I have had a couple of occurrences with my Norton toolbar on Internet Explorer 8 (Norton Internet Security 2009) where I clicked on websites that Norton had identified as safe from a Google search (on the list of websites from a Google search, there was a green tick next to these websites). However, upon entering the sites the Norton toolbar changed to a red cross. I.e. Norton identified the sites as safe on Google, but once I entered them it changed it’s mind and declared them unsafe – is this meant to be?
Norton claimed that the first website had a “drive-by download” threat, and the 2nd one had two “virus” threats - but only after I was already on the sites after clicking on them from Google. This has happened on two separate computers now – one with Vista Home Basic, the other with Windows XP home. Are my computers still safe to enter things like personal details and credit card details on?
What’s worrying is that Norton didn’t block these sites and it let me onto them under the false impression that they were safe. Shouldn’t Norton be either stopping me from getting onto these sites in the first place, or flagging them as red before I click on them (i.e. flagging them red while they’re still on Google)? If this had been, I never would have entered them because once I’m on the site, surely telling me that it’s unsafe then is a bit late to stop any harmful downloads? I’m concerned that something might have downloaded onto my computer without my knowledge.
Thanks in advance for clearing this up for me.