norton

Secunia exploits security suites flaws

A new report (PDF) from Secunia is raising awareness about the need to patch vulnerabilities and block malware from desktops.

The report found that "security vendors do not focus on vulnerabilities." And while Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 bests the 11 other suites tested, Secunia found that Symantec "detected a mere 64 out of 300 exploits, or less than one-fourth, leaving 236 exploits undetected." Overall the dozen products all received an "F" on the report.

The Secunia test departed from the traditional testing done by organizations such as AV-test.org and AV-comparatives.org, which … Read more

Symantec launches online PC tech support services

Symantec on Tuesday announced two premium online services that help tweak the performance of PC desktops through remote access by qualified technicians.

Both services are only available to customers using Windows XP and Vista, and are open to customers not currently using any Norton products.

One is a diagnostic service called PC Checkup for $29.99. "Think of it like taking your car to the auto dealership service," said Lenny Alugas, vice president of Norton Premium Services. The technician will perform a series of tests then inform the customer if additional services are necessary. The second premium service, … Read more

Norton 2009 products open to public beta

On Monday, Symantec opened two of its Norton 2009 products to public beta. Both Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton Antivirus 2009 feature new code that not only makes the scans and services run faster, but consume fewer system resources, says Tom Powledge, vice president of consumer product management.

As an example, Powledge said that where Norton Internet Security 2006 consumed roughly 300MB of hard-disk space, the 2009 version is coming in around 100MB. Symantec has achieved this, in part, by reducing a number of redundancies introduced over the years. For example, previous versions of NIS contained multiple copies of … Read more

Symantec's Norton user forum in beta

After year's of prodding from pesky security software reviewers like myself, Symantec has finally created a user forum for its Norton products. Although still officially in beta, the forum is has been operating in-house for a few months and thus has been generating some useful how-to information.

Moderator Dave Cole sums up the project in a welcome note:

We've been working on re-launching our product forums for several months now and are happy to finally officially open the door on the beta. We kicked off this project with the intent of creating a place where Norton customers, employees … Read more

Intego questions Symantec's use of name

In a statement issued Tuesday, Macintosh security company Intego accused Symantec of infringing on its copyright. At issue is the new box copy for Norton Antivirus for Macintosh. In the upper right corner, Symantec has prominently placed the words "Dual Protection," a reference to the product's use on both the Mac OS X and Windows operating systems when using Apple Boot Camp.

The Austin, Texas-based Intego said in a press release, "Intego is the owner of a trademark registration for the mark DP DUAL PROTECTION in France (registered on January 17, 2007) and an international trademark … Read more

Where the show is so funky it comes with Speed Stick

EPISODE 55

Today, we celebrate the 20th Year Anniversary of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Plus, "What We Want" is for Ashley Alexandra Dupr? to never open her mouth and sing again. We also take some time to answer some real calls from the public, and Randall's wife and her t-shirt make a guest appearance today.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Symantec releases online cyber-security quiz

In the realm of companies I wouldn't expect to release an online game, Symantec is right up at the top of the list.

But that's just what the security software firm has done with its Cyber Smackdown online quiz, a Web-based game that tasks players with answering questions related to cyber security.

It's a good idea, and if Symantec had bothered to come up with some difficult questions or even a few dozen different questions, it would have also been a nice manifestation.

Unfortunately, it seems--from my multiple tests of the game on both Safari and Firefox, … Read more

Norton Fighter returns

Back in October, I wrote about the Norton Fighter, a Kamen Rider-inspired mascot for Symantec in Japan to help the company sell Norton 360 to the denizens of the Floating Kingdom. Did I say sell? I meant, "fight honorably and do great battle to protect from evil." Or something.

Anyway, whoever's marketing Norton 360 sure knows its audience. The company has now put out a series of long commercials, filmed on grainy stock and in the Technicolor style of the '70s, showing the Fighter doing his best to not only defeat the evil Botlas, but also to … Read more

Browser bad boy

Silent and invisible, some malware sneaks up on you to quietly wreak havoc on your system resources and possibly mine your files for personal, bank account-cracking information. Shudder.

Other types of Trojans more helpfully announce their presence by lobbing pop-ups, disabling your Start menu, or in Matthew's case, playing puppet master with your browser.

Matthew has a few ideas for wresting back control. Find out which he tried, which he should he have tried, and which ultimately worked in this week's Spyware Horror Story, "Browsers behaving badly".

Kiii-YAAA! Norton 360... to the rescue?

I can't remember the last time I saw a TV ad for a piece of software. Not watching much TV doesn't really play into this. TV ads are just too expensive for the average software publisher to purchase. The market in Japan is different, though. It'll support just about anything with folks in weird costumes doing even weirder things.

So it's my pleasure--no, really, I feel good about this--to introduce you to Symantec's Norton 360 ads. Called CM's in the local parlance, they feature a yellow Power Ranger-style superhero called Norton Fighter getting attacked by a gang of mostly black-clad ninja-type characters who're supposed to resemble viruses and other malware.