Norton 360 2.0

Pros: Immediate response to threats. Virus scanner still catches more than most programs.

Cons: A bit of a resource hog. Features available in earlier versions no longer available. No emergency boot disk or startup scans.

Summary: I've trusted the symantec for about 10 years with my PC security. There was a brief affair with zonelabs but even then I used Norton Antivirus. Recently I was attacked by some rather nasty malware (SFT_VER1.454.0). This particular bug really demonstrated Norton's shortcomings. The virus broadcasts passwords and security information over the net. Norton immediately flagged the file created by the bug (mac.exe) but did nothing to kill the process running in the backround. What made things worse was the fact that there is no offline scanning mode which means while Norton was scanning for further damage, the bug was running in the backround. Luckily I was monitoring processes in the task manager and was able to kill it when it popped up. I tried running 360 from safe mode but (of course) the program doesn't run in safe mode. Even when I shut off LAN access to prevent information from leaking out over the net, 360 would stop running and ask for access to the symantec website. I finally had enough when symantec prompted me to enter the encryption key to my wireless router. When a virus or malware strikes, the first line of defense is to cut off all avenues into and out of the computer. Unfortunately 360 does not operate in this environment. That's reason enough for me to find another program.