Comments on: Symantec’s New Mac Security Suite: A Different Side of Norton

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:11:12 +0000

The BEST firewall is to ‘unplug’ your router if you think you’re ‘under attack’

I use a hardware firewall as well as OS X firewall and an anti-virus prog and thats it….don’t think I need anything else.

By: hagge

hagge — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:19:51 +0000

wont install until there is a clear reason and even then probably something cheaper. Dont see the value added really. One vendor mentioned that one reason for people who are alot in contact with windows-people would be not helping to spread viruses by mistake but id rather figure out how to virus-filter outbound mail.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:30:03 +0000

Software by Symantec will never occupy another computer of ours. I couldn’t stand their invasive crap code on our windows boxes and was glad when we went to a totally OS X shop.

By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:57:05 +0000

Does it slow down your PC to a crawl like the Windows version?

Norton comes with most Windows PCs, which is probably why a lot of folk think Windows is slow and full of annoying popups.

When I worked for DSGi we were targeted to flog Norton for £30 with at least 50% of PCs. I used to think it was like a car salesman insisting on attacking a caravan to a new sports car.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:44:58 +0000

I buy and implement solutions based on how much of my risk they will reduce, compared to my risk tolerance.

It’s not apparent, as a Mac user, A). if the current risk I have is outside my tolerance, and B). how much this product actually reduces risk to me from various threat communities.

Therefore – non-starter.

By: Tom Borowski

Tom Borowski — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:13:49 +0000

Wow, 80 bucks for a Norton product who’s benefits are pretty sketchy. Little Snitch is an excellent firewall for outgoing connections and costs $29.95. And anyone should be using a firewall – hardware or software – for incoming connections anyway; so why install another one?

And antivirus protection? I’ve never used any on neither Windows nor the Mac. It just gives users a false sense of security when instead they should be aware and alert of possible dangers.

And Norton saying that their phishing protection is “more comprehensive” than Safari’s or Firefox’s… do they deliver any hard facts to support that claim? These anti-fishing measures (the green thingy next to the address bar in Firefox) is pretty much useless anyway, because most “normal” users don’t know what it means.

No box of software, be it from Symantec or any other developer, will prevent people from getting their machines infected. Actually, I bet those that install anti-whatever software are even more prone to get infected because they think they’re safe and start doing stupid things…

Tom