14 DAY TRIAL // There are two fresh new options for bulletproofing Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, from Symantec. Norton AntiVirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008 are both designed to integrate seamlessly with Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate as well as with Windows XP SP2 Home, XP Pro and XP Media Center Edition. Symantec stressed especially the aspect that its new and improved offerings have been redesigned in order to deliver increased performance. The Cupertino-based security company underscored that Norton AntiVirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008 "start, scan and run faster - improved performance delivers an enhanced online experience". With such a move, Symantec addressed one of the major shortcomings of its security solutions, but it remains to be seen if the new products will be able to convince and to alter the existing customer perception.
"The new Norton 2008 products deliver comprehensive security, home network monitoring, performance and more, allowing you to have confidence in your connected world. See how our 2008 products have been enhanced to provide comprehensive protection against new and emerging threats, while providing significant gains in performance," reveals the description of the Norton 2008 solutions. One of the new additions to Norton Internet Security 2008 is Norton Identity Safe, designed to ensure the protection of personal sensitive data in scenarios involving online transactions.
Additionally, the BrowserDefender technology will protect Internet Explorer 7 against attacks involving everything from obfuscated code to JavaScript, VBScript and even the ubiquitous ActiveX controls. As a part of the overhaul suffered by Norton AntiVirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008, the two products have been pushed to the background, as tasks that normally relied on user interaction have become automated. On top of this, the two Norton 2008 solutions come with SONAR, Symantec's behavioral detection technology designed to fight exploits and malware associated with zero day vulnerabilities.
In a recent anti-virus comparative put together by AV-Test, Symantec barely managed to position itself ahead of Microsoft. The Redmond company, a newcomer on the security industry grabbed the tenth place with OneCare and Forefront, while Symantec climbed as high as ninth place. And while the Cupertino-based security company is a household name on the market, Microsoft is currently breathing down its neck accounting for a detection rate of 96.42% while Symantec's was just 96.75%.
Norton AntiVirus 2008 is available for download here. And Norton Internet Security 2008 can be downloaded via this link.