Posted 09/08/09 at 06:43:24 PM by Jason Barry

Symantec announced the newest version of its popular Norton security software.  In particular, they elaborated on Norton 2010’s new file analysis technology codenamed “Quorom”.  

The new technology attacks the problem faced by most security software: the overwhelming abundance of unique malware applications.  Malware creators are able to churn out innumerable amounts of unique malware based on similar vulnerabilities and exploitations in hopes of bypassing standard signature and behavior-based detection.  Quorum aims to use the uniqueness of the software as a means of threat detection itself.

Further, the new software was developed to maintain its light footprint and quick operation.  Passmark Software benchmarked Norton Internet Security 2010 and its competitors.   Norton reportedly installs in less than 60 seconds and occupies less than 10 megabytes of operational memory.

Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus both support all versions of Windows 7 and Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) as well as Windows XP SP2.  They are currently available for purchase in the United States.

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Posted 07/03/09 at 05:19:54 PM by Paul Lilly

Many of our readers were taken off-guard when we rated Norton Internet Security 2009 a 9/Kickass in last year's antivirus roundup, and we even admit to being surprised at Norton's transformation from a resource-heavy sloth to a lean and competent antimalware package. We hope the trend continues, and we'll have a chance to see if it does now that Symatec has released beta versions of its upcoming 2010 releases to the public.

The new version features a new protection model codenamed Quorum and will put a heavier focus on reputation-based malware detection. While it won't replace existing signature-based detection for known threats, Norton says the reputation model can detect zero-day malware that's never been seen before.

"Our new approach changes the rules by both enhancing traditional security techniques to make them more aggressvie and by making it dramatically more difficult for attackers to evade detection by simply changing their malware," said Rowan Trollope, Symantec senior vice president, Consumer Business Unit.

Other features include an overhaul to parental control and spam filtering, more detailed information provided by Norton Insight, which identifies known good programs for faster scanning, and a new feature called Autopsy, which is designed to help the user understand what just happened when Norton automatically removes an infection.

Norton Internet Security 2010 Beta
Norton Antivirus 2010 Beta

Had a chance to try either one of these out? Hit the jump and let us know about it!

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