Despite setting up an admin password for norton 2010, so no settings can be changed at all,it seems that it is still possible for antivirus or intrusion prevention etc, to still be set to off before any password has been entered.
Whether this is safe or not, The word OFF Is, still not something I particularly want to see, especially when you have 9 and 16 year old who will open up just about anything, and never close anything down this in my mind shouldn't even be changing at all.
So would it possible to please pass this on too who ever, and possible get this fixed at some point.
If you click off, as you have seen, it asks for the password. It will only turn off if you enter the correct password. You also will notice, if you enter the correct password, a Security Response will Pop-Up asking for how long you want do disable it for. Windows will also produce a Security alert Pop-Up.
Windows XP Home with service pack 3 in admin mode fully patched
Auto protect requires the password for it be disabled, im not running any other security software in the back ground, the only other security apps i run now and again is Anti Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy there only the free versions though.
Despite setting up an admin password for norton 2010, so no settings can be changed at all,it seems that it is still possible for antivirus or intrusion prevention etc, to still be set to off before any password has been entered.
Whether this is safe or not, The word OFF Is, still not something I particularly want to see, especially when you have 9 and 16 year old who will open up just about anything, and never close anything down this in my mind shouldn't even be changing at all.
So would it possible to please pass this on too who ever, and possible get this fixed at some point.
I believe you are indicating that you have found occasions where anti-virus protection has been OFF even though it was not changed by you and you are the only person with the password. Would this be a correct statement?
Do you have any thoughts as to what sequence of actions is leading to this?
I will do some testing on mine and see if I can hit on anything which could cause this to occur but anything you can tell us that someone else might be doing would help out.
What about the separate admin vs user account, etc that Delphinium asked about?
I've done a bit of testing so far and I've got another question. In your image you depicted a password prompt along with anti-virus showing an OFF setting.
In case you may not have known, when you first click on the anti-virus setting it will toggle to OFF but it is NOT truly OFF until you have entered the correct password. The initial toggle to OFF in this situation is showing the intended setting and not the actual setting. Until you enter the correct password, the actual setting does not change.
Is this what you are seeing when you believe there might be an issue? Do you find any time where it has actually been off apart from this?
I guess perhaps the issue might then be a request to Symantec to not even show a visual toggle until the password has been entered correctly.
Honestly this would be a good enhancement request.
BTW: the only setting that actually does change without a correct password being entered is the Identity Safe ON/OFF setting. This is because this setting does not affect security.
To test what everyone else has mentioned (and set your mind at ease), you can try the following:
Open the Main screen for Norton and click on the ON / OFF switch for the Antivirus.
Leave the password prompt open and do not enter anything in it; the Main screen will show the Antivirus switch as OFF.
Open IE or Firefox and goto www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm and scroll to the bottom of the screen. Click on the download of Eicar.com under the Standard Protocol Http list. This is a harmless virus test file; it will not harm your system but will test your Antivirus to see if it detects the file as a virus. (You can read all the information on the file and what it is used for on the page.)
If the download is detected and treated by Norton, then your Antivirus scanning is still active even if the Main screen shows the slider in the OFF position. Delete the file, close the browser and click cancel on the Password Entry window. The Main screen for Norton should show the Antivirus slider in the ON position which is the actual status of your Antivirus (since you never entered the password to change the actual Antivirus engine status).
Allen M, yes this is exactly the problem im seeing, at no other time has it ever gone to the off position only when it had been clicked on ,because I hardly ever turn anything off in my firewall i had forgot about 5-10 minute rule stuff, so this being off, but not really off set some alarm bells ringing which i think could do with looking at.
