Norton this week released Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security 2011. This year's updates have been carefully engineered to exceed already industry-leading performance and protection benchmarks. Norton goes even further by providing a free tool to consumers, Norton Power Eraser, that is designed to aggressively target and eliminate fake antivirus or “scareware” applications.
“Today’s cybercriminals are not standing down – consumers need the very best protection to stay safe online,” said Janice Chaffin, President, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “The Norton 2011 products are the highest quality we have ever built and the most comprehensive protection on the market with additional, value-added tools for protecting customers from today’s ever-evolving threats.”
Norton Does More: Protection, Performance and Free Tools
New product features, performance enhancements and free tools mean that Norton does even more than the competition to help prevent users from being victimized by cyber thieves.
Protection
According to new third-party test data from Dennis Labs, Norton placed first in real world threat detection tests and was the only vendor to achieve a remarkable 100 percent protection score, marking its second year in a row to secure this distinction. Notably, Dennis Labs recently had its real world security testing methodology reviewed by the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) and received a 100 percent compliance. Additionally, in recent testing conducted by AV-Test.org[3], Norton 2011 led a pack of 12 competitive security offerings in both detection and remediation of threats. Norton has also received top scores in both detection and remediation in evaluations performed by the independent security testing organization AV-Comparatives[4]. The following advanced features of the Norton 2011 products help deliver its unmatched real world protection:
Performance
In addition to the industry leading protection of Norton Internet Security 2011, these products remain the proven fastest and lightest security product in the world. According to new third-party testing data from PassMark Software[5], Norton Internet Security 2011 beat out a field of well-known security offerings, coming in first in overall performance among security suites.
- · Norton Internet Security 2011 performs 65% better than the competitive average of PassMark scores
- · Norton Internet Security 2011 scans 61% faster than the competitive average
- · Norton Internet Security 2011 has the fastest installation time of 41 seconds
Additionally, Norton Internet Security 2011outperformed the competition on everyday PC activities like browsing the Internet and copying files, such as photos or documents, from one location to another. Compared to Norton 2010, the new Norton had 25 percent less impact on browsing the Internet and reduced impact on copying files by more than 60 percent.
Norton’s New Look
The new user interface of Norton 2011 organizes security controls, settings, and information about a computer’s protection and performance status in one easy-to-read and redesigned screen. New this year is the Norton Protection Map, which provides up-to-the minute information about the newest threats Norton has identified and is protecting against around the globe. Additionally, users can get easy one-click access to important data from web-based Norton services including: Norton Online Backup, Norton Online Family and Norton Safe Web.[6]
Norton Offers Free Tools
Because any infected machine poses a risk to the broader online community, Norton is offering powerful free tools for consumers, regardless of the security solution they use to provide all computer users with a deeper level of protection. While these tools are available to everyone, Norton customers benefit from the fact that they are already integrated into the 2011 product experience.
One of these free tools is Norton Power Eraser, which is specially designed to aggressively target and eliminate today’s latest threats, including fake antivirus or scareware programs. Fake antivirus programs impersonate legitimate software and provide a way for cybercriminals to swindle hundreds of millions of dollars out of consumers each year. Norton Power Eraser is available both for free online and as a link within the 2011 Norton products. Learn more about Norton Power Eraser and download it here.
Additional free tools Norton offers include Norton Safe Web Lite, a downloadable toolbar that identifies risky sites before users click on them in search results. Facebook users can protect themselves with Norton Safe Web for Facebook, which scans current Facebook news feeds to see if they contain links that are unsafe. Norton also offers a free tool for parents and kids – Norton Online Family – which helps keep kids stay safe online while encouraging open communication with their parents about their online activities.
Pricing, Availability and Compatibility
Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus 2007 or later users with a valid product subscription are eligible to receive the latest product updates via the subscription service model. For more information, visit the Norton Update center at http://updatecenter.norton.com.