Norton Security Review: This Is What A Personal Fort Knox Looks Like

Norton is a household name when it comes to anti-virus software, it is synonymous with it. But “In this day and age do we really need an anti-virus/ firewall security? Isn’t this like age-old thinking?” commented a friend of mine. While he doesn’t really need it as he is well versed with tech, most regular folks certainly do.

Most of us treat our computers as just something to use when we want and don’t understand what is happening inside the machine such as, which software is causing a slowdown, which pen drive caused a spyware to auto-install itself? If you don’t have this awareness, at least let the professionals do it for you; and this is exactly where Norton comes in.

Discreet Intelligence
Norton has a multi-pronged approach, anti-virus, firewall, parental controls (in premium version), 25 GB cloud storage (in premium version). Windows does come with basic anti-virus and firewall, Norton does certainly take it much further and more intelligently e.g. ever file that is downloaded , Norton lets the user know about it, whether it is a known file, how many users have used it, is it safe, etc. This is what a good advisor does, let’s you know discreetly with intelligence.

Advisor: Norton file insight hard at work

Top Notch Protection
Tests have repeatedly shown Norton engine coming at the time top, in scanning, identifying the threats, prevention and also removal. Removing a threat is a lot more difficult and Norton does that admirably well. 

At-a-glance: All green means everything is okay

I had an issue with Norton that it kept popping up security messages on one of my PC’s, this was odd. It had to do with an unknown file that was found. Norton rightly kept alerting me as it was not a virus but an unknown file, perhaps from one of the freeware installed on the PC. A quick search on Google helped me understand what it was and from where it could have come. Had it not been for Norton, I wouldn’t have known about it.

(Almost) No Impact
Norton has come a long way from its bloated days of yesteryears, the Security Suite now has very little impact on the system. Testing showed that boot time, copying files, etc had the least amount of impact, so much so that it would go unnoticed. I personally regularly game the latest titles and there too, no FPS difference nor game loading difference with or without Norton was experienced. And no, there weren’t any embarrassing automated scans that ran in the background during running a game. In fact, Norton had updated itself and was waiting for me to finish gaming, only after that did it inform me that it needs to reboot to apply the update.

And For Geeks
Those of us who love looking at the innards of stuff and alter things as per our own taste, Norton has that to offer too. You get performance graphs, downloaded timeline, alerts, installed information so you know exactly what is going on in your PC. You can easily alter Start-up programs, dig through which programs can connect to the internet and what sections the Anti-virus ought not to scan for all those *wink*wink* downloaded programs/games from the dark corners of the internet.

Nothing can remain hidden

Three Editions
Norton comes with three editions, Norton Standard for 1 device, Deluxe for 5 devices and Premium for 10 devices. These devices can be PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet, these are distinct licences for several devices in one product. The Deluxe version additional family safety features, and auto backup with 25GB cloud storage integration.

While the Standard costs Rs.849, the Deluxe for 5 devices costs just Rs.1399 for one year, that's just Rs.280 for one year for one device which is quite a steal. You can easily install it on your PC/laptop, use one for your smartphone if required and/or share the price among several family/friends if required.

Buy from Norton
It is best to buy from Norton website itself as they indeed offer the best price. Online stores like Amazon and Flipkart have retail boxes that are often more expensive. Please note that when buying from Norton, you’ll get only a licence key and not a CD/DVD.


By: Nikhil Rastogi

Norton Boosts Protection With The Launch Of Its New Norton Security Solution

Norton has announced the launch of its new Norton Security software in India, boosting its protection and performance levels for consumers. Norton Security provides customers with our best security protection in one subscription service across multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. 

According to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec discovered more than 430 million new unique pieces of malware in 2015, up 36 percent from the year before and in August 2016 alone, there were 45 million new malware variants, the highest level seen since August 2015.

Features of Norton Security include-

Proactive Exploit Prevention: Zero-day vulnerabilities are holes in software applications that are unknown by the software vendor. Norton Security’s Proactive Exploit Prevention technology helps protect the holes in common software applications by recognizing a range of malicious behaviors that are trademarks of zero-day attacks.

Emulation Technology: In their attempts to bypass traditional security software, cybercriminals often hide their malicious code in innocuous-looking files. Norton Security’s newly developed emulation technology hunts down antivirus-evading malware before it can compromise a user’s system. It does this by unpacking and running the suspicious files in a virtual machine for examination before the malware in these files can compromise the user’s machine.

Predictive Machine Learning Engine: Criminals know this, and as a result, develop automated ways to deliver variations of malware designed to evade the signatures. The Predictive Machine Learning Engine anticipates new and evolving malware variants. Using a machine learning algorithm, it develops statistical model that helps accurately detect and blocks both new and unknown malware.

Faster Mac Protection: Mac users will see faster scans and lower overall memory utilization on their devices.

Norton Security is available via in.norton.com and is offered as a flexible service to protect all devices. MSRP for Norton Security starts at Rs.1,399 with periodic special offers.