NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2012

Specifications

Rs 2,530

(1 year of protection for 3 PCs)

Rs 1,165
(1 year of protection for 1 PC)

www.symantec.com/en/in/

System Requirements

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7; RAM: 256 MB; Drive space: 300 MB.

Contact Symantec India

PHONE  1800 -02-4235

EMAIL   nortonindia@symantec.com        

 

Your data today is more vulnerable to threats, more so because it tends to be scattered across the cloud. Although most cloud networks tend to be quite secure, gateways to malware tend to open up when you try to connecting your PC to the Internet.

Thus, just an anti-virus protection at times doesn’t suffice. Instead of setting up multiple protection software like an anti-virus and firewall that also affect the normal performance of your PC, you can opt for an Internet security package instead, which offers an all-in-one solution to put less load on your system resources.

Features

Targeted towards home Internet users, who want better control over their security suite, Norton Internet Security 2012 is a power packed tool. A few notches better than the 2012 Antivirus tool from Norton, the Internet Security suite offers a potent antivirus and spyware tool along with online identity theft protection. The Internet Security suite also provides Norton Online Family security for child-friendly browsing options. While installing the application, users can opt to be a part of the Norton Community Watch program that aims at controlling digital cybercrimes by forwarding data automatically to Symantec.

A Strong Firewall

The firewall set up is probably one of the strongest facets of the tool. It not only blocks every popup effectively, but also stops users from killing the process from the task manager or even altering registry entries, making your machine secure to the core. The anti-spam mechanism is very robust too and boasts of high accuracy rates.

Keeping your identity protected

You can sync passwords across multiple computers using the Identity Safe login using your online Norton Account details. Identity Safe also lets you automate the process of filling Web forms using Identity Cards. You can create multiple identity cards with personal information, email and address, phone numbers, and one credit card. While the Identity Safe tool helps users save passwords and autofill forms, the service doesn’t start as a popup, but remains docked as a tool bar on your browser, making it less intrusive and easy to locate and use whenever needed.  

Well Integrated

Although the Internet Security suite doesn’t come with a built-in parental control tool, online back up or mobile security features, it gives you access to connect to these services using the main window. So if you use any of these features, you can still use them via the home page of the Internet Security interface.

SONAR 4.0

In a bid to curb FakeAV detection, Internet Security 2012 features the SONAR Policy Enforcement that can block processes that are suspicious. While this feature of the tool is aggressive, it does tend to go overboard by blocking even legitimate programs, making it a tad bit annoying.

Verdict

Norton has surpassed not just its earlier versions of the Internet Security suite, but has emerged as one of the strongest security tools to date. The decluttered interface and quick reference system insights, along with detailed reports help you understand the workings of your PC better.  It is not very resource-intensive either. Once you close applications connecting to the internet, the suite also reduces system usage accordingly. 

Facebook’s Biggest Change

The things you share on Facebook

have always been stored on the

site, but it used to take a lot of

patience and determination for someone

to uncover every single post you’ve made

over the years. Now, all that will change

with the Timeline, a scrollable list that

surfaces all kinds of things about you

that you might have forgotten even

exist. Things other people have posted

about you or tagged you in will also

become visible in a whole new way. This

should concern you because it allows

people access to a much more detailed,

granular record of your life—which could

potentially be misused. For example,

while your old photos were always visible,

they’ll now be presented alongside all

your old status updates and conversations

with friends, which is a level of detail

you might not want to have your newest

colleagues at work seeing. You might

even be comfortable with certain friends

having access to that kind of “scrapbook”

of your life, but if their accounts are

ever shared or compromised, there’s no

telling who else might see everything.

Moreover, if there’s anything that might

embarrass you (old party pictures,

offensive statements made in jest), you’d

better start cleaning up right away!

Here’s where your friends lists come

in handy. You can just allow (or disallow)

entire lists at a time, based on how

close you are to each group of people. If

you haven’t already done so, this would

be a great time to start creating (or

at least updating) your friends lists.

Knowing how big this change is,

Facebook will give each user a week to

preview his or her own timeline before it

becomes public. Those who have been

members for longer will of course have

to spend more time rooting through their

new profiles, especially since people were

much less likely to censor themselves

or their posts in the early days, when

privacy wasn’t such a big concern. Make

sure you click every little grey dot running

down the center of the screen; each

one represents a timeline entry that

others might be able to see. Pay special

attention to the boxes that summarize

your activities from each year or month.

The good news is that all your privacy

controls still work. To be doubly sure,

you can preview your timeline to see

how much anyone can actually see.

Click the prominent ‘View As…’ button,

and you’ll be able to make sure.

Simultaneously, Facebook is rolling

out new behaviors for apps, which

might be of even more concern. Now,

apps can automatically post running

accounts of all your activities, without

you necessarily knowing. News sites

can post links each time you read an

article, and music streaming sites can

post the titles of each song you listen to

(these end up in your friends’ scrolling

news tickers). You won’t be asked for

permissions for each individual post,

so make sure you remember that your

activities are being tracked, or you might

end up embarrassed in all new ways.

The key, again, is to make sure you’re on

top of your privacy and security settings.

Make sure you know what each app does

before giving it blanket permissions.

-Manjitking1@gmail.com