Symantec releases Vista-compatible Norton software

Stan Beer
Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:08

Your IT - Home IT

Security vendor Symantec has announced that its flagship consumer products Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus and Norton Confidential will be Vista-compatible in time for the public release of the Windows Vista Operating System on January 30. Users who purchased Norton Internet Security 2006 and 2007, Norton AntiVirus 2006 and 2007 and Norton Confidential designed for Windows XP can get a free upgrade.

Additionally, the company announced that current subscribers of both Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus are eligible for a new technology update called SONAR. According to Symantec, SONAR (Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response) will significantly enhance malware detection and protect Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus users from the online threat landscape.

"We've improved on Norton's already award-winning protection, and are ensuring that customers remain fully protected on the new Vista operating system," said Rowan Trollope, vice president, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. "Our subscription service model enables us to provide our customers with cutting edge security technologies such as SONAR as soon as they become available, thereby helping ensure that customers always have the most up-to-date protection."

SONAR is behavioral detection technology that protects against malicious code before standard virus and spyware detection definitions have been created.  Such emerging and unknown malicious code can strike in the form of Trojan Horses, worms, mass-mailing viruses, spyware or downloaders. SONAR draws from a range of heterogeneous application behavior data which, according to Symantec, enhances detection and minimises false positives.

Symantec claims that the result for consumers is zero-hour protection from a vast threat spectrum without being bothered with confusing decision-based prompts. When detections are made through SONAR, no user interaction is required.

"What sets SONAR technology apart from the pack is that our method of heuristics-based detection is so comprehensive and accurate that it boasts a 0.0004% false positive detection rate (4 in 1,000,000 users) of potential threats," Trollope said. "This is truly unheard of in the industry."

SONAR will be delivered to all current Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security users via the Ongoing Protection subscription service model.