Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[derbomber_redux]

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Tywin7 wrote:

Nobody really knows

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I agree with you. If most of the websites are green then how does one get infected even after accessing those green websites?

Cheers!

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi Folks,

As I mentioned earlier, a green rating is not a guarantee that a website is safe. A site can become infected at any time after it has been tested by safe web. Caution and digilence should always be employed when you are surfing the web.

Also bear in mind that the rating is only one piece of the protection. Norton is always running in real time and checking for known threats and other signs of malicious activity.

I myself have clicked on links before with a green rating and had NIS throw up a full page block because it detected something in real time and blocked the threat.

With all the "bad guys" out there constantly writing new malware and changing existing malware to cirumvent your security software there is always a chance that something will slip through Norton's radar and infect your computer. But with safe surfing habits, keeping Windows updated regularly, updating key programs like Adobe, JAVA, etc and keeping your Norton software up to date at all times, you can reduce the risk of infection dramatically.

In 20 years I have had only 2 infections, one very minor and the other was medium.

With all the new malware coming out all the time, this is why things like SONAR (behavioral analysis) is so important in today's world. Sure SONAR can have FP's sometimes but without it to assist the traditional scanning, there would be far more infections making it to people's computers.

Best wishes.

Allen

[joen]

c825:
> Are most sites really safe?  This is the original question that started the thread.

Of course.  Do the math.  Most people are honest.  Only a small percentage are criminals.  That translates to webpages also.

But, just like "traditional crime", if it's your browser that gets attacked it can create a major problem for you.

t7:
> It all depends on what you search for.

Exactly.  There's an old saying:  an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

sol:
> Generalizations about safe or unsafe sites are no longer meaningful

Here's a generalization that I believe is true.

I use Google _advanced search_ because it allows me more control over the search (i.e., number of results, phrase, unwanted words, etc) and produces fewer, more relevant results.

Under the "Date, usage rights, numeric range and more" link on the advanced search page, I select Region -> United States.

NIS' red caution symbol is definitely _more_ common when results from _all countries_ is used (which is the default unless you select this option).  Which doesn't mean it's frequent.