Hi, I have Norton Internet Security 2011 and I see that it installed an extension in Firefox 5.0.1 called "Symantec IPS 3.0". I'd like to know what is that extension for and if it is essential i.e. if I can safely disable it without compromising security. Thanks.
Hi antares,
Malware that attempts to exploit flaws in the browser can be fashioned in ways that make it difficult to detect and block unless the security program actually has a presence in the browser itself. For this reason you should leave the add-on enabled. You can read about this feature in this Norton Protection Blog post:
Thanks SendOfJive, I was advised to disable SYMANTEC IPS 3.0 within Firefox in the Mozilla Community (since it was not essential), but based on your info I'll just keep it.
The IPS add-on plays nice with other extensions. Unless there is some specific issue that can be traced solely to IPS, then yes, there is no benefit to disabling it, and you would lose a measure of protection.
What is the analog of IPS for Internet Explorer?
antares wrote:What is the analog of IPS for Internet Explorer?
Symantec Intrusion Prevention
Going back to the Symantec IPS 3.0 Firefox extension, I was told in the MOzilla forum that Norton IPS duplicates a feature which Firefox has had since 2008 as described in the link below:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/phishing-protection/
So this raises again the question as to whether to disable IPS or not because if they provide the SAME level of protection, then I can either disable Norton IPS or Firefox (I think Firefox protection is always on by design), or I can keep both for an added level of security? What's your recommendation? Thanks
No, the Firefox phishing protection just checks against a database of known bad websites. It does not check the actual code on the website and/or other vulnerabilities. Norton's IPS can protect against a much wider range of vulnerabilities, and protects you against attacks even if the website address itself is not known to spread malware, but has been recently infected or is otherwise unknown.
Norton's IPS does not interfere with Firefox phishing protection.
antares, forums (Mozilla) will tell you that all things Norton are bad or not required. They recall the good old bad old days when Norton was able to bring Deep Thought to its knees, ignore their advice and visit us, we'll tell you no fibs.
Hi antares,
The information you received on the Mozilla forum is incorrect and is confusing two different features. There is nothing in Firefox that natively performs the functions of the Norton IPS add-on, which detects attacks against the browser in real time. The Firefox Malware and Phishing Protection is equivalent to Norton Antiphishing, which is actually a component of the other Norton add-on, the Norton Toolbar. Both use a blacklist of known phishing and malware-hosting sites to prevent you from visiting those sites. This is completely unrelated to IPS. The Firefox feature has no realtime heuristic functionality and so can be enabled along with both Norton add-ons with no conflicts. Is this discussion at Mozilla about a particular problem that is being encountered, or is it just a general question about the various features of Firefox and Norton? You should be able to use the Firefox protection and both Norton extensions together with no issues at all.
Hi SendOfJive, thanks for the info. Here is a link to the topic in the Mozilla Forum that I started for your reference:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2258609&p=11052821#p11052821
antares wrote:Hi SendOfJive, thanks for the info. Here is a link to the topic in the Mozilla Forum that I started for your reference:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2258609&p=11052821#p11052821
LOL! I seem to have inadvertently contradicted the-edmeister. I highly respect him and have found that he is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful on the Mozilla forums - I have gained quite a few valuable Firefox insights from reading some of his posts. He did confuse the Norton IPS add-on with the Norton Toolbar extension, but in all other things the-edmeister rocks. Please express my gratitude to him for all that he does over there.
SendOfJive wrote:
antares wrote:Hi SendOfJive, thanks for the info. Here is a link to the topic in the Mozilla Forum that I started for your reference:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2258609&p=11052821#p11052821
LOL! I seem to have inadvertently contradicted the-edmeister. I highly respect him and have found that he is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful on the Mozilla forums - I have gained quite a few valuable Firefox insights from reading some of his posts. He did confuse the Norton IPS add-on with the Norton Toolbar extension, but in all other things the-edmeister rocks. Please express my gratitude to him for all that he does over there.
I did already, thanks and regards.