Symantec Streamlines 2007 Consumer Security Titles

Norton Internet Security 2007, which will ship later this month, now includes anti-phishing tools that rely on black lists of known phony sites as well as on heuristic technologies that sniff out potentially dangerous sites. Other enhancements to the security suite -- the Cupertino, Calif. company's biggest consumer seller -- include a new intrusion prevention feature that Symantec claims will protect Windows PCs from developing threats even if they're not fully patched against Microsoft-disclosed vulnerabilities.

Like Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus 2007 sports a revamped interface. It also uses newly-added technology that Symantec says will block attacks from entire worm and virus families without requiring separate signature definitions for each.

"We also separated the core system [security] technologies from all other protection features," added Laura Garcia-Manrique, Symantec's director of product development. The move toward modularization -- as well as an accompanying code rewrite of several areas of Internet Security and changes to the malware scanning engines -- has reduced the suite's memory consumption to 10-15MB and shortened scanning times by 30-35 percent.

"There's a general need for simplicity, and for streamlined installs," Garcia-Manrique said. "We've also modularized the product so that anti-spam and parental controls that have traditionally been part of the automatic install are now optional."

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Norton AntiVirus 2007 will list for $39.99, while Norton Internet Security will sell for $69.99; both prices include a one-year's subscription to product and signature updates.

The Norton products run under Windows XP, but are eligible for a free update to a Windows Vista version after the new Microsoft operating system ships.