Hi all, today is such a big day for the Norton consumer team. We launched the latest and greatest version of our killer program, Norton 360. We’re now on version 5.0 and look at the list of new features added to an already stellar product:
- NEW! Reputation service
- NEW! Norton Insight
- NEW! Web-based Access to Backup Files
- NEW! SONAR™ 2 Behavioral Protection
- IMPROVED! Automated Backup and Restore**
- IMPROVED! Start-up Manager
- IMPROVED! Professional-Strength AntiSpam
- IMPROVED! Anti-Phishing
- IMPROVED! Parental Controls
If you have Norton 360 4.0 and a valid subscription, you can update to the latest version for free. Just visit our Norton Update Center and click the yellow button. This allows our website to check your computer, verify your product and subscription and get you the update. I just did it and it was fast and easy.
Next, we launched something completely innovative and valuable, the Norton Cybercrime Index. Most of us don’t realize how widespread cybercrime is. A Norton study found that 65% of adults around the world have already been victimized (malware, id theft, hacked social networking accounts, online scams and spam.) You’re already in the habit of checking the weather before getting dressed or listening to the traffic report and viewing a GPS map before heading out for a drive. Now you have the Norton Cybercrime Index to give you a quick view of today’s cybercrime threats and how to stay safe. Each day, the Index is updated (more frequently if there’s a big cybercrime outbreak) with a number, giving you an indication of whether cybercrime is up or down since the day before and which sectors (malware, identity theft, fraud or spam) is giving us the worst trouble. With a little more time, you can see which are the most dangerous websites or search terms and make sure your daily online activities are protected.
The Norton Cybercrime Index is a completely free tool and available now. Visit the Norton Cybercrime Index on your computer’s browser or mobile device. Download a Windows gadget (if you’ve got a Vista or Windows 7 computer) to display the Index right on your desktop. Get into the daily habit of checking the Norton Cybercrime Index and avoid being a cybercrime victim.
Lastly, we love to do research at Norton. Our latest exclusive study, the Norton Cybercrime Report: The Celebrity Impact took a look at a special group of internet users, our beloved celebrities. Often they are like the proverbial “canary in a coalmine” when it comes to online troubles. Targeted by obsessed fans, abused by cybercriminals hoping to trade on their fame, victimized by their sharing of personal information, celebrities experience more, not less cybercrime than the rest of us.
In my role as Norton’s Internet Safety Advocate, I’ve met a few celebrities over the years and they all experience cybercrime just like the rest of us. In fact, I think due to their fame they experience these problems earlier, like the coalmine canary.
We spoke with 16 well-known celebrities from the worlds of television, film and music and found some surprising cybercrime stories. Names you might recognize include Nick Cannon, Kristin Cavallari, Greg Grunberg, Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez, to name just a few. The majority (10 of 16) have had someone hack their social networking accounts and pretend to be them! Just under half (7 of 16) have been harassed online (as in stalking from fan or harassment from people who don’t like them or their work.)
For celebrities, the biggest cybercrime hassle is the potential “loss of irreplaceable data.” Compare that to regular consumers in our 2010 Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact” who said the worst was “the time it took to resolve the problem.” Some of our surveyed celebrities shared cybercrime stories from their personal experiences. Karina Smirnoff has been victimized by the most and said the worst part was the time it took to resolve everything, general feelings of stress, anger or embarrassment and the loss of irreplaceable data.
Nick Cannon is one of our most proactive celebs, because he reports he’s changed his online behavior to avoid cybercrime. He calls his bank and other financial institutions, contacts websites and email providers directly and restricts the types of websites he visits.
Our Norton Cybercrime Report: The Celebrity Impact also has some fun questions we posed to our celebrity panel. For example, Nick Cannon would rather have a sex tape released than succumb to being a cybercrime victim! (Oh, really?) And Kat De Luna and Greg Grunberg agree, they would rather have paparazzi live in their homes for a week, go back to work at their very first job, gain 30 pounds or have a hairy body part waxed than endure the consequences of being a cybercrime victim!