Norton antivirus the malware emulator

I drew this parallel that norton antivirus while protecting you from malware actually emulates malware causing your PC to act funny, slow etc.

I was playing a console emulator and the screen froze for a while. During this time I see a push notification from norton saying that it's running some kind of background task while the machine was idle....bs. I wish I had a screenshot of this. If I'd didn't know any better and my game froze like that I might think I had malware, or some crappy code running on my system heh

Shit like this is why I should just build a seperate box for each purpose I want to use that box for...

 

I use a dual os setup with 2 hard drives. HD 1 is 20% Windows 7 64 and 80% Ubuntu 13.10. HD 2 is 100% NTFS for windows installation. I use windows solely for gaming. Log in, install games on the 2nd HD and game away. Very minimal protection and whatnot because it's just a gaming rig. Everything else, banking, forum browsing, and whatnot, is done with encrypted ubuntu with https connections, javascript disabled when possible, etc. I find this works better to 1) keep the game part simple and clean, and focused just on gaming. 2) keeping the rest of my stuff more secure, like buying online.

And I've tried norton and wasn't impressed. It does tend to slow down, especially when scanning :/ Since my windows now is minimal, I'm using free avast for antivirus, adaware and ccleaner for crap removal, and defraggler to keep hd running smoothly. When I was running everything on windows, I had a bit better security and used BitDefender. Found their pay program better than Nortons.

 

I've been calling it Norton Antivirus Virus for ages.

 

LOL....

Yeah, for the average home user Norton sucks balls.
But in the business/enterprise segment it is one of the best out there and actually has a better client experience when being run from a central server that handles all the updates and everything.
All the client side app has to worry about is trapping threats that arrive via USB or other external media.
When set-up correctly in a server/client environment, the server pulls the updates and then pushes the updates to the workstations at next log-in and for the most part the entire process is transparent to the end-user.


But for a stand-alone machine that the average Joe is using it is a resource sapper for sure.
I used for one year (free subscription) since it became Symantac, didn't care for it much.
My friend uses it, but he has a server/client setup in his home and uses Symantac for his clients business networks without too many issues.

I have been using MS Security Essentials, free, always updated and if you are smart and practice other basic security, it is more than fine for most users.

 

That is good to know, Gas. My dad has been complaining about how slow his pc gets and he also bought norton antivirus because he has a business. But he doesn't have a network, just one pc. I already said I had my doubts about this particular antivirus but now I'll let him know it is good but only in a network.. Problem is because he paid for it he probably won't switch haha

 

Norton is that annoying neighbor that lives upstairs, comes over unannounced.. disturbs the peace, and he smells like shit..

 

Is your neighbour's first name Graham?

 

I had to google that.. sounds like an interesting character, if annoyed or curious.. :2thumbsup:

Edward "Ed" Lillywhite Norton..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vihnr5dM3PM"]The Honeymooners - Ralph Kramden & Norton Dance The Hucklebuck - Clip - YouTube

 

In reality, if you have a solid modem or router that can trap suspicious traffic before it even enter your network, then you don't need as robust of a AV on the individual machines. One of the reasons Norton works good in a business/multi-user environment is because when set-up and managed properly with a decent mail server, it will trap suspicious e-mails before they are pulled down to the client machine and as I said, that with practicing safe habits, a person should be good. :2thumbsup:
Problem is Norton doing all that shit on the local machine while a person is actually trying to work sucks donkey balls!!!

Oh, I should probably point out that there are two products (sorry didn't point it out before);
the "Norton" line of software which is specifically designed/geared for the "home-user" or SOHO user
and the "Symantec" line for multi-user business/enterprise environments.
The majority of +'s I have mentioned apply to the Symantec line, not necessarily the Norton line.
They have the same engines and such, but do things rather differently.


If you are curious about how transparent and vulnerable you are to the outside world, here is a good place to test it, as well as get many useful utilities.

https://www.grc.com/intro.htm

run the Shields Up and related utilities and it will highlight any vulnerabilities.

My machine/network is invisible to the outside world.

 

I'll verify it :biggrin:

I run free Avast! antivirus on my pc and besides that I notice all the frequent updates I'm very content with it. Of course I'm not sure this would be the best option for my dad's business computer...!

 

For a business the bigger concern is infiltration from someone mining for information.
American and European business networks are one of the main targets of attack from serious hackers and China.

Yes, China. They literally have crews who work 24/7 trying to infiltrate American/European business networks.
Mt friend has a SonicWall router that traps and logs all incoming traffic.
We have watched in real time as his router got hammered for about 30 minutes with one log-in attempt after another. I think the total number of attempts was around 10,000,000 in that short time. It happens at his clients all the time as well.
The vast majority of the time the originating IP's are from China.
So you should run the suite of software at GRC.com on your dad's set-up just to see how vulnerable he may be to that type of attack.

 

Ok! Although he doesn't have a business the chinese are interested in that much I think

 

True, it's just that they employ bots and such. So they just hammer away at ANY possible business listing/IP mining for any type of info possible. It's when they actually infiltrate a network that a human takes a peak.
If you think about it, they have learned a lot about other companies business practices from such things, as I'm sure every country has

Then you also have hackers mining for personal data such as account #'s and credit info, etc.
So not letting them in in the first place is the best practice.

 

Yeah we all can agree to that

 

Rofl! I love that Thanks for the morning humour ^_^