Web
security software intuitive, useful -- but not perfect
by
Alan Zisman (c) 2003 First published in
Business in Vancouver , Issue #690 January 14- 20 High
Tech
Office column
Last week's column looked at potholes in the
Information Superhighway: the spam, viruses, and security attacks that
increased throughout the past year and show no signs of letting
up.
Large
businesses have
information technology departments paid to worry about these things,
and (hopefully) keep end-users safe.
Small business
and
home-office users, however, are on their own to try to wend their
way through a confusing array of utilities offering virus
protection, firewalls, pop-up ad barriers, adware removal and on and
on.
The 2003
version of Symantec's
Norton
Internet Security ($99 home version, $150
professional
version) has evolved into the Swiss army knife of Internet
protection utilities, bundling a set of tools that will smooth out
the potholes for most Internet travellers.
Like previous
editions, it bundles a copy of Norton Antivirus with a subscription
for a year's worth of virus definition updates. (At the end of that
year, users can still manually download new virus definitions, but
will need to purchase an extended subscription to use the software's
automated Live Update.)
Norton
Antivirus does
a good job of working behind the scenes to detect viruses in e-mail
attachments and in outgoing e-mail. New this year is the ability to
check for viruses in instant messaging attachments, though it lacks
support for the popular ICQ program.
The program's
firewall (available on its own as the $75 Norton Personal Firewall)
provides protection from outside hackers and from installed software
"phoning home" without the user's knowledge or consent.
During setup
it
presents the user with a list of programs that desire Internet
access. Resist temptation to give them all blanket approval,
allowing you to catch rogue software in the act over the next few
days.
Alternatively,
you
can enter the last digits of credit cards and bank accounts,
allowing the program to block Internet packets sending financial
data, (or children "borrowing" daddy's credit card to make purchases
online).
Both versions
of the
software include options to limit what different users can do on the
Net. The $99 home version includes optional restrictive profiles for
children and teens, while the $149 professional version aims to keep
employees from letting the Net divert them from work.
A new
spam-alert
option aims at identifying undesired e-mail messages. Like other
products of this type, it's helpful but not perfect. In my tests, it
correctly flagged about 80 per cent of the junk mail arriving in my
inbox, adding a SPAM ALERT warning to its subject line. This not
only warns you about the message, but also makes it easy to set up a
rule in Outlook Express or Eudora to automatically divert such messages
to the trash. However, it missed a few pieces of junk mail and
incorrectly flagged a few messages sent by services to which I had
subscribed.
While not a
security
hazard, Web ads have become increasingly annoying. New to this
version of Norton Internet Security is an option to screen out Web
page ads. Ad Blocking can be set to stop both online ads, and
annoying pop-up and pop-under windows.
This feature
worked
well in my tests. If some ads slip through its screening, you can
drag them to the program's ad trash can to filter them out the next
time you visit that page. (The Ad Trashcan, however, is buried
several levels deep in the program's configuration, making it
perhaps too awkward to use in real life.)
Though not yet
perfect, Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2003 combines a
comprehensive set of features with a reasonably easy-to-use
interface, making it a good choice for online users' protection and
convenience.
Buy Symantec Norton Internet Security from
Amazon.com