to Norton Online Backup 2. Another icon links to Norton Mobile Security 2. For added browsing protection you can click an icon to install Norton Safe Web Lite.
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