Symantec maintains two parallel security suite product, Norton Internet Security and Norton 360. Both rely on the same technology as Norton AntiVirus for protection against viruses and all other types of malware.

But new versions like Norton AntiVirus 2010 and Norton Internet Security 2010 always come out in the fall, along with most other security suites. The pattern over the past few years is that Norton 360 revs about six months later, so its security tech can lag behind the other two. Norton 360 v 4.0 came out this week, and it was definitely worth the wait.


A recent dynamic malware protection test by Magdeburg-based AV-Test.org tested a dozen security suites daily for two months, exposing the test systems to 10 new threats each day. Naturally each suite's full range of protection came into play. When they totaled all the results, Spyware Doctor (or rather its corresponding suite PC Tools Internet Security 2010 came in first with Norton Internet Security a close second.

AV-Comparatives.org named Norton security vendor of the year for 2009.

As for Norton 360, it's every bit as powerful as Norton Internet Security, though its user interface is theoretically aimed at the less-technical crowd. It adds a decent PC tuneup facility and an outstanding backup system - quite a deal for $10 more. Norton 360 can backup to almost any kind of local storage device, and it comes with 2 GB of Norton-hosted online storage (25 GB if you pop for the $99.99 "Premium Edition"). You can now log into online backup sets from any computer and even use your backup for file sharing. Want to know more about this dandy suite? Check out my full review