Unless you’re a reclusive hermit who never downloads files, visits Web sites, or shares documents, security threats are regrettably a way of life. To help combat the many malicious evils out there, Symantec serves up Norton Internet Security 2008, the latest version of the venerable security suite that offers some improvements and effectively serves peace of mind.
NIS sports an edgier looking screen that is mostly basic black and is less friendly than those in prior versions |
The first thing that’s likely to catch your attention in the 2008 edition is how it does a better job of running in the background and dominates less of your PC’s processing power — it’s no longer the outright resources hog of previous incarnations. And the addition of Norton Identity Safe to the mix improves the suite’s anti-phishing capabilities while helping to protect important personal data.
It’s too bad that Symantec didn’t add capabilities from its new Norton AntiBot program to the suite, which would have been a stellar addition (assuming that the product works as well as it’s being touted). But hey, there’s money to be made by selling the product on its own.
As in the past, Norton Internet Security (NIS) offers features that detect and eliminate viruses, spyware, and Internet worms while protecting computers from internet-based hackers through its firewall. The suite rounds out its offerings by ensuring protection from rootkits and blocking phishing sites that may try to steal your identity.
What’s New in ’08
Norton Internet Security 2008 now comes with Norton Identity Safe which keeps personal information and your identity safe as you shop and bank online and visit Web sites. A major convenience, the program stores personal contact information and a credit card, as well as user and password login data, for your favorite Web sites.
While you’ve probably memorized the login passwords for your favorite sites, the program is great for recalling passwords to those sites that you only occasionally visit. And when you visit a legitimate shopping or banking site, the program fills in the contact information for you.
The program’s phishing protection identifies and blocks fraudulent Web sites that are designed to steal personal information — it strives to sort real sites from imposters. The features found in Norton Identity Safe are an improvement over those found in previous releases of NIS and are a welcome addition.
The Inevitable Slow Down
The downside of security software has always been the hit – often significant – to your computer’s speed and performance. In the case of NIS 2008, Symantec has worked hard to streamline scans and ensure the program works more efficiently in the background.
Based on testing, it appears that Symantec has indeed improved NIS, with the new release being less likely to hog resources and bring computing to a crawl on slower systems. In testing on a fast PC, scans were quicker and less intrusive than those performed with prior versions. However, our test system’s boot time was definitely longer than before installing NIS.
The Interface
Symantec has simplified the controls, which would normally be a welcome alteration. But the significant downside is that the interface is more frustrating for advanced users who want to tweak and adjust settings to their preferences. In this latest version, you pretty much turn most options on or off.
NIS 2008 sports an edgier looking screen that is mostly basic black and, in our opinion, less user friendly than those in prior versions. Of course, security isn’t a happy subject. Perhaps Symantec wanted to make the program look more authoritative.
Recognizing that most homes own more than one computer, NIS can oversee the security on up to three networked computers — it also includes a three-PC license, which is quickly becoming the standard for security software ever since Microsoft released its Windows OneCare Live suite.
Administrators aren’t given a lot of information on other PCs and can’t fix problems remotely, but they can view the options being used on other networked PCs. In execution, this aspect of NIS 2008 functions more like a starter system that offers lots of room for future improvements.
Next page: NIS 2008 in Use
NIS 2008 in Use
The program’s phishing protection identifies and blocks fraudulent Web sites that are designed to steal personal information |
You can set NIS to scan daily, weekly, or monthly, as well as tell it to scan on startup or when the system is on and you’re not working. As before, the system scans emails, files, and IM messages for viruses and worms.
One area that is definitely sub par is the program’s anti-spam features. While the anti-spam features effectively install and blend into Microsoft Outlook, the end results, based on our testing, are less than satisfying. The program competently supports whitelists — the ability to define those who may freely send e-mail that won’t be blocked. But the anti-spam features allowed a significant amount of spam to pass, and worse, identified lots of legitimate e-mail as spam.
Searching for legitimate e-mails that are wrongly flagged as spam can take just as long or longer than sifting through unfiltered e-mail and picking out and flicking the spam. But when you review unfiltered e-mail, at least you won’t send important e-mails into that flagged never never land where it can be forgotten.
Parents can rely on NIS to shield kids from inappropriate websites, but the program can’t apply different Web filtering levels to different members of the family. Again, it’s all or nothing.
Symantec has improved its help features. The AutoFix feature identifies problems and suggests potential fixes. And if it can’t fix the problem, it directs you to e-mail, chat, and telephone resources. As before, pricing is based on a subscription that includes one year of automatic definition updates, new product features, and access to updated versions.
While it’s hard to quantify the length of time that you may have to wait for phone help, something that Symantec has been criticized for in the past, there is an option for a tech rep to take over your computer and fix a problem. Even though you may have to wait for it, there’s a decent chance that your technical issues can be solved.
Security Specifics
There are lots of security options out there, even from Symantec itself. The company’s own Norton 360 is a competing product that costs ten dollars more and offers features to backup and restore folders and files and unerase deleted folders and files. Norton 360 also hosts an online storage service and can additionally find and fix problems that are hindering a computer’s performance. It’s well worth the extra money if you don’t already have a backup system in place.
For 2008, the addition of Norton Identity Safe and the streamlined background performance are welcome additions. Symantec has delivered a product that is worth the upgrade.
Norton Internet Security 2008 requires Windows Vista, a 300MHz or higher processor, 256MB of RAM and 350MB of available hard disk space. Norton Internet Security 2008 is priced at $69.99, which offers protection for up to three computers in a household (upgrade $49.99). A two-year subscription may be purchased for $114.99.
This article was first published on WinPlanet.
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.