Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[Shanyogi_360]

Hi,

I have been a norton customer since 2009. I have a few concerns as of late. I just followed up with AV comparitives and noticed norton didnt participate on one of the tests and another test recieved Advanced and not Advanced +.

Also does anyone have any opinions on how norton is doing against other top antivirus suites when it comes to detection and prevention

[delphinium Norton Fighter]

Norton products are some of the best out there.  Nothing is 100% perfect, and some antivirus programs focus on one thing while another might focus on a different approach.  Some rely more on the cloud-based approach, some on a machine based approach.  They all have specific strengths and weaknesses.

Scores change depending on the malware used in the tests and how the malware is introduced to the system, as well as how the AV is asked to identify it.  AV-comparatives provides a valuable service, but over time you will see the scores go up and down for all the top AV's.

[Shanyogi_360]

Thanks for the reply. Is norton 2012 going to provide higher prevention and detection rates compared to 2011

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi Shanyogi_360,

Norton consistently makes further improvements year over year. They are at the forefront in the use of new technologies and methods to detect malware, etc.

One thing to be aware is that some testing houses do not test security products in a "real- world" manner. Some test security products without the benefit of "cloud based" technology to see how good a particular security product is in signature based detection. Some testing houses use other methods which partially disable some of the key technologies.

A real-world test allows a security product to use all of its technologies (local, cloud-based, behavioral, etc) to gauge how well it is able to stop malware in its tracks. In the end, whether malware is detected based on signature, cloud-based, behavioral, etc it does not matter as long as the malware is stopped before it invades your computer.

Best wishes.

Allen