Symantec Consolidates Nine Norton Products Into One

Symantec Streamlines Norton Portfolio With Introduction of Norton Security

Symantec announced on Monday its intention to replace its nine Norton products with one flagship solution: Norton Security.

According to the company, stand-alone legacy products like Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus and Norton360 will be retired. Norton Security, which is currently in beta, will become generally available this fall and will combine the functionality of existing products.

The new solution can be used for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices and it will be available both with and without a cloud backup feature.

“We are also making the product itself simpler to use with dramatic improvements to the user interface.  With its improved look and feel as well as cloud-based management, Norton Security will feel much more like a service and less like the software you used to ‘set and forget’,” Fran Rosch, executive vice president of the Norton Business Unit explained in a blog post.

“And because Norton Security is cloud-based, it will be simple to add and manage new devices through your personal Norton account – just like you do on Netflix and iTunes. As an added benefit of this service, we’ll keep you armed with real-time updates on threats and tips to help ensure you stay confident and protected wherever you go.”

The new service is designed to protect devices with the aid of network-based defense technologies, file-based defense technologies, reputation-based defense technologies and behavioral-based technologies. Many of these technologies have been used for years, but in Norton Security they’ve either been enhanced or rebuilt from scratch, the security firm said.

The list of new features includes protection against boot-time infections, aggressive threat detection heuristics and botnet scanning triggers, ping payload data-leakage protection, and defenses against social engineering attacks. In addition, Norton Security has been redesigned to protect users while surfing the Web without the need to install browser plugins. This offers enhanced protection, and also results in faster browser experience, Symantec said.

Other improvements announced by Symantec include performance tuning for the latest version of Windows 8 and battery power conservation on connected standbys.

Symantec representatives told SecurityWeek that a one year subscription for Norton Security will cost $79.00 and can be used for up to five devices.