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Norton Internet Security 2009
PC Advisor Review &
Rating
The strong Symantec Norton Internet
Security 2009 suite may cost a little more than some
competitors, but it’s easy to use and good at
blocking malicious software. Updated, 16 June 2009.
Symantec Norton Internet Security
2009 is a winner. It pairs excellent malware detection
and cleanup with a smooth, intuitive interface and
a good range of features. Norton wasn’t tops
in every category we tested, but if you want a solid
product to protect your PC, Norton Internet Security
is a great option.
In AV-Test’s extensive malware-detection
tests, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 did
very well, identifying 97.8 percent of the 722,372
collected samples of Trojan horses, worms, password-stealers,
adware, and other nasties (98.3 percent excluding
adware). This represents a slight decrease from our
previous test results, where Norton caught 98.7 percent
of ‘zoo’ samples (98.8 percent excluding
adware). Even so, Symantec Norton Internet Security
2009 still came third overall behind G-Data InternetSecurity
2010, which tagged 99.8 percent of ‘zoo’
samples and BitDefender Internet Security 2009 which
achieved a 98.9 percent detection rate.
Symantec Norton Internet Security
2009 again took top honours in cleaning up malware
infections, although it wasn’t perfect. It got
rid of 85 percent of the files and Registry changes
that malware had put in place, but it failed to scrub
all the files from two out of 10 test infections.
It produced similarly strong numbers for detecting
and removing rootkits. It successfully removed nine
out of nine active rootkits.
In dealing with adware, Symantec
Norton Internet Security 2009 was on the low end with
its 85.6 percent detection rate for this aggravating,
albeit usually harmless, software. The top performers,
by contrast, identified more than 98 percent of the
adware in our testing. On the other hand, it was the
only product that didn’t produce a single false
positive by misidentifying safe software as harmful.
Internet security product
reviews
Symantec Norton Internet Security
2009 was below average at identifying unknown malware
for which it doesn’t yet have a signature. In
tests with two-week-old signature files, it identified
only 44.6 percent of samples (compared to 48.2 percent
in previous testing). This put it third, well behind
G Data, which detected a bit more than 56 percent
of the samples.
However, Symantec Norton Internet
Security 2009’s new ‘pulse’ update
feature, which sends out malware signatures to the
program every 5 to 15 minutes, could help offset that
lacklustre proactive performance. Symantec responds
very quickly to new widespread malware attacks, typically
in less than 2 hours, according to AV-Test.
Another new feature, Norton Insight,
uses internet-based elements to identify trusted applications
that don’t need to be scanned, which Symantec
says can help improve scanning speed. The suite did
prove the fastest of the group at scheduled or manual
on-demand scans that survey entire files, but it was
only the sixth fastest at the more-important on-access
checks that occur every time your PC opens or accesses
a file.
Symantec Norton Internet Security
2009’s anti-spam feature adds a toolbar to Outlook
and Outlook Express, and its firewall will automatically
allow known, trusted applications to access the internet.
And its wireless security feature correctly warned
us about a test network that used no encryption.
To use the parental controls and
privacy features, you must download and install a
free add-on pack from Symantec. Afterward you’ll
be able to assign access profiles such as ‘Child’,
‘Teen’, or ‘Unrestricted’
to existing Windows user accounts, or define certain
types of information, such as credit card numbers,
that you don’t want sent from your PC without
your authorisation.
While Symantec Norton Internet Security
2009’s default settings and interface were largely
correct and well done in our testing, its anti-phishing
proved a notable exception: The feature turned off
Firefox’s built-in anti-phishing protection
without any notification, a move that Symantec says
is to prevent potential duplicative alerts.
Other suites had no problems leaving
Firefox’s feature on in addition to their own,
however, and doing so means you have two opportunities
to catch and block a phishing site instead of just
one.
Regrettably, the Symantec Norton
Internet Security 2009 suite lacks a backup capability,
and it can’t scan for missing applications or
Windows patches a function that’s fairly common
among its competitors.
This review was written by PC Advisor.
To read more of this review or to read other reviews
about other pieces of software visit: www.pcadvisor.co.uk
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